Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, with a population of 3,300,000 is also capital city of the state of Victoria. Located in the south eastern area of Australia, Melbourne is built along the Yarra River. Melbourne is the southernmost city in the world to have a population of over one million people.

Melbourne is located in the south-eastern corner of mainland Australia, and is the southernmost mainland capital city. Geologically it is built on the confluence of Quaternary lava flows to the west, Silurian mudstones to the east and Holocene sand accumulation to the southeast along Port Phillip, its suburbs sprawling to the east, following the Yarra River out to the Yarra and Dandenong Ranges, south-east to the mouth of the bay, and following the Maribyrnong River and its tributaries west and north to flat farming country. The central business district (the original city) is laid out in the famous mile-by-half-a-mile Hoddle Grid, its southern edge fronting on to the Yarra.

Melbourne is often the starting point for travellers exploring the Dandenong Ranges, or the Great Ocean Road. Also close to Melbourne is Phillip Island, with its nightly display of fairy penguins.

Melbourne is home to Australia's three largest corporations, Telstra, BHP Billiton and the National Australia Bank. It is also home to the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the majority of companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Melbourne is a large commercial and industrial centre. Many of Australia's largest companies have their headquarters there, and many multinational corporations (approximately one-third of the 100 largest multinationals operating in Australia as of 2002), have their main Australian office there. The peak body representing workers in Australia, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, is also headquartered in Melbourne. Melbourne is home to Australia's largest seaport and much of Australia's automotive industry (including the engine manufacturing facility of Holden and the Ford and Toyota manufacturing facilities), in addition to many other manufacturing industries.

Melbourne, often referred to as the sporting capital of Australia, hosts many major Australian sporting events including: the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival (including the 'race that stops the nation', the Melbourne Cup), the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, the Australian Tennis Open and the AFL Grand Final. Melbourne hosted the first Olympic Games in the southern hemisphere in 1956, as well as the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Melbourne has one of the highest numbers of international students studying in its universities, after London, New York City, and Paris.

Melbourne is typical of Australian capital cities in that it was built with the underlying notion of a quarter acre home and garden for every family, often referred to locally as the Australian Dream. As such, much of Metropolitan Melbourne is characterised by low density sprawl.

Furthermore, the provision of an extensive railway and tram service in the earlier years of development encouraged this low density development to occur in radial lines following the transport corridors. The result is today's Melbourne - one of the world's largest cities in terms of physical size or urban footprint. The Victorian Government's planning blueprint Melbourne 2030 aims to limit further sprawl in the future.

Melbourne is often referred to as Australia's garden city, and the state of Victoria is officially known as the garden state. There is an abundance of parks and gardens close to the CBD with a variety of common and rare plant species amid landscaped vistas, pedestrian pathways, and tree lined avenues. There are also many parks in the surrounding suburbs of Melbourne, such as in the cities of Stonnington and Booroondara, south east of the CBD.

Melbourne is a sprawling metropolis. 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. After much discussion (both at general public and planning levels) in the 1980s the decline has actually been reversed since the early 1990s (when hit by a property market collapse that was facilitated by a recession), and the city has seen increased density in the inner and western suburbs. Since the late 1990's there has been a substantial rise in high rise apartment construction within 2 km radius of the central business district. The Victorian government's Melbourne 2030 policy has introduced an artificial urban growth boundary to further curtail the urban sprawl.
 

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