Melbourne
Melbourne’s story is one of a bayside settlement that grew beside a river to become one of the world’s most exciting cosmopolitan cities. From the humble beginnings of a few tents and bark huts, the city has experienced boom and bust periods, gold fever, two world wars and an influx of immigrants. It is today a vibrant cultural melting pot loved dearly by all who live there. Beginnings
Melbourne today is a major seaport located midway along the state of Victoria’s southern coast at the top of Port Phillip Bay, and at the mouth of the Yarra River. Prior to European settlement, the Kooris of south-eastern Australia had lived a semi-nomadic life in the area for at least 40,000 years. The oldest site of continuous occupation yet found in Australia lies in the Melbourne suburb of Keilor.
For more than two decades after the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney in 1788, colonial settlers ignored the region around Port Phillip Bay. Only sealers and whalers worked the coast but rumours of good pastureland eventually caused land seekers from other colonies to try their luck. In the spring of 1835, John Batman and John Pascoe-Fawkner established rival camps on opposite banks of the Yarra River. Other settlers soon followed with sheep and cattle, and the district grew rapidly. The government based in Sydney accepted they could not stop the influx, so in September 1836 officially declared the Port Phillip district open to settlement. Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister of Great Britain at the time, gave his name to the infant city.
By 1837 the distinctive grid pattern of the streets was established with wide roads and grand boulevards leading out of the city. Unusually for the times, land was reserved for the the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Domain, and the Fitzroy, Flagstaff and Treasury Gardens, and today’s inhabitants are grateful for such foresight.
In contrast to most other Australian cities, this was no penal colony and free men, not convicts, were the first settlers. The growth from frontier town to colonial metropolis was rapid. Settlers already had businesses or property elsewhere, and many merchants and professional men were able to bring capital for investments, but artisans and labourers also chanced their luck. The busy port became the centre of activities—Melbourne was a commercial city from its inception. Businesses clustered around the wharves where ships brought mail, bank drafts, immigrants and goods. By the 1860s Melbourne’s population rivalled that of Chicago.
Market gardens and orchards, fields of wheat and oats, and small dairy farms ringed rural early Melbourne. Areas such as Fitzroy and St Kilda supported grazing, farming and horticulture.
Gold and Prosperity
When gold was discovered nearby in 1851, Melbourne’s population halved as people left to seek their fortunes on the Victorian goldfields. The regional towns of Bendigo and Ballarat saw an influx of immigrants from Britain, Europe, China and America. Although some intermarriage with the Chinese occurred, ethnically Australia remained predominantly British. Irish, Scots, Welsh and English all mixed without enmity on the goldfields, in contrast to the political tensions they had left behind. Despite the decline in population, Melbourne remained the major city of the colony and here life was far more open and egalitarian than in class-ridden Britain.
Between 1851 and 1861 one third of the world’s gold was produced in the state of Victoria. Such wealth led to the growth of cultural institutions such as Melbourne University (1854), the National Gallery of Victoria (1861), the National Museum of Victoria (1854), the State Library (1864) and many professional societies. The city offered churches, theatres (such as the Princess Theatre built in 1854), clubs and sports—notably horse racing, cricket, and football. The arts flourished. The fledgling government believed in conservation and education and in 1872 the historic Victorian Education Act made schooling compulsory and tuition free.
When a visiting journalist coined the phrase “Marvellous Melbourne” in 1885, it was in recognition of the stature of the city. Here was the centre of Australian colonial administration, manufacturing and commercial activity. People enjoyed the excitement of Melbourne—its busy streets, the rapid development and entertainment. Between 1880 and 1890 Victoria boomed. An increase in immigration led to suburbs spreading east of the city. Soaring land values did not prevent the erection of mansions or the building of lavish theatres.
The thriving wheat, dairy and wool industries helped keep the state afloat when economic depression hit Australia in the 1890s.
The Twentieth Century
The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed in 1901, and until a decision was made about a capital city for the Federation and a fitting Parliament House erected, parliament met in Melbourne until 1927. The state sent 112,000 people to World War One and Melburnians later struggled through the Great Depression and the Second World War.
The need for a population increase and a labour force saw many British, Yugoslav, Dutch, German, Arab and Maltese migrants arrive after 1945. Seeking a new life after the ravages of the war, such immigrants were encouraged by government incentives to journey to the end of the earth. The cultural life of Melbourne was changed forever. People from Italy and Greece arrived in the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout the world, only Athens and Salonika now have larger Greek populations! 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. Our latest wave of immigrants comes from North Africa.
Melbourne thrives on the gifts these people have brought—eating habits, religions, cultures, races and languages. It is this culture of diverse backgrounds that gives 21st century Melbourne its unique and endearing character.
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