Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and largest city of the state of Victoria, and the second largest city in Australia (after Sydney), with a population of 3.8 million in the Melbourne metropolitan area (June 2004) and 69,670 in the City of Melbourne (which covers only the central city area). The city's name is pronounced as either {{IPA|/?mel.b?n/}} or {{IPA|/?mæl.b?n/}}. The city's motto is "Vires acquirit eundo" which means "we gather strength as we go". Melbourne was the capital city of Australia from 1901 until 1927.

People

Population

Melbourne's population grew dramatically during the gold rush. Nearly 125,000 people arrived within a year from many countries around the world. In the following decades of the 1870s and 1880s, Melbourne was Australia's most populous city.

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During the 1890s, Great Depression hit Melbourne. Much of Melbourne's population loss during the 1890s was the result of the unemployed moving west to seek gold or employment in the burgeoning industries stimulated by gold.

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The need for a population increase and a labour force saw many British, Yugoslav, Dutch, German, Arab and Maltese migrants arrive after 1945. People from Italy and Greece arrived in the 1950s and 1960s. Melbourne has one of the world's largest population of people with Greek ancestry outside Greece. Refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam made Melbourne their home in the 1970s and 1980s and were joined by people from India, the Philippines and Malaysia. The latest wave of immigrants comes from North Africa.

Related Topics:
Italy - Greece

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Although Brisbane and Perth are faster growing cities (in percentage terms only), and Victoria's net interstate migration has fluctuated, the Melbourne statistical division has grown by more people than any other Australian capital city (including Australia's largest city Sydney) adding approximately 50,000 people a year since 2003.

Related Topics:
Brisbane - Perth - Sydney

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Attraction of a large proportion of overseas immigrants and interstate migration from Sydney due to more affordable housing are two recent key factors.

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In recent years, Melton, Wyndham and Casey, part of the Melbourne statistical division has recorded the highest growth rate of all local government areas in Australia.

Related Topics:
Melton - Wyndham - Casey

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Melbourne Population by Year

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• 1836: 177
• 1851: 20,000
• 1854: 300,800 (gold rush)
• 1860: 500,000
• 1895: 900,000
• 1956:~1,500,000
• 1981: 2,806,000
• 1991: 3,156,700
• 2001: 3,366,542
• 2004: 3,559,700
• 2030:~4.5 million (projected)

Population Density

Melbourne is a sprawling metropolis.

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Melbourne's population density declined following World War II, with the private motor car and the lure of house and land extending the suburbs, mainly to the east.

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After much discussion (often energetic, both at general public and planning levels) in the 1980s the decline has actually been reversed since the early 1990s (when Melbourne was hit by a devastating property market collapse), and the city has seen increased density in the inner and western suburbs.

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Year Overall urban density (people/ha)

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• 1951 23.4 Melb. Metro. Planning Scheme 1954, p. 23
• 1961 21.4 Australian Bureau of Statistics
• 1971 18.1 A.B.S.
• 1976 16.75 Melbourne Social Atlas, 1976 (A.B.S.)
• 1981 15.9 Social Atlas, 1981
• 1986 16.05 Soc. Atlas/"Supermap" Census Data, 1986
• 1991 16.8 Social Atlas/Supermap, 1991
• 1996 17.9 Department of Infrastructure, 1998

See also: Timeline of Melbourne history.

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