Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner. In 1851, people found gold near Melbourne. Melbourne grew very quickly because people came from all over the world to look for gold.

At the end of the 19th century, Melbourne was called "Marvellous Melbourne". Melbourne was the biggest and most important city in Australia for many years. Sydney is bigger, even though Melbourne is still the most important city. The first Australian government was in Melbourne from 1901 until 1927 when it moved to Canberra.

Nowadays Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia. It is the capital of Victoria, which is a state in the south-east of Australia. The population of Melbourne is over 3.8 mln. ppl. Melbourne is a multicultural city—it welcomes people and cultures from all over the world.

Many people from different countries live in Melbourne. In fact 43% of the people living in Melbourne were born outside Australia or have parents from another country. All together people with 116 different religions and from 233 countries live in Melbourne.

Melbourne is the birthplace of cultural institutions such as Australian film, Australian television, the Australian impressionist art movement and Australian dance styles. The city is also the centre of contemporary and traditional Australian music. It is known as the "cultural capital of Australia".

Melbourne is famous for its trams which move along many streets in the city. The centre of Melbourne is around a river called the Yarra River.

Melbourne has many big parks and gardens and some beaches. There is a lot of industry and commerce in Melbourne. Many local and international companies work there. It is home to Australia's largest seaport.

There are seven universities in Melbourne: the University of Melbourne, Monash University, Deakin University, Victoria University, La Trobe University, RMIT University, and Swinburne University. Much of Australia's automotive industry is there—Holden engine makers; Ford & Toyota.

Melbourne has six sister cities. They are: Osaka, Japan (1978) Tianjin, China (PRC) (1980) Thessaloniki, Greece (1984) Boston, United States (1985) Saint Petersburg, Russia (1989) Milan, Italy (2004)

Based on Materials from Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia