Melbourne History

During mid of 1851, Victoria discovered gold leading to gold rush and Melbourne grew rapidly, which served as the main port to the region. Within a few months, the population of the city had grown from 25,000 to 40,000. Exponential growth occurred and in 1865 Melbourne had surpassed Sydney as the most populous city in Australia.

An influx of immigrants from abroad, especially the Chinese, German and Irish, saw the creation of slums, including a "tent city" temporarily on the south bank of the Yarra. In 1851, Chinese immigrants founded Chinatown, a long-established Chinese settlement outside Asia. After the Eureka Rebellion of 1854, massive public support for the miners' situation has led to important political changes in the colony, including improvements in working conditions in agriculture, mining industry and other local industries.

The internal rural areas of the venture in a one-mile framework design, crossed by vast radial roads and green spaces encompassing the focal city, was to a great extent built up in the 1850s and 1860s. These areas are quickly filled with ubiquitous terraced houses, as well as single-family homes and large buildings, while some of the main streets were developed as commercial streets. Melbourne became an important financial centre, home to several banks, Royal Mint and (1861) the first stock exchange in Australia. The Melbourne Cricket Club secured ownership of its famous country, the MCG, in 1855. In the year 1859, individuals from the Melbourne Football Club arranged Australian football, and Yarra's regattas and paddling clubs wound up well known in the meantime. The first race of the Melbourne Cup took place in the city in 1861.

An extensive radial rail network spread in the field until the end of the decade of 1850. Construction began in other major public construction in the 1860s and 1870s, as the Supreme Court, the House of Government and Queen Victoria Market. The central city was full of shops, workshops, office and warehouses. Large banks and hotels stood in front of the major streets, with beautiful terraced houses at the eastern end of Collins Street, in contrast to the small houses in the lanes inside the blocks.

Present-day Melbourne

Since 1995, Melbourne has seen significant population and employment growth. The city's industrial and real estate markets made significant international investments. The biggest city renewal in the city centre took place in areas such as Port Melbourne, Southbank, Melbourne Docklands, and more recently South Wharf. As per the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Melbourne recorded the biggest increment in the populace and monetary development rate of any Australian capital in the three years finished in June 2004.

Since 2006, the city's growth has been extended to "green wedges" and beyond the urban growth line. Predictions that the city's population will reach 5 million people have put pressure on the government to revise its growth limit. In 2009, Melbourne was less affected by the financial crisis of the late 2000s than other Australian cities. Around this time, a bigger number of jobs were generated in Melbourne than in some other Australian city, and the real estate marke continues to generate very popular historically high and widespread house prices.