Melbourne was first settled by Europeans in 1835, the year after John Batman is said to have written in a diary that the landmass on the banks of the Yarra River “will be the place for a village”, a scenario which resulted in the land being purchased from the Doutgalla tribe.
This settlement, which was then part of New South Wales, did not become known as Melbourne until two years later, once a symmetrical and rectangular layout had been adopted, and when it was named after the then British Prime Minister Lord Melbourne.
Victoria broke away from New South Wales in 1851, the year that coincided with the first discovery of gold in both colonies, and became a separate colony with Melbourne chosen as its new capital.
This discovery saw people flock to Melbourne from all over the world hoping to find their fortune. They brought with them a wealth of skills, and a decade later the state capital was not only a city on an upward curve, but also the largest city in Australia.
Melbourne continued to blossom with this newfound wealth, earning the nickname ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ for its architecture and parklands, but a financial crisis saw this development halted, albeit only temporarily, in the late 19th Century.
The date 11 November 1880 is one that is written in the city’s history books because it was then that Australian outlaw Ned Kelly was hanged in the Melbourne Gaol, the prison that housed the state’s most hardened prisoners.
Melbourne has remained the most European of all Australian cities and is also the second largest in the country behind Sydney. Its character and make-up have also been influenced by the migration from Greece, Lebanon and Vietnam since World War II.
The city has been undergoing another period of redevelopment in recent years.