Victoria is a
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
in southeastern
Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a
land area of , the second most populated state (after
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
) with a population of over 6.5 million,
[ and the most densely populated state in Australia (28 per km2). Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north and ]South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
to the west, and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south (with the exception of a small land border with Tasmania located along Boundary Islet), the Great Australian Bight
The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia.
Extent
Two definitions of the extent are in use – one used by the International Hydrog ...
portion of the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea (a marginal sea
This is a list of seas of the World Ocean, including marginal seas, areas of water, various gulfs, bights, bays, and straits.
Terminology
* Ocean – the four to seven largest named bodies of water in the World Ocean, all of which have "Ocea ...
of the South Pacific Ocean
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...
) to the southeast. The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps
The Victorian Alps, also known locally as the High Country, is a large mountain system in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria. Occupying the majority of eastern Victoria, it is the southwestern half of the Australian Alps (the other ...
in the northeast and the semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...
north-west.
The majority of the Victorian population is concentrated in the central-south area surrounding Port Phillip Bay
Port Phillip ( Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, narrow channel known as The Rip, and is compl ...
, and in particular within the metropolitan area of Greater Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metrop ...
, Victoria's state capital
Below is an index of pages containing lists of capital cities.
National capitals
*List of national capitals
* List of national capitals by latitude
*List of national capitals by population
* List of national capitals by area
* List of capital c ...
and largest city and also Australia's second-largest city, where over three quarters of the Victorian population live. The state is home to four of Australia's 20 largest cities: Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. The population is culturally diverse, with 35.1% of inhabitants being immigrants.
Victoria is home to numerous Aboriginal groups, including the Boonwurrung
The Boonwurrung people are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the c ...
, the Bratauolung, the Djadjawurrung, the Gunai, the Gunditjmara
The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Th ...
, the Taungurung
The Taungurung people, also spelt ''Daung Wurrung'', are an Aboriginal people who are one of the Kulin nations in present-day Victoria, Australia. They consist of nine clans whose traditional language is the Taungurung language.
Their Country ...
, the Wathaurong, the Wurundjeri, and the Yorta Yorta
The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales ...
. There were more than 30 Aboriginal languages spoken in the area prior to European colonisation. In 1770 James Cook claimed the east coast of the Australian continent
The continent of Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul (), Australia-New Guinea, Australinea, Meganesia, or Papualand to distinguish it from the country of Australia, is located within the Southern and East ...
for the Kingdom of Great Britain, and from 1788 the area that is now Victoria was a part of the colony of New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
. The first European settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay. Much of what is now Victoria was included in 1836 in the Port Phillip District
The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria.
In September 1836, NSW Colonial Sec ...
of New South Wales. Named in honour of Queen Victoria, Victoria was separated from New South Wales and established as a separate Crown colony in 1851, achieving responsible government in 1855. The Victorian gold rush
The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capit ...
in the 1850s and 1860s significantly increased Victoria's population and wealth. By the time of Australian Federation in 1901, Melbourne had become the largest city in Australasia, and served as the federal capital of Australia until Canberra was opened in 1927. The state continued to grow strongly through various periods of the 20th and early 21st centuries as a result of high levels of international and interstate migration.
Victoria has 38 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate. At state level, the Parliament of Victoria
The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly an ...
consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. The Labor Party, led by Daniel Andrews as premier, has governed Victoria since 2014. The Governor of Victoria, the representative of the Monarchy of Australia
The monarchy of Australia is Australia's form of government embodied by the Australian sovereign and head of state. The Australian monarchy is a constitutional monarchy, modelled on the Westminster system of Parliamentary system, parliamentary ...
in the state, is currently Linda Dessau
Linda Marion Dessau (born 8 May 1953) is an Australian jurist, barrister, and the 29th and current governor of Victoria since 1 July 2015. She is the first female and the first Jewish holder of the office. She was a judge of the Family Court ...
. Victoria is divided into 79 local government areas, as well as several unincorporated areas
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
which the state administers directly.
Victoria's economy is the second-largest among Australian states and is highly diversified, with service sectors predominating. Culturally, Melbourne hosts a number of museums, art galleries, and theatres, and is also described as the world's sporting capital, and the spiritual home of Australian cricket and Australian rules football.
History
Indigenous Victorians
The state of Victoria was originally home to many Aboriginal Australian nations that had occupied the land for tens of thousands of years before European settlement. According to Gary Presland, Aboriginal people have lived in Victoria for about 40,000 years, living a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farming eels.
At the Keilor Archaeological Site a human hearth excavated in 1971 was radiocarbon-dated to about 31,000 years BP, making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia. A cranium found at the site has been dated at between 12,000 and 14,700 years BP.
Archaeological sites in Tasmania and on the Bass Strait Islands have been dated to between 20,000 – 35,000 years ago, when sea levels were 130 metres below present level allowing First Nations Peoples to move across the region of southern Victoria and on to the land bridge of the Bassian plain to Tasmania by at least 35,000 years ago.
During the Ice Age about 20,000 years BP, the area now the bay of Port Phillip would have been dry land, and the Yarra and Werribee river would have joined to flow through the heads then south and south west through the Bassian plain before meeting the ocean to the west. Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands became separated from mainland Australia around 12,000 BP, when the sea level was approximately 50m below present levels. Port Phillip was flooded by post-glacial rising sea levels between 8000 and 6000 years ago.
Oral history and creation stories from the Wada wurrung, Woiwurrung
The Woiwurrung, also spelt Woi Wurrung, Woiwurrong, Woiworung, Wuywurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance.
The Woiwurrung people's territory in Central Victoria extended from north o ...
and Bun wurrung languages describe the flooding of the bay. Hobsons Bay was once a kangaroo hunting ground. Creation stories describe how Bunjil was responsible for the formation of the bay, or the bay was flooded when the Yarra river was created.
British colonisation
Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria, who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851.
After the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788, Australia was divided into an eastern half named New South Wales and a western half named New Holland, under the administration of the colonial government in Sydney. The first British settlement in the area later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip. It consisted of 402 people (five government officials, nine officers of marines, two drummers, and 39 privates, five soldiers' wives and a child, 307 convicts, 17 convicts' wives, and seven children). They had been sent from England in under the command of Captain Daniel Woodriff, principally out of fear that the French, who had been exploring the area, might establish their own settlement and thereby challenge British rights to the continent.
In 1826, Colonel Stewart, Captain Samuel Wright, and Lieutenant Burchell were sent in (Captain Wetherall) and the brigs ''Dragon'' and ''Amity'', took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments. The expedition landed at Settlement Point (now Corinella), on the eastern side of Western Port Bay, which was the headquarters until the abandonment of Western Port at the insistence of Governor Darling about 12 months afterwards.
Victoria's next settlement was at Portland, on the south west coast of what is now Victoria. Edward Henty
Edward Henty (28 March 1810 – 14 August 1878), was a pioneer British colonist and is regarded as the first permanent settler in the Port Phillip district (later known as the colony of Victoria), Australia.
Early life and family background
E ...
settled Portland Bay in 1834.
Batman's treaty
Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, who set up a base in Indented Head, and John Pascoe Fawkner. From settlement, the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. Shortly after, the site now known as Geelong was surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W. H. Smythe, three weeks after Melbourne. And in 1838, Geelong was officially declared a town, despite earlier European settlements dating back to 1826.
On 6 June 1835, just under two years before Melbourne was officially recognised as a settlement, John Batman, the leader of the Port Phillip Association
The Port Phillip Association (originally the Geelong and Dutigalla Association) was formally formed in June 1835 to settle land in what would become Melbourne, which the association believed had been acquired by John Batman for the association fr ...
presented Wurundjeri Elders with a land use agreement. This document, now referred to as the Batman treaty, was later given to the British government to claim that local Aboriginal people had given Batman access to their land in exchange for goods and rations. Today, the meaning and interpretation of this treaty is contested. Some argue it was pretence for taking Aboriginal land in exchange for trinkets, while others argue it was significant in that it sought to recognise Aboriginal land rights.
The exact location of the meeting between Batman and the Kulin Ngurungaeta (head clan-men) with whom he made the treaty is unknown, although it is believed to have been by the Merri Creek
The Merri Creek is a waterway in southern parts of Victoria, Australia, which flows through the northern suburbs of Northcote. It begins near Wallan north of Melbourne and flows south for 70 km until it joins the Yarra River at Dights Fa ...
. According to historian Meyer Eidelson, it is generally believed to have occurred on the Merri near modern-day Rushall Station.
Colonial Victoria
On 1 July 1851, writs were issued for the election of the first Victorian Legislative Council, and the absolute independence of Victoria from New South Wales was established proclaiming a new Colony of Victoria. Days later, still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at many sites across Victoria. This triggered one of the largest gold rushes the world has ever seen. The colony grew rapidly in both population and economic power. In 10 years, the population of Victoria increased sevenfold from 76,000 to 540,000. All sorts of gold records were produced, including the "richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world" and the largest gold nugget. In the decade 1851–1860 Victoria produced 20 million ounces of gold, one-third of the world's output.
Immigrants arrived from all over the world to search for gold, especially from Ireland and China. By 1857, 26,000 Chinese miners worked in Victoria, and their legacy is particularly strong in Bendigo and its environs.
In 1854 at Ballarat, an armed rebellion against the government of Victoria was made by miners protesting against mining taxes (the " Eureka Stockade"). This was crushed by British troops, but the confrontation persuaded the colonial authorities to reform the administration of mining concessions (reducing the hated mining licence fees) and extend the electoral franchise
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
. The following year, the Imperial Parliament granted Victoria responsible government with the passage of the Colony of Victoria Act 1855. Some of the leaders of the Eureka rebellion went on to become members of the Victorian Parliament.
In 1857, reflecting the growing presence of Irish Catholic immigrants, John O'Shanassy became the colony's second Premier with the former Young Ireland
Young Ireland ( ga, Éire Óg, ) was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation'', it took issue with the compromise ...
er, Charles Gavan Duffy as his deputy. Melbourne's Protestant establishment was ill-prepared "to countenance so startling a novelty". In 1858–59, ''Melbourne Punch'' cartoons linked Duffy and O'Shanassy to the terrors of the French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
.
In 1862 Duffy's Land Act attempted, but failed, through a system of extended pastoral licences, to break the land-holding monopoly of the so-called "squatter" class. In 1871, having led, on behalf of small farmers, opposition to Premier Sir James McCulloch's land tax, Duffy, himself, was briefly Premier.
In 1893 widespread bank failures brought to an end a sustained period of prosperity and of increasingly wild speculation in land and construction. Melbourne nonetheless retained, as the legacy of the gold rush, its status as Australia's primary financial centre and largest city.
In 1901, Victoria became a state in the Commonwealth of Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
. While Canberra was being built, Melbourne served until 1927 as country's first federal capital.
Statehood
Geography
Victoria's northern border follows a straight line from Cape Howe
Cape Howe is a coastal headland in eastern Australia, forming the south-eastern end of the Black-Allan Line, a portion of the border between New South Wales and Victoria.
History
Cape Howe was named by Captain Cook when he passed it on 20 A ...
to the start of the Murray River
The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest ...
and then follows the Murray River as the remainder of the northern border. On the Murray River, the border is the southern bank of the river. This precise definition was not established until 1980, when a ruling by Justice Ninian Stephen of the High Court of Australia settled the question as to which state had jurisdiction in the unlawful death of a man on an island in the middle of the river. The ruling clarified that no part of the watercourse is in Victoria. The border also rests at the southern end of the Great Dividing Range, which stretches along the east coast and terminates west of Ballarat. It is bordered by South Australia to the west and shares Australia's shortest land border with Tasmania. The official border between Victoria and Tasmania is at 39°12' S, which passes through Boundary Islet in the Bass Strait for 85 metres.
Victoria contains many topographically, geologically and climatically diverse areas, ranging from the wet, temperate climate of Gippsland
Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It cove ...
in the southeast to the snow-covered Victorian alpine areas which rise to almost , with Mount Bogong the highest peak at . There are extensive semi-arid plains to the west and northwest. There is an extensive series of river systems in Victoria. Most notable is the Murray River
The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest ...
system. Other rivers include: Ovens River
The Ovens River, a perennial river of the north-east Murray catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the alpine and Hume regions of the Australian state of Victoria.
Location and features
Formed by the confluence of the East a ...
, Goulburn River
The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victor ...
, Patterson River
The Patterson River is a partly man-made urban river of the Port Phillip catchment in the Australian east coast state of Victoria, located in the outer southeastern suburbs of the Greater Melbourne region. Under the name "Patterson", it is t ...
, King River, Campaspe River
The Campaspe River, an inland intermittent river of the northcentral catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower Riverina bioregion and Central Highlands and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The h ...
, Loddon River, Wimmera River, Elgin River, Barwon River, Thomson River, Snowy River
The Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, before flowing through the ...
, Latrobe River, Yarra River, Maribyrnong River, Mitta River, Hopkins River
The Hopkins River, a perennial river of the Glenelg Hopkins catchment, is located in the Western District of Victoria, Australia.
Course and features
The Hopkins River rises below Telegraph Hill near , and flows generally south, joined by twe ...
, Merri River and Kiewa River
Kiewa River, a perennial river that is part of the Murray catchment within the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Alpine bioregion, in the Australian state of Victoria.
The Kiewa River is also known by several variations on its name in it ...
. The state symbols include the pink heath (state flower), Leadbeater's possum
Leadbeater's possum (''Gymnobelideus leadbeateri'') is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbou ...
(state animal) and the helmeted honeyeater
The
helmeted honeyeater (''Lichenostomus melanops cassidix'') is a passerine bird in the honeyeater family. It is a distinctive and critically endangered subspecies of the yellow-tufted honeyeater, that exists in the wild only as a tiny relict ...
(state bird). Ecological communities include Victorian Volcanic Plain grasslands, Northern Plains Grassland and Gippsland Plains Grassy Woodland
The Gippsland Plains Grassy Woodland is an ecological community, ecological temperate grassland community located in the Gippsland region in southern Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Stretching from Bairnsdale, Victoria, Bairnsdale in the ...
, all of which are critically endangered.[Central Gippsland Plains Grassland, Forest Red Gum Grassy Woodland, Northern Plains Grassland, South Gippsland Plains Grassland, Western (Basalt) Plains Grassland]
Action Statement, Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 No. 182, Department of Sustainability and Environment. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
According to Geoscience Australia
Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowle ...
, the geographic centre of Victoria is located in Mandurang at 36° 51' 15"S, 144° 16' 52" E. The small rural locality is located 10 km (6 mi) south of Bendigo. Due to its central location and the region's historical ties to the gold rush, the town is widely regarded as the "Heart of Gold".
The state's capital, Melbourne, contains about 70% of the state's population and dominates its economy, media, and culture. For other cities and towns, see list of localities (Victoria)
This is a list of locality names and populated place names in the state of Victoria, Australia, outside the Melbourne metropolitan area. It is organised by region from the south-west of the state to the east and, for convenience, is sectioned ...
and local government areas of Victoria.
File:Island Archway, Great Ocean Rd, Victoria, Australia - Nov 08.jpg, Island Archway on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.
File:Aireys Inlet Lighthouse.jpg, Aireys Inlet
File:Highways of Victoria.PNG, Victorian cities, towns, settlements and road network A street network is a system of interconnecting lines and points (called ''edges'' and ''nodes'' in network science) that represent a system of streets or roads for a given area. A street network provides the foundation for network analysis; for exa ...
Cities and towns
This is a list of places in the Australian state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
of Victoria by population.
Urban centres are defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as being a population cluster of 1,000 or more people. The below figures broadly represent the populations of the contiguous
Contiguity or contiguous may refer to:
*Contiguous data storage, in computer science
*Contiguity (probability theory)
*Contiguity (psychology)
*Contiguous distribution of species, in biogeography
*Geographic contiguity of territorial land
*Contigu ...
built-up areas of each city.
Climate
Victoria has a varied climate despite its small size. It ranges from semi-arid temperate with hot summers in the north-west, to temperate and cool along the coast. Victoria's main land feature, the Great Dividing Range, produces a cooler, mountain climate in the centre of the state. Winters along the coast of the state, particularly around Melbourne, are relatively mild (''see chart at right)''.
The coastal plain south of the Great Dividing Range has Victoria's mildest climate. Air from the Southern Ocean helps reduce the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Melbourne and other large cities are located in this temperate region.
The Mallee
The Mallee covers the most northwesterly part of Victoria, bounded by the South Australian and New South Wales borders. Definitions of the south-eastern boundary vary, however, all are based on the historic Victorian distribution of mallee ...
and upper Wimmera are Victoria's warmest regions with hot winds blowing from nearby semi-deserts. Average temperatures exceed during summer and in winter. Except at cool mountain elevations, the inland monthly temperatures are warmer than around Melbourne (see chart). Victoria's highest maximum temperature of was recorded in Hopetoun on 7 February 2009, during the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave
The 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave was a heat wave that commenced in late January and led to record-breaking prolonged high temperatures in the region. The heat wave is considered one of the, if not the, most extreme in the region's histor ...
.
The Victorian Alps in the northeast are the coldest part of Victoria. The Alps are part of the Great Dividing Range mountain system extending east–west through the centre of Victoria. Average temperatures are less than in winter and below in the highest parts of the ranges. The state's lowest minimum temperature of was recorded at Omeo
Omeo ( ) is a town in Victoria, Australia on the Great Alpine Road, east of Mount Hotham, in the Shire of East Gippsland. At the 2016 census, Omeo had a population of 406. The name is derived from an Aboriginal word for 'mountains' or 'hills ...
on 15 June 1965, and again at Falls Creek on 3 July 1970. Temperature extremes for the state are listed in the table below:
Rainfall
Rainfall in Victoria increases from south to the northeast, with higher averages in areas of high altitude. Mean annual rainfall exceeds in some parts of the northeast but is less than in the Mallee.
Rain is heaviest in the Otway Ranges and Gippsland in southern Victoria and in the mountainous northeast. Snow generally falls only in the mountains and hills in the centre of the state. Rain falls most frequently in winter, but summer precipitation is heavier. Rainfall is most reliable in Gippsland and the Western District, making them both leading farming areas. Victoria's highest recorded daily rainfall was at Tidal River
A tidal river is a river whose flow and level are influenced by tides. A section of a larger river affected by the tides is a tidal reach, but it may sometimes be considered a tidal river if it has been given a separate name.
Generally, tidal ri ...
in Wilsons Promontory National Park
The Wilsons Promontory National Park, commonly known as Wilsons Prom or The Prom, is a national park in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, located approximately southeast of Melbourne.
The national park is the southernmost national ...
on 23 March 2011.
File:Victoria_summer.jpg, Average January maximum temperatures:
Victoria's north is almost always hotter than coastal and mountainous areas.
File:Victoria_winter.jpg, Average July maximum temperatures:
Victoria's hills and ranges are coolest during winter. Snow also falls there.
File:Victoria_rainfall.jpg, Average yearly precipitation:
Victoria's rainfall is concentrated in the mountainous north-east and coast.
Demographics
At December 2021 Victoria had a population of 6,559,941.[ The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that the population may well reach 7.2 million by 2050.
Victoria's founding ]Anglo-Celtic
Anglo-Celtic people are descended primarily from British and Irish people. The concept is mainly relevant outside of Great Britain and Ireland, particularly in Australia, but is also used in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and South Africa, ...
population has been supplemented by successive waves of migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia and, most recently, Africa and the Middle East. Victoria's population is ageing in proportion with the average of the remainder of the Australian population.
About 72% of Victorians are Australian-born. This figure falls to around 66% in Melbourne but rises to higher than 95% in some rural areas in the north west of the state. Less than 1% of Victorians identify themselves as Aboriginal.
More than 75% of Victorians live in Melbourne, located in the state's south. The greater Melbourne metropolitan area is home to an estimated 4,850,740 people.[ Estimated resident population, 30 June 2017.] Urban centres outside Melbourne include Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Mildura
Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area h ...
, Warrnambool
Warrnambool ( Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (A ...
, Wodonga and the Latrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nes ...
.
Victoria is Australia's most urbanised state: nearly 90% of residents living in cities and towns. State Government efforts to decentralise population have included an official campaign run since 2003 to encourage Victorians to settle in regional areas, however Melbourne continues to rapidly outpace these areas in terms of population growth.
Ancestry and immigration
At the 2016 census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:
0.8% of the population, or 47,788 people, identified as Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
( Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders
Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often groupe ...
) in 2016.
At the 2016 census, 64.9% of residents were born in Australia. The other most common countries of birth were England (2.9%), India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
(2.9%), Mainland China (2.7%), New Zealand (1.6%) and Vietnam (1.4%).
Language
As of the 2016 census, 72.2% of Victorians speak English at home. Speakers of other languages include Mandarin (3.2%), Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
(1.9%), Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
(1.9%), Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
(1.7%), and Arabic (1.3%).
Religion
In the 2016 Census, 47.9% of Victorians described themselves as Christian, 10.6% stated that they followed other religions and 32.1% stated that they had no religion or held secular or other spiritual beliefs. In the survey, 31.7% of Victorians stated they had no religion, Roman Catholics were 23.2%, 9.4% did not answer the question, 9% were Anglican and 3.5% were Eastern Orthodox.
In 2017 the proportion of couples marrying in a civil ceremony in Victoria was 77.3%; the other 22.7% were married in a religious ceremony.
Age structure and fertility
The government predicts that nearly a quarter of Victorians will be aged over 60 by 2021. The 2016 census revealed that Australian median age
A population pyramid (age structure diagram) or "age-sex pyramid" is a graphical illustration of the distribution of a population (typically that of a country or region of the world) by age groups and sex; it typically takes the shape of a pyramid ...
has crept upward from 35 to 37 since 2001, which reflects the population growth peak of 1969–72. In 2017, Victoria recorded a TFR of 1.724.
Average demographic
The "average Victorian" according to the demographic statistics may be described as follows:
Crime
In the year ending September 2020, the statistics were skewed by the introduction of six new public safety offences relating to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Total offences numbered 551,710, with 32,713 of these were breaches of Chief Health Officer
A medical officer of health, also known as a medical health officer, chief health officer, chief public health officer or district medical officer, is the title commonly used for the senior government official of a health department, usually at a ...
Directions. The total offences occurred at a rate of 8,227 per 100,000 people, up 4.4% on the previous year. While there have been some dips along the way, the rate of recorded offences have increased year on year since 2011, when the figure was 6,937.7 offences per 100,000 people.
Government
Parliament
Victoria has a parliamentary form of government based on the Westminster System. Legislative power resides in the Parliament consisting of the Governor (the representative of the King), the executive (the Government), and two legislative chambers. The Parliament of Victoria
The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly an ...
consists of the lower house Legislative Assembly, the upper house Legislative Council and the monarch of Australia.
Eighty-eight members of the Legislative Assembly are elected to four-year terms from single-member electorates.
In November 2006, the Victorian Legislative Council elections were held under a new multi-member proportional representation system. The State of Victoria was divided into eight electorates with each electorate represented by five representatives elected by Single Transferable Vote
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...
. The total number of upper house members was reduced from 44 to 40 and their term of office is now the same as the lower house members—four years. Elections for the Victorian Parliament are now fixed and occur in November every four years. Prior to the 2006 election, the Legislative Council consisted of 44 members elected to eight-year terms from 22 two-member electorates.
Premier and cabinet
The Premier of Victoria
The premier of Victoria is the head of government in the Australian state of Victoria. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assemb ...
is the leader of the political party or coalition with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Premier is the public face of government and, with cabinet, sets the legislative and political agenda. Cabinet consists of representatives elected to either house of parliament. It is responsible for managing areas of government that are not exclusively vested in the Commonwealth, by the Australian Constitution, such as education, health and law enforcement. The current Premier of Victoria is Daniel Andrews.
Governor
Executive authority is vested in the Governor of Victoria who represents and is appointed by the monarch of Australia. The post is usually filled by a retired prominent Victorian. The governor acts on the advice of the premier and cabinet. The current Governor of Victoria is Linda Dessau
Linda Marion Dessau (born 8 May 1953) is an Australian jurist, barrister, and the 29th and current governor of Victoria since 1 July 2015. She is the first female and the first Jewish holder of the office. She was a judge of the Family Court ...
.
Constitution
Victoria has a written constitution enacted in 1975, but based on the 1855 colonial constitution, passed by the United Kingdom Parliament as the ''Victoria Constitution Act 1855'', which establishes the Parliament as the state's law-making body for matters coming under state responsibility. The Victorian Constitution can be amended by the Parliament of Victoria, except for certain "entrenched" provisions that require either an absolute majority in both houses, a three-fifths majority in both houses, or the approval of the Victorian people in a referendum, depending on the provision.
Politics
Victorians, and Melburnians in particular, are considered by some analysts to be more progressive than other Australians. The state recorded the highest ''Yes'' votes of any state in the republic referendum and same-sex marriage survey. Victorians are said to be "generally socially progressive, supportive of multiculturalism, wary of extremes of any kind".
Premier Daniel Andrews leads the Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...
that won the November 2014 Victorian state election.
The centre-left Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...
(ALP), the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Au ...
, the rural-based National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia, also known as The Nationals or The Nats, is an List of political parties in Australia, Australian political party. Traditionally representing graziers, farmers, and regional voters generally, it began as the Au ...
, and the left-wing environmentalist Australian Greens are Victoria's main political parties. Traditionally, Labor is strongest in Melbourne's working and middle class western, northern and inner-city suburbs, and the regional cities of Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. The Liberals' main support lies in Melbourne's more affluent eastern suburbs and outer suburbs, and some rural and regional centres. The Nationals are strongest in Victoria's North Western and Eastern rural regional areas. The Greens, who won their first lower house seats in 2014, are strongest in inner Melbourne.
Federal government
Victorian voters elect 50 representatives to the Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislature, legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the ...
, including 38 members of the House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
and 12 members of the Senate. Since 18 May 2019, the ALP has held 21 Victorian house seats, the Liberals 12, the Nationals three, the Greens one, and one held by an Independent. As of 1 July 2019, the Liberals have held five senate seats, the Nationals one, the ALP four, and the Greens two.
Local government
Victoria is incorporated into 79 municipalities for the purposes of local government, including 39 shires, 32 cities, seven rural cities and one borough. Shire and city councils are responsible for functions delegated by the Victorian parliament, such as city planning, road infrastructure and waste management. Council revenue comes mostly from property taxes and government grants.
Education
Primary and secondary
Victoria's state school system dates back to 1872, when the colonial government legislated to make schooling both free and compulsory. The state's public secondary school system began in 1905. Before then, only private secondary schooling was available. Today, a Victorian school education consists of seven years of primary schooling (including one preparatory year) and six years of secondary schooling.
The final years of secondary school are optional for children aged over 17. Victorian children generally begin school at age five or six. On completing secondary school, students earn the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) or Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL). Students who successfully complete their VCE also receive an ATAR
Atar, Atash, or Azar ( ae, 𐬁𐬙𐬀𐬭, translit=ātar) is the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire" (Mirza, 1987:389). It is considered to ...
, to determine university admittance.
Victorian schools are either publicly or privately funded. Public schools, also known as state or government schools, are funded and run directly by the Victoria Department of Educationbr>Department of Education and Training Victoria
Students do not pay tuition fees, but some extra costs are levied. Private fee-paying schools include parish schools run by the Roman Catholic Church and independent schools similar to British public schools. Independent schools are usually affiliated with Protestant churches. Victoria also has several private Jewish and Islamic primary and secondary schools. Private schools also receive some public funding. All schools must comply with government-set curriculum standards. In addition, Victoria has six government selective school
A selective school is a school that admits students on the basis of some sort of selection criteria, usually academic. The term may have different connotations in different systems and is the opposite of a comprehensive school, which accepts all s ...
s, Melbourne High School
Melbourne High School is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1905, the school caters for boys from Year 9 ...
for boys, MacRobertson Girls' High School
, motto_translation = Mastery of self
, established =
, type = Government-funded single-sex selective secondary day school
, principal = Sue Harrap
, location = South Melbourne, Victoria
, country = Australia
, coordi ...
for girls, the coeducational schools John Monash Science School
The John Monash Science School is a government-funded co-educational academically selective and specialist secondary day school, located on the campus of Monash University, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The school specialises in science ...
, Nossal High School
Nossal High School, also referred to as Nossal or NHS, is a Government-funded co-educational academically selective secondary day school, located in the Melbourne suburb of Berwick, Victoria, Australia. The school (named after Sir Gustav No ...
and Suzanne Cory High School
Suzanne Cory High School (abbreviated as SCHS) is a government-funded, co-educational, Selective school, selective entry secondary school located in , in the western region of Melbourne, Australia. The school caters for students from Year Nine, ...
, and the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School. Students at these schools are exclusively admitted on the basis of an academic selective entry test.
As of February 2019, Victoria had 1,529 public schools, 496 Catholic schools and 219 independent schools. Just under 631,500 students were enrolled in public schools, and just over 357,000 in private schools. Over 58 per cent of private students attend Catholic schools. More than 552,300 students were enrolled in primary schools and more than 418,600 in secondary schools. Retention rates for the final two years of secondary school were 84.3 per cent for public school students and 91.5 per cent for private school students. Victoria has about 46,523 full-time teachers.
Tertiary education
Victoria has nine universities. The first to offer degrees, the University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...
, enrolled its first student in 1855. The largest, Monash University
Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...
, has an enrolment of over 83,000 students—more than any other Australian university.
The number of students enrolled in Victorian universities was 418,447 in 2018, an increase of 5.3% on the previous year. International students made up 40% of enrolments and account for the highest percentage of pre-paid university tuition fees. The largest number of enrolments were recorded in the fields of business, administration and economics, with nearly 30% of all students, followed by arts, humanities, and social science, with 18% of enrolments.
Victoria has 12 government-run institutions of technical and further education ( TAFE). The first vocational institution in the state was the Melbourne Mechanics' Institute (established in 1839), which is now the Melbourne Athenaeum
The Athenaeum or Melbourne Athenaeum is an art and cultural hub in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1839, it is the city's oldest cultural institution.
Its building on Collins Street in the East End ...
. More than 1,000 adult education organisations are registered to provide recognised TAFE programs. In 2014, there were 443,000 students enrolled in vocational education in the state. By 2018, the number of students in the sector had dropped by 40 per cent to 265,000—a five-year low which the education department attributed to withdrawal of funding to low-quality providers and a societal shift to university education.
Libraries
The State Library Victoria is the State's research and reference library. It is responsible for collecting and preserving Victoria's documentary heritage and making it available through a range of services and programs. Material in the collection includes books, newspapers, magazines, journals, manuscripts, maps, pictures, objects, sound and video recordings and databases.
In addition, local governments maintain local lending libraries, typically with multiple branches in their respective municipal areas.
Economy
The state of Victoria is the second largest economy in Australia after New South Wales, accounting for a quarter of the nation's gross domestic product. The total gross state product
Gross regional domestic product (GRDP), gross domestic product of region (GDPR), or gross state product (GSP) is a statistic that measures the size of a region's economy. It is the aggregate of gross value added (GVA) of all resident producer uni ...
(GSP) at current prices for Victoria was A$459 billion in June 2020, with a GSP per capita of A$68,996.
Finance and insurance is Victoria's largest income producing sector, while the health care and social assistance sector is the state's biggest employer. The shift towards service industries in the preceding decades has seen manufacturing lose its mantle as Victoria's largest employer and income producer.
Agriculture
During 2003–04, the gross value of Victorian agricultural production increased by 17% to $8.7 billion. This represented 24% of national agricultural production total gross value. As of 2004, an estimated 32,463 farms occupied around of Victorian land. This comprises more than 60% of the state's total land surface. Victorian farms range from small horticultural outfits to large-scale livestock and grain productions. A quarter of farmland is used to grow consumable crops.
More than of Victorian farmland are sown for grain, mostly in the state's west. More than 50% of this area is sown for wheat, 33% for barley and 7% for oats. A further is sown for hay. In 2003–04, Victorian farmers produced more than of wheat and of barley. ''Pgt'' standard race 126 was the most common ( ''Puccinia graminis'' f. sp. ''tritici'') race here from 1929 to 1941, as it was for the whole of Australia. First detected on Tasmania in 1954, standard race 21 was the most common race by the next year in this state, the southern part of NSW
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, and Tasmania. ('' P. triticina'') is known to have been present here, and throughout the continent, at least since European colonization. ''P. triticina'' pathotype
A pathovar is a bacterial strain or set of strains with the same or similar characteristics, that is differentiated at infrasubspecific level from other strains of the same species or subspecies on the basis of distinctive pathogenicity to one o ...
was first found here in 1984 and has contributed to populations ever since. It is considered to be foreign to Australia due to a difference in pathogenicity
In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a ge ...
and due to its unique ' allele
An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is a variation of the same sequence of nucleotides at the same place on a long DNA molecule, as described in leading textbooks on genetics and evolution.
::"The chro ...
.
Victorian farms produce nearly 90% of Australian pear
Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the p ...
s and a third of apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
s. It is also a leader in stone fruit
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part ( exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel' ...
(''Prunus'') production. The main vegetable crops include asparagus
Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus '' Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.
It was once classified in ...
, broccoli
Broccoli (''Brassica oleracea'' var. ''italica'') is an edible green plant in the cabbage family (family Brassicaceae, genus ''Brassica'') whose large flowering head, stalk and small associated leaves are eaten as a vegetable. Broccoli is cla ...
, carrots, potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es and tomato
The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...
es. Last year, of pears and of tomatoes were produced.
More than 14 million sheep and 5 million lambs graze over 10% of Victorian farms, mostly in the state's north and west. In 2004, nearly 10 million lambs and sheep were slaughtered for local consumption and export. Victoria also exports live sheep to the Middle East for meat and to the rest of the world for breeding. More than of wool clip was also produced—one-fifth of the Australian total.
Victoria is the centre of dairy farming in Australia. It is home to 60% of Australia's 3 million dairy cattle and produces nearly two-thirds of the nation's milk, almost . The state also has 2.4 million beef cattle, with more than 2.2 million cattle and calves slaughtered each year. In 2003–04, Victorian commercial fishing crews and aquaculture industry produced of seafood valued at nearly A$109 million. Blacklipped abalone is the mainstay of the catch, bringing in A$46 million, followed by southern rock lobster
"Rock Lobster" is a song written by Fred Schneider and Ricky Wilson, two members of the B-52's. It was twice recorded and released as a single, first by DB Records as their debut release in April 1978, and again the following year for the b ...
worth A$13.7 million. Most abalone and rock lobster is exported to Asia.
there are almost 100 strawberry
The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...
farms here, most close to Melbourne CBD
The Melbourne central business district (also known colloquially as simply "The City" or "The CBD") is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city la ...
in the Yarra Valley
The Yarra Valley is the region surrounding the Yarra River in Victoria, Australia. The river originates approximately east of the Melbourne central business district and flows towards it and out into Port Phillip Bay. The name Yarra Vall ...
. They are represented by the organization. They recommend varieties
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
for production here.
Most of Australia including this state imposed a moratorium on GM canola in 2003 to consider the positives and negatives. After consideration the ban here was lifted in 2008 and the state's produced a review of the effects of the moratorium and the expected economic and other effects of adoption or failure to adopt GM canola. The government finds a benefit of AUS/season over conventional.[
]
Manufacturing
Victoria has a diverse range of manufacturing enterprises and Melbourne is considered Australia's most important industrial city. The post-World War II manufacturing boom was fuelled by international investment; attracted to the state by the availability of cheap land close to the city and inexpensive energy from the Latrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nes ...
. Victoria produced 26.4% of total manufacturing output in Australia in 2015–16, behind New South Wales at 32.4%.
Machinery and equipment manufacturing is the state's most valuable manufacturing activity, followed by food and beverage products, petrochemicals and chemicals. Prominent manufacturing plants in the state include the Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
and Point Henry aluminium smelters, owned by Alcoa; Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
and Altona oil refineries; a major petrochemical facility at Laverton; and Victorian-based CSL CSL as an abbreviation may stand for:
Places
* Coordinated Science Laboratory, at the University of Illinois
* Liège Space Center (Centre spatial de Liège), at the University of Liege in Belgium
* Central Science Laboratory, a former UK DEFRA ...
, a global biotechnology company that produces vaccines and plasma products, among others. Victoria also plays an important role in providing goods for the defence industry
The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and s ...
.
Victoria proportionally relies on manufacturing more than any other state in Australia, constituting 8.6% of total state product; slightly higher than South Australia at 8.0%. However, this proportion has been declining for three decades; in 1990 at the time of the early 1990s recession manufacturing constituted 20.3% of total state output. Manufacturing output peaked in absolute terms in 2008, reaching $28.8 billion and has slowly fallen over the decade to $26.8 billion in 2016 (−0.77% per annum). Since 1990, manufacturing employment has also fallen in both aggregate (367,700 to 274,400 workers) and proportional (17.8% to 9.0%) terms. The strong Australian dollar as a result of the 2000s mining boom, small population and isolation, high wage base and the general shift of manufacturing production towards developing countries have been cited as some of the reasons for this decline.
Historically, Victoria has been a hub for the manufacturing plants of the major car brands Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
, Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
and Holden
Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thre ...
; however, closure announcements by all three companies in the 2010s has meant Australia will completely lose their car manufacturing industry by the end of 2017. Holden's announcement occurred in May 2013 following Ford's decision in December the previous year (Ford's Victorian plants, in Broadmeadows and Geelong, closed in October 2016). Toyota followed suit in February 2014 with an expected announcement as without Holden or Ford, local supply chains would struggle to create the economics of scale
In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables a ...
required to supply one manufacturer.
Land
Victoria adopted the Torrens system
Torrens title is a land registration and land transfer system, in which a state creates and maintains a register of land holdings, which serves as the conclusive evidence (termed " indefeasibility") of title of the person recorded on the regist ...
of land registration with the ''Real Property Act 1862''. The Torrens system did not replace the common law system but applied only to new land grants and to land that has been voluntarily registered under the Act, and its successors. The common law system continues to apply to all other private landholdings. Crown land held in Victoria is managed under the ''Crown Land (Reserves) Act 1978'' and the ''Land Act 1958''.
Mining
Mining in Victoria contributes around A$6 billion to the gross state product (~2%) but employs less than 1% of workers. The Victorian mining industry is concentrated on energy producing minerals, with brown coal
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
, petroleum and gas
Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma).
A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...
accounting for nearly 90% of local production. The oil and gas industries are centred off the coast of Gippsland
Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It cove ...
in the state's east, while brown coal mining and power generation is based in the Latrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nes ...
.
In the 2005–06 fiscal year, the average gas production was over per day (M cuft/d) and represented 18% of the total national gas sales, with demand growing at 2% per year.
In 1985, oil production from the offshore Gippsland Basin peaked to an annual average of per day. In 2005–2006, the average daily oil production has declined to /d, but despite the decline Victoria still produces almost 19.5% of crude oil in Australia.
Brown coal
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
is Victoria's leading mineral, with 66 million tonnes mined each year for electricity generation in the Latrobe Valley, Gippsland. The region is home to the world's largest known reserves of brown coal.
Despite being the historic centre of Australia's gold rush, Victoria today contributes a mere 1% of national gold production. Victoria also produces limited amounts of gypsum
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywal ...
and kaolin
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...
.
Service industry
The service industries sector is the fastest growing component of the Victorian economy. It includes the wide range of activities generally classified as financial and professional services; health care and social assistance, education, transportation, IT and communication services, government services and wholesale and retail trade. Most service industries are located in Melbourne and the state's larger regional centres.
As of 2015–16, service industries employed over three-quarters of Victorian workers and more than three-quarters of the state's GSP. Finance and insurance as a group provide more value-add to the economy than any other economic activity in Victoria while health care and social assistance employ the most workers.
Tourism
Some major tourist destinations in Victoria are:
* The metropolis of Melbourne, particular its inner city suburbs (known also for shopping tourism) and the attractions of the city centre such as Melbourne Zoo
Melbourne Zoo is a zoo in Melbourne, Australia. It is located within Royal Park in Parkville, approximately north of the centre of Melbourne. It is the primary zoo serving Melbourne. The zoo contains more than 320 animal species from Austr ...
, Melbourne Museum
The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.
Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building, the museum was opened in 2000 as a project of the Government of Victoria, ...
, the Melbourne Aquarium
Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium is a Southern Ocean and Antarctic aquarium in central Melbourne, Australia. It is located on the banks of the Yarra River beside and under the Flinders Street Viaduct and the King Street Bridge. The attraction is a ...
and Scienceworks, tourism precincts such as Melbourne Docklands
Docklands, also known as Melbourne Docklands, is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. Docklands recorded a population ...
, Southbank and St Kilda as well as cultural and sporting tourist icons such as Arts Centre Melbourne
Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central ...
, the East End Theatre District
The East End Theatre District is a precinct within the Melbourne central business district, and is bounded by Spring Street, Flinders Street, Swanston Street and Lonsdale Street. The district is home to seven major theatres, including the Princ ...
, the National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum.
The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...
, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, also known as the MCG
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hem ...
, and the Eureka Tower
Eureka Tower is a skyscraper located in the Southbank precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction began in August 2002 and the exterior was completed on 1 June 2006. The plaza was finished in June 2006 and the building was officia ...
, with the highest observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere, Skydeck 88.
* Victoria has more than 2000 kilometres of coastline with hundreds of beaches.
* The Goldfields region featuring the historic cities of Ballarat, Beechworth
Beechworth is a well-preserved historical town located in the north-east of Victoria, Australia, famous for its major growth during the gold rush days of the mid-1850s. At the , Beechworth had a population of 3,859.
Beechworth's many histor ...
, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Maldon
Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced ...
and Daylesford.
* Natural attractions, such as The Twelve Apostles, Wilsons Promontory
Wilsons Promontory, is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland, located in the state of Victoria.
South Point at is the southernmost tip of Wilsons Promontory and hence of mainland Australia. Located at nea ...
, The Grampians, the fairy penguins (particularly at Phillip Island
Phillip Island ( Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. The island is named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explore ...
and St Kilda), the Buchan Caves
The Buchan Caves are a group of limestone caves that include the Royal Cave and the Fairy Cave, located south-west of , in the East Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. They have a total length of between , and six entrances.
...
and the Gippsland Lakes
The Gippsland Lakes are a network of coastal lakes, marshes and lagoons in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering an overall area of about between the rural towns of Lakes Entrance, Bairnsdale and Sale. The largest of the lakes are L ...
.
* The Dandenong Ranges (in particular the Puffing Billy Railway
The Puffing Billy Railway is a narrow gauge heritage railway in the southern foothills of the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne, Australia. The railway was one of the five narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways which opened around the beg ...
).
* Healesville Sanctuary
Healesville Sanctuary, formally known as the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary, is a zoo specialising in native Australian animals. It is located at Healesville in rural Victoria, Australia, and has a history of breeding native animals. It is one ...
, which specialises in local Australian species.
* Towns along the Murray River and Riverina including Echuca
Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative centre and largest ...
and Mildura
Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area h ...
including waterskiing.
* Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
and its famous Waterfront, Eastern Beach and Geelong West's Pakington Street
* The Bellarine Peninsula
The Bellarine Peninsula ( Wathawurrung: ''Balla-wein'' or ''Biteyong'') is a peninsula located south-west of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, surrounded by Port Phillip, Corio Bay and Bass Strait. The peninsula, together with the Mornington ...
which features vineyards and historic resort towns such as Queenscliff, Drysdale and Portarlington
* The Werribee
Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham Local government areas of Victoria, local government a ...
Mansion and Werribee Open Range Zoo
Werribee Open Range Zoo is an African themed zoo in Werribee, about south-west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is part of the Zoological Parks and Gardens Board or Zoos Victoria which also includes Melbourne Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary ...
* The Surf Coast which features famous beaches such as Bells Beach
Bells Beach is a coastal locality of Victoria, Australia in Surf Coast Shire and a renowned surf beach, located 100 km south-west of Melbourne, on the Great Ocean Road near the towns of Torquay and Jan Juc.
It is named after William B ...
, Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...
and Lorne
* Mornington Peninsula
The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geo ...
, particularly for its wineries in Red Hill and secluded beaches in Mount Eliza and Mornington, The Pillars in Mount Martha, Arthur's Seat
Arthur's Seat ( gd, Suidhe Artair, ) is an ancient volcano which is the main peak of the group of hills in Edinburgh, Scotland, which form most of Holyrood Park, described by Robert Louis Stevenson as "a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtu ...
and the coastal attractions of Portsea, Sorrento
Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana ra ...
and Flinders
Flinders may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Flinders Peak, near the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula
Australia New South Wales
* Flinders County, New South Wales
* Shellharbour Junction railway station, Shellharbour
* Flinders, New South Wa ...
.
* Yarra Valley
The Yarra Valley is the region surrounding the Yarra River in Victoria, Australia. The river originates approximately east of the Melbourne central business district and flows towards it and out into Port Phillip Bay. The name Yarra Vall ...
(in particular Healesville Sanctuary
Healesville Sanctuary, formally known as the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary, is a zoo specialising in native Australian animals. It is located at Healesville in rural Victoria, Australia, and has a history of breeding native animals. It is one ...
and wineries).
* Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road is an Australian National Heritage listed stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Allansford. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and dedicated t ...
, which features The Twelve Apostles, historic towns of Port Fairy
Port Fairy (historically known as Belfast) is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the ...
and Portland, cliffs and whale watching and resort towns such as Lorne.
* The Victorian Alpine Region, part of the Australian Alps
The Australian Alps is a mountain range in southeast Australia. It comprises an interim Australian bioregion,0042-5184 However, the moth has also been a biovector of arsenic, transporting it from lowland feeding sites over long distances int ...
, particularly for skiing
Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...
* The Central Victorian Highlands, 'High country' are very well known for winter sports and bushwalking
* Wine regions
This list of wine-producing regions catalogues significant growing regions where vineyards are planted. Wine grapes mostly grow between the 30th and the 50th degree of latitude, in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Grapes will sometimes ...
across the entire state.
Other popular tourism activities are gliding, hang-gliding, hot air ballooning and scuba diving.
Major events that explore cultural diversity, music and sports play a big part in Victoria's tourism. The V8 Supercars and Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island, the Grand Annual Steeplechase at Warrnambool and the Australian International Airshow
The Australian International Airshow, also called the Avalon Airshow, is a large air show held biennially at Avalon Airport, between Melbourne and Geelong in Victoria.
The event has a strong focus on military aviation, featuring aircraft from ...
at Avalon and numerous local festivals such as the popular Port Fairy Folk Festival
The Port Fairy Folk Festival is an annual four-day music festival based in the historic fishing village of Port Fairy in Victoria, Australia.
History
The festival began on 2 December 1977 under the theme of "Australian and Irish Traditional Mu ...
, Queenscliff Music Festival
Queenscliff Music Festival is a live music festival held in the town of Queenscliff, located on the Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. The festival began in 1997 and is held annually on the last weekend of November.
According to its web ...
, Pako Festa in Geelong West, Bells Beach Surf Classic and the Bright
Bright may refer to:
Common meanings
*Bright, an adjective meaning giving off or reflecting illumination; see Brightness
*Bright, an adjective meaning someone with intelligence
People
* Bright (surname)
* Bright (given name)
*Bright, the stage na ...
Autumn Festival amongst others.
File:Urban river banks (Unsplash).jpg, The Melbourne skyline at night
File:Brighton Beach and Beach Huts, Australia - panoramio (37).jpg, Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the ...
bathing boxes
File:Mornington Mills Beach W from carpark.jpg, Mornington Mills Beach
File:Autumn in the Dandenong Ranges.jpg, Autumn in the Dandenong Ranges
File:TwelveApostles-Gaz.jpg, The Twelve Apostles
File:Sunset at Jan Juc, Torquay (6758802783).jpg, Jan Juc
Jan Juc is a suburb of Torquay, Victoria. At the 2016 census, Jan Juc had a population of 3,683.
History
Nearby Bellbrae was originally called Jan Juc but was renamed in 1923, so the Jan Juc Post Office, which opened on 25 January 1862, w ...
, Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...
Transport
Victoria has the highest population density in any state in Australia, with population centres spread out over most of the state; only the far northwest and the Victorian Alps
The Victorian Alps, also known locally as the High Country, is a large mountain system in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria. Occupying the majority of eastern Victoria, it is the southwestern half of the Australian Alps (the other ...
lack permanent settlement.
The Victorian road network services the population centres, with highways generally radiating from Melbourne and other major cities and rural centres with secondary roads interconnecting the highways to each other. Many of the highways are built to freeway standard ("M" freeways), while most are generally sealed and of reasonable quality.
Rail transport in Victoria
Rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria is provided by a number of railway operators who operate over the government-owned railway lines. The network consists of 2,357 km of Victorian broad gauge () lines, and 1,912 km of standard ...
is provided by several private and public railway operators who operate over government-owned lines. Major operators include: Metro Trains Melbourne
Metro Trains Melbourne, often known simply as Metro, is the franchise operator of the electrified suburban passenger service on the Melbourne rail network. Metro Trains Melbourne is a joint venture between Hong Kong-based MTR Corporation (60% ...
which runs an extensive, electrified, passenger system throughout Melbourne and suburbs; V/Line
V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cros ...
which is now owned by the Victorian Government, operates a concentrated service to major regional centres, as well as long-distance services on other lines; Pacific National
Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses.
History
In February 2002, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock (owned by the Federal, New South Wales and Victorian Governments) were combined with Freig ...
, CFCL Australia
Rail First Asset Management (RailFirst), formerly known as CFCL Australia (CFCLA), is an Australian rolling stock leasing company operating in the rail freight market. It leases assets to a number of private rail operators in the local rail indus ...
which operate freight services; Great Southern Rail which operates ''The Overland
''The Overland'' is an Australian passenger train service between the state capitals of Melbourne and Adelaide, a distance of 828 km (515 mi). It first ran in 1887 as the ''Adelaide Express'', known by South Australians as the ''Melb ...
'' Melbourne—Adelaide; and NSW TrainLink which operates XPTs Melbourne—Sydney.
There are also several smaller freight operators and numerous tourist railways operating over lines which were once parts of a state-owned system. Victorian lines mainly use the broad gauge. However, the interstate trunk routes, as well as a number of freight lines in the north and west of the state have been converted to standard gauge. Two tourist railways operate over narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
lines, which are the remnants of five formerly government-owned lines which were built in mountainous areas.
Melbourne has the world's largest tram network
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
, currently operated by Yarra Trams
Yarra Trams is the trading name of the operator of the tram network in Melbourne, Australia, which is owned by VicTrack and leased to Yarra Trams by the Victorian Department of Transport. The current franchise is operated by Keolis Downer. ...
. As well as being a popular form of public transport, over the last few decades trams have become one of Melbourne's major tourist attractions. There are also tourist trams operating over portions of the former Ballarat and Bendigo systems. There are also tramway museums at Bylands and Haddon.
Melbourne Airport
Melbourne Airport , colloquially known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne, and the second busiest airport in Australia. It opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is ...
is the major domestic and international gateway for the state. Avalon Airport
Avalon Airport is an international airport located in Avalon in the City of Greater Geelong in Victoria, Australia. While located outside the Melbourne metropolitan area, it is the second busiest of the four airports serving the state cap ...
is the state's second busiest airport, which complements Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Electoral district of Essendon
*Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington
* Essendon, Victoria
**Essendon railway station
**Essendon Airport
* Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League
United Ki ...
and Moorabbin Airport
Moorabbin (Harry Hawker) Airport is a mostly general aviation airport for light aircraft located in between the southern Melbourne suburbs of Heatherton, Cheltenham, Dingley Village and Mentone. It also receives commercial airline service. ...
s to see the remainder of Melbourne's air traffic. Hamilton Airport, Mildura Airport
Mildura Airport is located southwest of Mildura, Victoria, Australia. It is the busiest regional airport in Victoria, the 32nd busiest Australian airport Refers to "Regular Public Transport (RPT) operations only" and has twice been named Aust ...
, Mount Hotham
Mount Hotham is a mountain located in the Victorian Alps of the Great Dividing Range, in the Australian state of Victoria. The mountain is located approximately north east of Melbourne, from Sydney, and from Adelaide by road. The nearest ...
and Portland Airport are the remaining airports with scheduled domestic flights. There are no fewer than 27 other airports in the state with no scheduled flights.
The Port of Melbourne
The Port of Melbourne is the largest port for containerised and general cargo in Australia. It is located in Melbourne, Victoria, and covers an area at the mouth of the Yarra River, downstream of Bolte Bridge, which is at the head of Port Phi ...
is the largest port for containerised and general cargo in Australia, and is located in Melbourne on the mouth of the Yarra River, which is at the head of Port Phillip. Additional seaports are at Westernport, Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
, and Portland.
As of October 2013, smoking tobacco is prohibited in the sheltered areas of train stations, and tram and bus stops—between 2012 and 2013, 2002 people were issued with infringement notices. The state government announced a plan in October 2013 to prohibit smoking on all Victorian railway station platforms and raised tram stops.
Utilities
Energy
Victoria's major utilities include a collection of brown-coal-fired power stations, particularly in the Latrobe Valley. One of these was the recently decommissioned Hazelwood Power Station
The Hazelwood Power Station is a decommissioned brown coal-fuelled thermal power station located in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, Australia. Built between 1964 and 1971, the 1,600-megawatt-capacity power station was made up of eight 200MW uni ...
, which was number 1 on the worldwide List of least carbon efficient power stations
This is a list of least carbon efficient power stations in selected countries. Lists were created by the WWF and lists the most polluting power stations in terms of the level of carbon dioxide produced per unit of electricity generated. In genera ...
. The Victorian government is aiming to cut 40.6 mega tonnes of greenhouse gases emissions by 2025.
Water
Victoria's water infrastructure includes a series of dams and reservoirs, predominantly in Central Victoria, that hold and collect water for much of the state. The water collected is of a very high quality and requires little chlorination treatment, giving the water a taste more like water collected in a rainwater tank. In regional areas however, such as in the west of the state, chlorination levels are much higher.
The Victorian Water Grid consists of a number of new connections and pipelines being built across the State. This allows water to be moved around Victoria to where it is needed most and reduces the impact of localised droughts in an era thought to be influenced by climate change. Major projects already completed as part of the Grid include the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline and the Goldfields Superpipe.
Sport
Victoria is the home of Australian rules football, with ten of the 18 Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
(AFL) clubs based in the state. The AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an Australian rules football match to determine the premiers for the Australian Football League (AFL) season. From its inception until 1989, it was known as the VFL Grand Final, as the league at that time was the Victori ...
is traditionally held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the last Saturday of September. The state has a public holiday the day before the Grand Final, which coincides with the AFL Grand Final parade.
The Victorian cricket team play in the national Sheffield Shield
The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...
cricket competition. Victoria is represented in the National Rugby League
The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
by the Melbourne Storm
The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...
and in Super Rugby by the Melbourne Rebels
The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...
. It is represented in the National Basketball League by Melbourne United
Melbourne United is an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. United compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at John Cain Arena.
The team made their debut in the NBL in 1984 a ...
and South East Melbourne Phoenix
The South East Melbourne Phoenix are an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. The Phoenix entered the National Basketball League (NBL) in the 2019–20 season. The team play the majority of their home games at Jo ...
. It is also represented in soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
by Melbourne Victory
Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victor ...
, Melbourne City and Western United
Western United Football Club is an Australian professional football club. The club is based in the western Melbourne suburb of Truganina, the club aims to represent western Victoria, incorporating the western suburbs of Melbourne; the region ...
in the A-League.
Melbourne has held the 1956 Summer Olympics, 2006 Commonwealth Games and the FINA World Swimming Championship.
Melbourne is also home to the Australian Open tennis tournament in January each year, the first of the world's four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the Australian Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
Australian Grand Prix in March. It hosted the Australian Masters
The Australian Masters was an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia held in Victoria, Australia from 1979 to 2015.
History
In 1989 the International Management Group took control of the management of the tournament.
Though the ...
golf tournament from 1979 to 2015.
Victoria's Bells Beach hosts one of the world's longest-running surfing competition, the Bells Beach SurfClassic, which is part of The ASP World Tour.
The Melbourne Vixens
Melbourne Vixens is an Australian netball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. Since 2017 they have represented Netball Victoria in Suncorp Super Netball. Between 2008 and 2016, they played in the ANZ Championship. The team was formed in 2007 wh ...
and Collingwood Magpies Netball
The Collingwood Magpies are an Australian netball team in Melbourne that competes in the premier domestic league, Suncorp Super Netball. The team was founded in 2016, during the disbanding of the ANZ Championship. The Magpies are owned by the ...
represent Victoria in the National Netball League.
Victoria's Phillip Island
Phillip Island ( Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. The island is named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explore ...
is home of the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
The Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit is a motor racing circuit located near Ventnor, on Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia. The current circuit was first used in 1956.
History Road circuit
Motor racing on Phillip Island began in 1928 with t ...
which hosts the Australian motorcycle Grand Prix which features MotoGP (the world's premier motorcycling class), as well as the Australian round of the World Superbike Championship
Superbike World Championship (also known as WorldSBK, SBK, World Superbike, WSB, or WSBK) is a silhouette-class road racing series based on heavily modified production motorcycles, also known as superbike racing.
The championship was founded i ...
and the domestic V8 Supercar
The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport.
Supercars events take place in all Australian ...
racing, which also visits Sandown Raceway
Sandown International Raceway is a motor racing circuit in the suburb of Springvale in Melbourne, Victoria, approximately south east of the city centre. Sandown is considered a power circuit with its " drag strip" front and back straights be ...
and the rural Winton Motor Raceway
Winton Motor Raceway is a motor racing track in Winton, near Benalla, Victoria, Australia.
History
The Benalla Auto Club began planning for a permanent racing track around 1958, as a replacement for their existing track at Barjarg. In 1960 i ...
circuit.
Australia's most prestigious footrace, the Stawell Gift, is an annual event.
Victoria is also home to the Aussie Millions
The Australian Poker Championship, commonly known as Aussie Millions, is a series of poker tournaments held at the Crown Casino, in Melbourne, Australia. The Main Event of the series is the Southern Hemisphere's richest poker tournament with a ...
poker tournament, the richest in the Southern Hemisphere.
The main horse racing tracks in Victoria are Caulfield Racecourse
Caulfield Racecourse Reserve is located nine kilometres from the Melbourne CBD, on the boundary of Caulfield and Caulfield East in Melbourne's south eastern suburbs. The Reserve was set aside for three purposes, racing, recreation and a publ ...
, Flemington Racecourse and Sandown Racecourse
Sandown Racecourse (also known as Ladbrokes Park due to naming rights) is a Thoroughbred horse racing race track administered by the Melbourne Racing Club in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is situated 25 kilometres south-east of the Melbour ...
. The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival The Spring Racing Carnival is the name of an Australian Thoroughbred horse racing series held annually in Melbourne during October and November.
The Carnival and its status in the wider community
Although racing in Australia is held every day excep ...
is one of the biggest horse racing events in the world and is one of the world's largest sporting events. The main race is for the $6 million Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is a Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melb ...
, and crowds for the carnival usually exceed 700,000.
Victoria will host the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Major professional teams include:
* Australian rules football (AFL
AFL may refer to:
Sports
* American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues:
** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
): Carlton
Carlton may refer to:
People
* Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname
* Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy
* Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...
, Collingwood, Essendon Essendon may refer to:
Australia
*Electoral district of Essendon
*Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington
* Essendon, Victoria
**Essendon railway station
**Essendon Airport
* Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League
United Ki ...
, Geelong Cats
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition, and are the 2 ...
, Hawthorn
Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to:
Plants
* '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae
* ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...
, Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...
, Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition.
Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...
* Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
( NBL): Melbourne United
Melbourne United is an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. United compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at John Cain Arena.
The team made their debut in the NBL in 1984 a ...
, South East Melbourne Phoenix
The South East Melbourne Phoenix are an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. The Phoenix entered the National Basketball League (NBL) in the 2019–20 season. The team play the majority of their home games at Jo ...
* Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
(BBL
A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units ...
): Melbourne Renegades
The Melbourne Renegades are an Australian professional men's Twenty20 franchise cricket club based in Melbourne, the capital city of the Australian state of Victoria. They compete in the Australian Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash ...
, Melbourne Stars
The Melbourne Stars are an Australian Twenty20 franchise cricket team, based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in Australia's Twenty20 competition, the Big Bash League. The Stars wear a green uniform and play their home matches at the Melb ...
* Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
(Sheffield Shield
The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...
and Marsh One-Day Cup
The One-Day Cup, known as the Marsh One-Day Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an Australian domestic List A 50-over limited-overs cricket tournament. It has had many different names, formats and teams since the inaugural 1969-1970 season. Init ...
): Victoria cricket team
The Victoria men’s cricket team is an Australian first-class men's cricket team based in Melbourne, Victoria. The men’s team, which first played in 1851, represents the state of Victoria in the Marsh Sheffield Shield first-class compe ...
* Netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
( NNL): Melbourne Vixens
Melbourne Vixens is an Australian netball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. Since 2017 they have represented Netball Victoria in Suncorp Super Netball. Between 2008 and 2016, they played in the ANZ Championship. The team was formed in 2007 wh ...
, Collingwood Magpies
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...
* Rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
(NRL
The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
): Melbourne Storm
The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...
*Rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
( Super Rugby): Melbourne Rebels
The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...
*Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
( A-League): Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory
Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victor ...
, Western United
Western United Football Club is an Australian professional football club. The club is based in the western Melbourne suburb of Truganina, the club aims to represent western Victoria, incorporating the western suburbs of Melbourne; the region ...
Sister states
Victoria has four sister states:
* Jiangsu
Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...
, China (1979)
* Aichi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectur ...
, Japan (1980)
* Busan
Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...
, South Korea (1994)
* Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
, China (2016)
See also
* List of highways in Victoria
The highways in Victoria are the highest density in any state in Australia. Unlike Australia's other mainland states where vast areas are very sparsely inhabited "outback", population centres spread out over most of the state, with only the ...
* Protected areas of Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the smallest mainland state in Australia. it contained separate protected areas with a total land area of (17.26% of the state's area). Of these, 45 were national parks, totalling (11.32% of the state's area).
The parks are mana ...
* Vicmap Topographic Map Series
Explanatory notes
Geography
Demographics
References
Further reading
Victorian frontier history
* Jan Critchett (1990), ''A distant field of murder: Western district frontiers, 1834–1848'', Melbourne University Press (Carlton, Vic. and Portland, Or.) .
* Ian D Clark (1990), ''Aboriginal languages and clans: An historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800–1900'', Dept. of Geography & Environmental Science, Monash University (Melbourne), .
* Ian D Clark (1995), ''Scars in the landscape: A register of massacre sites in western Victoria, 1803–1859'', Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (Canberra), .
* Ian D Clark (2003), ''"That's my country belonging to me": Aboriginal land tenure and dispossession in nineteenth century Western Victoria'', Ballarat Heritage Services, Ballarat.
External links
*
Official Government tourism website
Victorian Places website
Tourism Victoria's Online Image Library
Victoria's Households Schemes
Properties for Sale in Mornington Peninsula
*
{{Authority control
States and territories of Australia
Former British colonies and protectorates in Oceania
States and territories established in 1851
1851 establishments in Australia