200-581: The MAD Foundation is an Australian health charity organisation based in Melbourne, Australia . Established in 2001, its mission is to fund medical equipment and treatments for young people with disability facing financial hardship. MAD has ambassadors seen often in the Australian sports and media. AFL player Michael Hurley , an ambassador for the Foundation, shaved his beard and raised funds in support of one of
400-555: A 132 feet (40 metres) height limit introduced in 1916 (which still allowed for ornamental towers). Suburban development of detached houses continued, in the new red brick Federation style. After the restrictions of WW1, development again resumed, with American influences now evident, such as Stripped Classical office buildings, and Californian Bungalow houses. After the interruption of the Great Depression, development again resumed about 1933, with central city commercial buildings now in
600-500: A Hansom Cab (1886), the fastest-selling crime novel of the era, is set in Melbourne, as is Australia's best-selling book of poetry, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (1915) by C. J. Dennis . Contemporary Melbourne authors who have set novels in the city include Peter Carey , Helen Garner and Gerald Murnane . Melbourne has Australia's widest range of bookstores, as well as the nation's largest publishing sector. The city also hosts
800-554: A Royal Commission appointed in May 1910. The Way and Works Branch of the Victorian Railways took over the project, the station being essentially finished by mid-1909. The verandah along Flinders Street and the concourse roof and verandah along Swanston Street were not completed until after the official opening in 1910. The building has been repainted five times in its history, and the last repaint occurred in 2017. The most recent paint job
1000-647: A campaign to revive the economy with an aggressive development campaign of public works coupled with the promotion of the city as a tourist destination with a focus on major events and sports tourism. During this period the Australian Grand Prix moved to Melbourne from Adelaide . Major projects included the construction of a new facility for the Melbourne Museum , Federation Square , the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre , Crown Casino and
1200-747: A city. On 1 July 1851, the Port Phillip District separated from New South Wales to become the Colony of Victoria, with Melbourne as its capital. The discovery of gold in Victoria in mid-1851 sparked a gold rush , and Melbourne, the colony's major port, experienced rapid growth. Within months, the city's population had nearly doubled from 25,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. Exponential growth ensued, and by 1865 Melbourne had overtaken Sydney as Australia's most populous city. An influx of intercolonial and international migrants, particularly from Europe and China, saw
1400-487: A concern to preserve light and air at lower levels, especially in the ‘little’ streets. Eventually, as part of a suite of rules that also ensured fire proof construction, the City of Melbourne passed a byelaw mandating a 132 ft limit. It was (and still is) popularly believed that this was as high as fire ladders could reach, but in fact the longest ladder was 87 ft, and the limit was based on proportions, being 1+ 1/3 times
1600-496: A contributing factor to the Australian economic depression of the 1890s and the Australian banking crisis of 1893 . The effects of the depression on the city were profound, with virtually no significant construction until the late 1890s. At the time of Australia's federation on 1 January 1901 Melbourne became the seat of government of the federated Commonwealth of Australia . The first federal parliament convened on 9 May 1901 in
1800-498: A few years earlier. Metier3 won praise from the RAIA for its design for the preserved T&G Building (1928-1939) extension (1990) which created a new extension punctuated by metal studs and balconies designed to blend into the Collins streetscape. By the 1990s the movement was no longer just about sympathy to Melbourne's heritage character, it was about making a bold new visual statement for
2000-482: A giant Renaissance Revival palazzo and surrounded by a moat , the minimalist facade is designed to feature its large cut stone "bricks". The entrance features a large stone arch above which is a Norma Redpath designed Victoria Coats of Arms classical metal sculpture. Among its various modern glass flourishes are a tactile water-wall and the Great Hall's giant stained glass ceiling designed by Leonard French , reputedly
2200-404: A hotel from the outset. By the 1850s the city centre's early subdivisions began to fill in and consisted of fragmented rows of attached buildings, most a couple of storeys high serviced by rear laneways, a plan which helped dictate the form of many buildings in the subsequent decades. Named the capital of the new Colony of Victoria on 1 July 1851 Melbourne even prior to the discovery of gold it
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#17328844390842400-543: A large amount of ornate, High Victorian Boom style buildings in the city centre. Melbourne's skyline subsequently transformed, becoming the first early skyscraper city outside the United States; architectural historian Miles Lewis describes Melbourne of the period as a " Queen Anne Chicago ". Melbourne at this time was also second only to London as the largest and wealthiest city in the British Empire , and earned
2600-460: A major renewal of the CBD and St Kilda Road which significantly modernised the city. New fire regulations and redevelopment saw most of the taller pre-war CBD buildings either demolished or partially retained through a policy of facadism . Many of the larger suburban mansions from the boom era were also either demolished or subdivided. To counter the trend towards low-density suburban residential growth,
2800-417: A massive Italianate complex similar to the current Central railway station, Sydney . Instead funds were diverted to upgrade the suburban network which was experiencing a patronage boom. Prior to the land boom, some examples of High Victorian railway architecture include Hawthorn Railway Station (1882-1889), and Middle Brighton railway station (1882-1887), South Melbourne light rail station (1883) signals
3000-515: A massive neoclassical dome. Only sections of both buildings were completed and the current building features a different design completed in later decades. Peter Kerr 's 78 metre high dome design for the Parliament houses were also never constructed. These features were often still illustrated in depictions of the city from the period due to the confidence that they would eventually be completed. Despite its many missing features Parliament remains one of
3200-493: A new boom, with the city hosting the 1956 Summer Olympics , and the lifting of height limits at the same time led to a boom in high rise office building, beginning with ICI House , completed in 1958. This boom resulted in the loss of many of the city's Victorian era buildings , which were replaced by modernist structures. Concern at the losses led to the establishment of the Victorian Heritage Register in 1974, and
3400-610: A pastoral estate in Bulleen , now the Heide Museum of Modern Art . The city is also home to the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art , as well as numerous independent galleries and artist-run spaces. In the 2000s, street art proliferated in Melbourne , with Banksy saying its graffiti scene "leads the world", and "laneway galleries" becoming major tourist sites; Hosier Lane for example attracts more Instagram hashtags than some of
3600-583: A perceived lack of resources, these settlers relocated to Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania ) and founded the city of Hobart . It would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. In May and June 1835, John Batman , a leading member of the Port Phillip Association in Van Diemen's Land, explored the Melbourne area, and later claimed to have negotiated a purchase of 2,400 km (600,000 acres) with eight Wurundjeri elders. However,
3800-648: A prominent Spring Street corner is seen as a landmark for postmodern Melbourne and is one of few 1980s designs to receive the Maggie Edmond Enduring Architecture Award . It was the first major project to successfully integrate the old and new, preserving and restoring a significant Victorian streetscape including Grosvenor Chambers (1888), Leonard Terry's Campbell House (1877) and a row of three storey Lloyd Tayler designed terraces (1884). One Collins' stepped form, setback style, elegantly minimilist square windows and cut stone-like texture established
4000-700: A prominent example of the latter style in the CBD. The 1926 Nicholas Building is the city's grandest example of the Chicago School style, while the influence of Art Deco is apparent in the Manchester Unity Building , completed in 1932. The city also features the Shrine of Remembrance , which was built as a memorial to the men and women of Victoria who served in World War I and is now a memorial to all Australians who have served in war. Residential architecture
4200-456: A rapid clearing trend to sunny and relatively calm weather and the temperature rising back to what it was before the shower. This can occur in the space of minutes and can be repeated many times a day, giving Melbourne a reputation for having "four seasons in one day", a phrase that is part of local popular culture . The lowest temperature on record is −2.8 °C (27.0 °F), on 21 July 1869. The highest temperature recorded in Melbourne city
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#17328844390844400-593: A regional variation of the boom-style Victorian Italianate Filigree (decorative cast iron) terrace houses featuring excessively high and ornamented parapets from the High Victorian period and a residential style pioneered by Robin Boyd and Roy Grounds known as the post-war Melbourne regional style. These attributes are rare elsewhere. Melbourne is home to the oldest building in Australia, Cooks' Cottage (1755), however
4600-616: A striking French Second Empire statement to the street. Charles D'Ebro's Prahran Market (1891) is a prominent statement of Anglo-Dutch style with its large arched entry. The turn of the century in Melbourne marked the federation of Australia in 1901. The 1880s landboom had been followed by an equally large crash, the collapse of building societies and some banks, and an almost complete halt in construction by 1893. Sydney fared somewhat better, grew faster, and overtook Melbourne in size and population by 1901. Melbourne remained important thanks to its status as Australia's (interim) capital city,
4800-492: A strong reputation for emerging firm Denton Corker Marshall (DCM). DCM, however, upon RVIA nomination for the clearly North American palazzo inspired 91-97 William Street (1985-1987) had already begun rejecting any association with the term post-modern. While their later designs appear to reject historic references, the firm did produce two other influential postmodern buildings. Firstly their work in 222 Exhibition Street (TAC House) (1986–88) made an explicit statement against
5000-479: A substantial architectural legacy. Following a financial collapse in the early 1890s, Melbourne's growth returned by the early 20th century, and continued at a more modest pace in the following decades. The Federation period of 1900-1915 saw a new crop of commercial buildings in the city centre; concerns about the likely congestion caused by skyscraper development and the influence of the City Beautiful movement saw
5200-577: A variety of different styles. For example, Charterisville in Ivanhoe (1840) is a sandstone residence with a strong association with the artists colony at Heidelberg; Wentworth House in Pascoe Vale (1842-1852) is one of Melbourne's earliest bluestone houses; Como House in South Yarra (1847) is considered one of the finest colonial era regency style homes in Victoria; Toorak House (1849) after which Toorak
5400-461: Is Southern Cross station . It also has Australia's most extensive freeway network and the largest urban tram network in the world . Aboriginal Australians have lived in the Melbourne area for at least 40,000 years. When European colonisers arrived in the 19th century, at least 20,000 Kulin people from three distinct language groups – the Wurundjeri , Bunurong and Wathaurong – resided in
5600-550: Is Primary School No.1479 in St Kilda (1874). Bastow established a preference for polychrome brickwork which would contribute to its growing popularity but also designed in other materials including bluestone at Williamstown Primary School (1878). Bishop's Building (1877-1878) by Frederick Wyatt part of the first residential college at Melbourne University's, Trinity College , is another significant gothic revival design in polychrome brick. Faraday Street State School Number 112 (1876-1877)
5800-649: Is a particularly striking examples including kangaroo-gryphon gargoyles and polychromatic florentine gothic arches. One of the largest and most spectacular landmarks, the Melbourne Fish Market (1889) was demolished in 1959 to make way for a carpark and road flyover. Retail arcades and markets were also popular in the suburbs. One of the largest markets from the era is the former Metropolitan Meat Market in North Melbourne (1880). Prahran Arcade on Chapel Street (1890) though missing its original tall mansard roof makes
6000-484: Is a polychrome brick set of warehouses a style which became popular with industrial architects. The distinctive warehouses in Niagara Lane (1887) designed by George De Lacy Evans with their repetitive gables and supply cranes is one of Melbourne's laneway landmarks. The six storey Robur Tea Building (1887-1888) and five storey James Bond Store (1888) is a landmark of the former South Melbourne industrial area. The former
6200-551: Is a rare Australian example of Victorian architecture incorporating Chinese motifs. Another important building was the Chinese Mission for Victoria society building (1872) by architects Crouch and Wilson was constructed at 196 Little Bourke Street, its visually striking polychrome brick patterning making it a landmark of Chinatown. Further out of the city, the See Yup Society Temple (1856-1866) by architect George Wharton
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6400-848: Is an earlier example of early department store architecture. Significant commercial buildings were also being built throughout the inner suburbs including large multi-storey shop buildings in several of the major shopping strips. Numerous boom style buildings, mostly double storey sprang up in the major retail strips such as Chapel Street South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor, Brunswick Street Fitzroy, Smith Street Collingwood and Clarendon Street South Melbourne among others. George de Lacy Evans design for Lygon Buildings (1888) are notable three storey Renaissance Revival shopfronts. Those designed by John Beswicke feature striking polychromatic brickwork including Beswicke Buildings in Fitzroy (1888) and 132-142 and 144-148 Victoria Street Auburn (1891). 313-315 Drummond Street Carlton
6600-554: Is an unusual early Queen Anne design which forms a pair with the towered Colonial Bank Hotel (1888) across Balcombe Place. William Pitt's vertical gothic styled Olderfleet Buildings (1888) the first commercial gothic office building listed with the National Trust, New Zealand Chambers (1888), Record Chambers (1887), Charles D'Ebro's Queen Anne styled Winfield Building (1891) and William Pitt's highly detailed gothic revival Rialto Building (1888) with their paired towers belong to what
6800-604: Is becoming unaffordable for some. Public housing is managed and provided by the Victorian Government's Department of Families, Fairness and Housing , and operates within the framework of the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, by which both federal and state governments provide funding for housing. Melbourne is experiencing high population growth, generating high demand for housing. This housing boom has increased house prices and rents, as well as
7000-413: Is considered Australia's finest Renaissance Revival building. It features bluestone vaults intended for storing gold mined from the central Victorian goldfields. The Old Treasury, along with his Melbourne Mint (1872), Government House (1874), Victorian Titles Office (1874-1877) and Customs House (1876) inspired a brief trend of Renaissance Revival Palazzo style architecture for public buildings which
7200-546: Is home to more skyscrapers than any other Australian city , the tallest being Australia 108 , situated in Southbank. Melbourne's newest planned skyscraper, Southbank By Beulah (also known as "Green Spine"), has recently been approved for construction and will be the tallest structure in Australia by 2025. The CBD and surrounds also contain many significant historic buildings such as the Royal Exhibition Building ,
7400-546: Is known for its music, theatre and arts scenes, as well as its diverse range of cultural events and festivals, including the Melbourne International Arts Festival , Melbourne Fringe Festival and Moomba , Australia's largest free community festival. For much of the 2010s, Melbourne topped The Economist Intelligence Unit 's list of the world's most liveable cities , partly due to its cultural attributes. State Library Victoria , founded in 1854,
7600-437: Is largely protected from the ocean, resulting in greater temperature variation across seasons. Melbourne's urban area is approximately 2,704 km , the largest in Australia and the 33rd largest in the world. The Hoddle Grid , a grid of streets measuring approximately 1 by 1 ⁄ 2 mi (1.61 by 0.80 km), forms the nucleus of Melbourne's central business district (CBD). The grid's southern edge fronts onto
7800-693: Is not defined by a single architectural style, but rather an eclectic mix of large McMansion -style houses (particularly in areas of urban sprawl), apartment buildings, condominiums, and townhouses which generally characterise the medium-density inner-city neighbourhoods. Freestanding dwellings with relatively large gardens are perhaps the most common type of housing outside inner city Melbourne. Victorian terrace housing, townhouses and historic Italianate , Tudor revival and Neo-Georgian mansions are all common in inner-city neighbourhoods such as Carlton, Fitzroy and further into suburban enclaves like Toorak . Often referred to as Australia's cultural capital, Melbourne
8000-495: Is noted for its facade featuring classical details while the latter is noted for its simplicity. Coop's Shot Tower (1889) preserved within the Melbourne Central shopping complex which unlike many more plain buildings incorporates a castelated design and a polychrome factory building at its base. Queen's Warehouse positioned near Victoria Dock (1890) is a landmark red brick warehouse at Docklands. Another industrial landmark of
8200-515: Is now known as the Rialto Group of Buildings and feature some of the most elaborate commercial gothic revival in Australia. The Nahum Barnet designed Austral Buildings (1890) continues the red brick Queen Anne theme. Renaissance Revival of the gold rush period continued to be popular even with the larger banks and socieities from the Smith and Johnson designed Melbourne Savage Club building (1884-1885) to
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8400-481: Is often referred to as Australia's garden city, and the state of Victoria is known as the garden state . There is an abundance of parks and gardens in Melbourne , many close to the CBD with a variety of common and rare plant species amid landscaped vistas, pedestrian pathways and tree-lined avenues. Melbourne's parks are often considered the best public parks in all of Australia's major cities. There are also many parks in
8600-437: Is one of Reed and Barnes notable early works in education but Ormond College (1879-1881) is considered their largest and finest. Despite some pre-gold rush examples, gothic was still rare as a residential style. As the popularity of Italianate styles dominated, Tudor revival had fallen out of favour. Notable exceptions include Glenfern at St Kilda East (1857), a row of houses at 39-41 Nicholson Street, Abbotsford (1858-1869) and
8800-543: Is one of the world's oldest free public libraries and, as of 2018, the fourth most-visited library globally. During the 19th-century boom period, Melbourne-based authors and poets Marcus Clarke , Adam Lindsay Gordon and Rolf Boldrewood produced classic visions of colonial life, and many visiting writers recorded literary responses to the city: for Henry Kendall , it was a "wild bleak Bohemia", while Henry Kingsley stated that, in its rapid growth, Melbourne "surpasses all human experience". Fergus Hume 's The Mystery of
9000-475: Is particularly noted for its mix of Victorian architecture and contemporary buildings, with 74 skyscrapers (buildings 150 metres or taller) in the city centre , the most of any city in the Southern Hemisphere . In the wake of the 1850s Victoria gold rush , Melbourne entered a lengthy boom period that culminated in the real-estate bubble of the 1880s and early 1890s. This saw the construction of
9200-556: Is still disputed by people on both sides of the dispute including N'arweet Carolyn Briggs . The name Narrm is commonly used by the broader Aboriginal community to refer to the city, stemming from the traditional name recorded for the area on which the Melbourne city centre is built. The word is closely related to Narm-narm , being the Boonwurrung word for Port Phillip Bay . Narrm means scrub in Eastern Kulin languages which reflects
9400-507: Is the oldest surviving row and typical of the era, though slightly modified. Oddfellows Hotel (1848-1850) is another early example. The John Smith Residence (1848-1852) is the oldest surviving residence built in the Hoddle grid, though the Georgian style home later had an additional storey added. A two-storey colonial regency style shop on the corner of King and Latrobe Street (1850) is recognised as
9600-530: The Australian Dream . This, coupled with the popularity of the private automobile after 1945, led to the auto-centric urban structure now present today in the middle and outer suburbs. Much of metropolitan Melbourne is accordingly characterised by low-density sprawl, whilst its inner-city areas feature predominantly medium-density, transit-oriented urban forms. The city centre, Docklands, St. Kilda Road and Southbank areas feature high-density forms. Melbourne
9800-525: The Australian Grand Prix and the Australian Open , and also hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics . Melbourne ranked as the world's most livable city for much of the 2010s. Melbourne Airport is the second-busiest airport in Australia and the Port of Melbourne is the nation's busiest seaport. Its main metropolitan rail terminus is Flinders Street station and its main regional rail and road coach terminus
10000-503: The Boonwurrung , Woiwurrung and the Wurundjeri peoples. In 1803, a short-lived British penal settlement was established at Port Phillip, then part of the Colony of New South Wales . Melbourne was founded in 1835 with the arrival of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania ). It was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837, and named after the then- Prime Minister of
10200-449: The CityLink tollway . Other strategies included the privatisation of some of Melbourne's services, including power and public transport, and a reduction in funding to public services such as health, education and public transport infrastructure. Since the mid-1990s, Melbourne has maintained significant population and employment growth. There has been substantial international investment in
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#173288443908410400-573: The Empire of Japan , and the government requisitioned the Melbourne Cricket Ground for military use. In the immediate years after World War II , Melbourne expanded rapidly, its growth boosted by post-war immigration to Australia , primarily from Southern Europe and the Mediterranean . While the "Paris End" of Collins Street began Melbourne's boutique shopping and open air cafe cultures,
10600-584: The Heidelberg School of impressionists, named after a suburb where they camped to paint en plein air in the 1880s. The Australian tonalists followed in the 1910s, some of whom founded Montsalvat in Eltham , Australia's oldest surviving art colony. Mid-century Melbourne became a stronghold of figurative modernism through the paintings of the Antipodeans and Angry Penguins ; the latter group often met at
10800-593: The Melbourne Bounce genre and the Melbourne Shuffle dance style, both of which emerged from the city's underground rave scene. Established in 1861, the National Gallery of Victoria is Australia's oldest and largest art museum, and houses its collection across two sites: NGV International in Southbank and NGV Australia at Federation Square. Several art movements originated in Melbourne, most famously
11000-535: The Melbourne Town Hall and Parliament House . Although the area is described as the centre , it is not actually the demographic centre of Melbourne at all, due to an urban sprawl to the southeast, the demographic centre being located at Camberwell . Melbourne is typical of Australian capital cities in that after the turn of the 20th century, it expanded with the underlying notion of a 'quarter acre home and garden' for every family, often referred to locally as
11200-426: The Melbourne Town Hall , St Patrick's cathedral, though many remained incomplete for decades. The layout of the inner suburbs on a largely one-mile grid pattern, cut through by wide radial boulevards and parklands surrounding the central city, was largely established in the 1850s and 1860s. These areas rapidly filled with the ubiquitous terrace houses, as well as with detached houses and grand mansions, while some of
11400-750: The Melbourne Writers Festival and the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards . In 2008, it became the second UNESCO City of Literature . Melbourne is home to many theatres , eight of which are concentrated in the East End Theatre District , including the Victorian era Athenaeum , Her Majesty's and Princess theatres, as well as the Forum and the Regent . Other heritage-listed theatres include
11600-466: The Otway and Macedon Ranges , which block much of the rainfall arriving from the north and west. Port Phillip is often warmer than the surrounding oceans or the land mass, particularly in spring and autumn; this can set up a " bay effect rain ", similar to the " lake effect " seen in colder climates, where showers are intensified leeward of the bay. Relatively narrow streams of heavy showers can often affect
11800-731: The Royal Arcade (1870), Kew Asylum (1871), Peter Kerr designed Customs House in Williamstown (1873-1875), Leonard Terry's former Campbell Residence (1877) and Lloyd Tayler's design for the Australian Club (1879). Among the commercial buildings were the Former Commercial Bank of Australia (1867), London and Chartered Bank (1870-1871), Lloyd Tayler's Portland House (1872) and the Bank of Australasia (1876). Numerous public hotels across
12000-472: The Royal Exhibition Building , subsequently moving to the Victorian Parliament House, where it sat until it moved to Canberra in 1927. The Governor-General of Australia resided at Government House in Melbourne until 1930, and many major national institutions remained in Melbourne well into the twentieth century. During World War II the city hosted American military forces who were fighting
12200-815: The Selwyn fault , which transects Mount Martha and Cranbourne . The western portion of the metropolitan area lies within the Victorian Volcanic Plain grasslands vegetation community, and the southeast falls in the Gippsland Plains Grassy Woodland zone. Melbourne extends northward through the undulating bushland valleys of the Yarra Valley 's tributaries— Moonee Ponds Creek (toward Melbourne Airport ), Merri Creek , Darebin Creek and Plenty River . The city reaches southeast through Dandenong to
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#173288443908412400-816: The Tribune Tower in Chicago . The building was constructed in 1932 by the Manchester Unity I.O.O.F. in Victoria. Other buildings in the art deco style include the Myer Emporium (1920), T & G Building (1929), the Australasian Catholic Assurance Building (1935) and Mitchell House (1937)–which more closely resembles the Streamline Moderne style. These contemporary styles mirrored an increasingly diversifying city, which reflected
12600-404: The World Heritage -listed Royal Exhibition Building (1880), the General Post Office (1867), Hotel Windsor (1884) and the Block Arcade (1891). Comparatively little remains of Melbourne's pre-gold rush architecture; St James Old Cathedral (1839) and St Francis' Church (1845) are among the few examples left in the CBD. Many of the CBD's Victorian boom-time landmarks were also demolished in
12800-453: The World Heritage -listed Royal Exhibition Building , with one of the world's tallest skylines . Additional landmarks include the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the National Gallery of Victoria . Noted for its cultural heritage , the city gave rise to Australian rules football , Australian impressionism and Australian cinema , and is noted for its street art , live music and theatre scenes. It hosts major annual sporting events, such as
13000-446: The Yarra River . More recent office, commercial and public developments in the adjoining districts of Southbank and Docklands have made these areas into extensions of the CBD in all but name. A byproduct of the CBD's layout is its network of lanes and arcades , such as Block Arcade and Royal Arcade . Melbourne's CBD has become Australia's most densely populated area, with approximately 19,500 residents per square kilometre, and
13200-434: The heritage list now includes many notable landmarks. Since the 2000s, the central city and neighbouring Southbank and Melbourne Docklands urban renewal areas have been the subject of a residential revival which has seen a new boom in high rise construction. Some blocks of the city are now developed to very high densities, and include the tallest buildings in Australia, including the 297m (92 floors) Eureka Tower , which
13400-481: The "Paris End" of Collins Street . 90 Collins Street (1987) by Peck von Hartel preserved a Victorian era professional building and mirroring it to create a symmetrical central entrance under a mock stone faced North American style stepped tower, a design model applied successfully by New York's similarly dated 712 Fifth Avenue . Peck von Hartel would follow with one of the most ambitious projects of postmodern Melbourne - 333 Collins Street (1990) - which not only preserved
13600-422: The 2010s the State Government of Victoria initiated a number of major infrastructure projects designed to reduce congestion in Melbourne and encourage economic growth, including the Metro Tunnel , the West Gate Tunnel , the Level Crossing Removal Project and the Suburban Rail Loop . New urban renewal zones were initiated in inner-city areas like Fisherman's Bend and Arden , while suburban growth continued on
13800-414: The 99 ft main street width. This limit stayed in force until the late 1950s, ensuring an evenness to many built up streets. Nahum Barnet was one of the most prolific architects during the period, while some of his most fantastic buildings such as the YWCA on Collins Street have been demolished, some of his distinctive Edwardian buildings remain including the landmark Alston's Corner (1903–1904) and
14000-430: The Aboriginal elders was annulled by Richard Bourke , the Governor of New South Wales (who at the time governed all of eastern mainland Australia), with compensation paid to members of the association. In 1836, Bourke declared the city the administrative capital of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales , and commissioned the first plan for its urban layout, the Hoddle Grid , in 1837. Known briefly as Batmania,
14200-424: The Aboriginal people of Victoria, in 1839, but their work was nullified by a land policy that favoured squatters who took possession of Aboriginal lands. By 1845, fewer than 240 wealthy Europeans held all the pastoral licences then issued in Victoria and became a powerful political and economic force in Victoria for generations to come. Letters patent of Queen Victoria , issued on 25 June 1847, declared Melbourne
14400-474: The Art Deco style, and suburban development in a range of revivals, such as Spanish Mission or Old English. The development of low-rise flats in inner and middle suburban areas, which began just before WW1, continued in the 1920s in various revival styles, and increased markedly in the 1930s, usually in Art Deco style, a small boom which was abruptly terminated by WW2 in 1940. The post World War 2 period ushered in
14600-749: The Creation Story of how the Bay was filled by the creation of the Birrarung (Yarra River). Before this, the dry Melbourne region extended out into the Bay and the Bay was filled with teatree scrub where boorrimul (emu) and marram (kangaroo) were hunted. The first British settlement in Victoria , then part of the penal colony of New South Wales , was established by Colonel David Collins in October 1803, at Sullivan Bay , near present-day Sorrento . The following year, due to
14800-1154: The Deaf (1866), Victorian College for the Blind (1868), St Ignatius Richmond (1867-1870), Cathedral College, East Melbourne (1869-1870), St Augustine's Church and School (1869-1929), and Wiliamstown Primary School (1878). Bluestone continued to be used in Melbourne with prominent later examples including the facade of the Carlton & United Brewery (1858-1883). Residential examples while rare, are notable, particularly Bishopscourt (1852); Royal Terrace Fitzroy (1853–1858); 115-117 Grey Street, East Melbourne (1854); 35 Hanover Street, Fitzroy (1855); Gowrie, Glenroy ; D'Estaville Kew (1859); Joseph Reed's design of 157 Hotham Street East Melbourne (1861); Crouch and Wilson's design for 12 Jolimont Terrace East Melbourne (1868); G A Badger's design for 'The Opera House' at 138 Powlett Street East Melbourne; and Eynesbury Homestead at Eynesbury (1872–75). The material however proved difficult to shape to finer classical details so in many other city buildings it
15000-614: The Deaf (1866) and College for the Blind (1868). Crouch and Wilson would go on to be one of the winners of a competition in 1873 for designs for primary schools (built in 1874 as Primary School No.1467 at South Yarra). Architect Henry R. Bastow , head of the building department of the Department of Education used this and the other winning designs, all in Gothic Revival schools, to create a distinctive style, and in some cases simplly repeated designs. An example of Bastow's prominent early work
15200-589: The ES&;A Bank in Hawthorn East (1885) with its unusual step gable gothic form combined with a slate roof. Another unusual commercial building is ANZ bank in North Fitzroy (1889), a miniature version of the now demolished Australian Building. The Kensington Property Exchange (1891-1892) is another heavily ornamented piece of suburban land boom Victoriana with its corner tower. The vaulted Banking Chamber (1891-1893) of
15400-462: The French Beaux Arts , with a cruciform plan in the shape of a Latin cross, with long nave-like wings symmetrically placed east–west about the central dome, and a shorter wing to the north. The Great Hall is still in beautiful condition, crowned by an octagonal drum and dome rising 68 metres, and 18.3 metres across. The dome was formed using cast iron and timber frame and has a double shell. At
15600-620: The Genazzano FCJ College (1890-1891). The Former Priory Ladies School (1890) in Alma Road St Kilda demonstrates a rare shift away from the gothic idiom to the American Romanesque, following EG Kilburn's visit to the United States. Many palatial hotels emerged during the period including a strong temperance movement and many coffee palaces constructed. These almost always featured heavy ornament and prominent towers, often in
15800-510: The George Hotel St Kilda (1880-1890). Theatres became fashionable entertainment for the wealthy. While many of the city's earlier grand theatres are now demolished including the Royal and Bijou , some of the grandest from the boom era remain. William Pitt was a prominent theatre architect of the time. He designed one of Melbourne's best known theatre buildings, Princess Theatre (1886) in
16000-498: The Joseph Reed designed 157 Hotham Street East Melbourne (1861). Gothic revival purists sought a major religious landmark for the early city, however despite the numerous spires which dotted the early skyline including those of the bluestone Wesley, but with St Patrick's Cathedral remaining incomplete, would not find a true icon until the construction of the Joseph Reed designed Scots Church (1871-1874). Built upon Collins Street hill it
16200-469: The Melbourne CBD in the back-beaches of Rye , Sorrento and Portsea . Melbourne has a temperate oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfb ), with warm summers and cool winters. Melbourne is well known for its changeable weather conditions , mainly due to it being located on the boundary of hot inland areas and the cool southern ocean. This temperature differential is most pronounced in
16400-674: The Old Pathology Building University of Melbourne (1885), Francis Ormond Building (1885-1887), Former Melbourne Veterinary College (1886), Armadale Primary School (1886), Baldwin Spencer Building Melbourne University (1888), Former Melbourne Teachers College (1888), the University Old Physics Conference Room and Gallery (1888-1889), Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar (1890), Working Men's College - RMIT Building No.4 (1890), and
16600-462: The Second Empire French style. The theatre is full of ornamental flourishes including domed mansard roof detailed cast iron work and gold plated statuary. Other prominent theatres to survive include Nahum Barnet's Her Majesty's Theatre (1886) in a similar style though now missing its mansard roof. The land boom changed Melbourne's skyline, becoming an early skyscraper city and the first in
16800-882: The Second Empire or Italianate styles. The largest of these, the Federal Coffee Palace, was demolished in 1973. Melbourne's other Victorian luxury hotel, The Menzies, which peaked in 1896, was also demolished in 1969. The best known survivor is the Hotel Windsor (1884) designed by Charles Webb and extended in 1888 as the Grand Coffee Palace. Other suburban examples include the Biltmore (former Albert Park Coffee Palace) (1887-1889), Hotel Victoria (1888) in Albert Park designed by Richard Speight, Canterbury Mansions (1889) and
17000-703: The Superintendent of the Port Phillip District , Charles La Trobe issued a directive to banish Aborigines from the immediate vicinity of Melbourne. This was enforced later that same year by the mass-arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of Indigenous people during the Lettsom raid . However, Aboriginal people still managed to continue living near the settlement and by January 1844 there were said to be 675 residing in squalid camps around Melbourne. The British Colonial Office had appointed five Aboriginal Protectors for
17200-505: The United Kingdom , William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne . Declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847, it became the capital of the newly separated Colony of Victoria in 1851. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush , the city entered a lengthy boom period that, by the late 1880s, had transformed it into Australia's, and one of the world's largest and wealthiest metropolises. After the federation of Australia in 1901, Melbourne served as
17400-729: The Uniting Church in the city. Construction of primary schools continued across the city in a wider variety of styles, designed by the Public Works Department now headed by Bastow. Some of this notable work included St Kilda Park Primary (1882), North Melbourne (1882), Carlton Gardens Primary School (1884), Malvern Primary School (1884), City Road, South Melbourne (1884-1885), Middle Park Primary (1887), Yarra Primary School in Richmond (1888), and Auburn Primary School (1890). Significant education buildings by other architects included
17600-436: The Victorian railways. One of the largest buildings to come out of this era is the former Former Victorian Railways Headquarters on Spencer Street (1893). The expansive Renaissance Revival style building, later modified with an additional storey and distinctive domes, is substantially intact both inside and out. The retail sector was also growing exceptionally strongly and major department stores began to emerge centred along
17800-516: The architectural practice Yuncken Freeman alongside engineers Irwin Johnson and Partners, it was heavily influenced by contemporary skyscrapers in Chicago. The local architects sought technical advice from Fazlur Khan of renowned American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), spending 10 weeks at their Chicago office in 1968. The design ingenuity of 140 William Street was recognised as
18000-733: The area. It was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and a vital source of food and water. In June 2021, the boundaries between the land of two of the traditional owner groups, the Wurundjeri and Bunurong, were agreed after being drawn up by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council . The borderline runs across the city from west to east, with the CBD , Richmond and Hawthorn included in Wurundjeri land, and Albert Park , St Kilda and Caulfield on Bunurong land. However, this change in boundaries
18200-499: The availability of all types of housing. Subdivision regularly occurs in the outer areas of Melbourne, with numerous developers offering house and land packages. However, since the release of Melbourne 2030 in 2002, planning policies have encouraged medium-density and high-density development in existing areas with good access to public transport and other services. As a result of this, Melbourne's middle and outer-ring suburbs have seen significant brownfields redevelopment. On
18400-732: The avant-garde picture palace The Capitol and St Kilda's Palais Theatre , Australia's largest seated theatre with a capacity of 3,000 people. The Arts Precinct in Southbank is home to Arts Centre Melbourne (which includes the State Theatre and Hamer Hall ), as well as the Melbourne Recital Centre , Malthouse Theatre and Southbank Theatre , home of the Melbourne Theatre Company , Australia's oldest professional theatre company. The Australian Ballet , Opera Australia and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra are also based in
18600-436: The back of the 1850s gold rush and 1880s land boom, Melbourne became renowned as one of the world's great Victorian-era cities, a reputation that persists due to its diverse range of Victorian architecture . High concentrations of well-preserved Victorian-era buildings can be found in the inner suburbs, such as Carlton , East Melbourne and South Melbourne . Outstanding examples of Melbourne's built Victorian heritage include
18800-434: The blocks. The Aboriginal population continued to decline, with an estimated 80% total decrease by 1863, due primarily to introduced diseases (particularly smallpox ), frontier violence and dispossession of their lands. The 1880s saw extraordinary growth: consumer confidence, easy access to credit, and steep increases in land prices led to an enormous amount of construction. During this "land boom", Melbourne reputedly became
19000-467: The building became one of the few heritage registered skyscrapers in Melbourne. The Optus Centre , which surpassed 140 William Street's height marginally, was completed in 1975. In 1977 Nauru House claimed the feat of the tallest building in Melbourne at a height of 182 metres (7,200 inches)1978, the first of the Collins Place towers were opened, at a height of 185 metres. The design of Collins Place
19200-469: The changing international architectural fashions. The Second World War saw a halt to construction by 1942. By the late 1940s, Melbourne boasted an array of styles the eras in which it prospered, including Victorian, Gothic, Queen Anne and the most flourishing style of the early 20th century–art deco. The arrival of the 1950s saw contemporary high rise offices constructed and the ICI House , built in 1955,
19400-556: The charity's beneficiaries. Melbourne Melbourne ( / ˈ m ɛ l b ər n / MEL -bərn , locally [ˈmæɫbən] ; 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 Australia, after Sydney . Its name generally refers to a 9,993 km (3,858 sq mi) metropolitan area also known as Greater Melbourne , comprising an urban agglomeration of 31 local municipalities , although
19600-422: The city "Marvellous Melbourne". Most of the city's religious buildings were erected during the gold rush era and many were already quite elaborate edifices even before the rising price of land. While many churches had progressed from classical to gothic forms, High Victorian architects now had a wider range of styles from which to draw upon. However the original St Paul's church, occupying a prominent entrance to
19800-521: The city and resisted many attempts at its demolition. Designed by the architect Joseph Reed it is an eclectic representative of the Byzantine, Romanesque, Lombardic and Italian Renaissance styles. The dome was modeled on the Florence Cathedral , while the main pavilions were influenced by the style of Rundbogenstil and several buildings from Normandy, Caen and Paris. The building has the scale of
20000-554: The city at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets had been planned to be replaced with a large English gothic style cathedral which would become St Paul's Anglican Cathedral (1880-1891). Designed by English architect William Butterfield , it occupied a prominent site in the heart of the city on Flinders Street at the entrance of Princes Bridge making it a highly visible landmark even without its later completed spires. The interior features rich colours and strident colour contrasts, characteristic of Butterfield's work, compared to
20200-551: The city centre was seen by many as stale—the dreary domain of office workers—something expressed by John Brack in his famous painting Collins St., 5 pm (1955). Up until the 21st century, Melbourne was considered Australia's "industrial heartland". Height limits in the CBD were lifted in 1958, after the construction of ICI House , transforming the city's skyline with the introduction of skyscrapers. Suburban expansion then intensified, served by new indoor malls beginning with Chadstone Shopping Centre . The post-war period also saw
20400-720: The city employed the style, including Young and Jacksons (1853-1861), Former Eastern Hill Hotel (1854-1856), and the Esplanade Hotel St Kilda (1878). Italianate became the favoured residential style and despite later widespread demolition the city retains a plethora of palatial examples. Viewing towers, in particular became a signal of wealth, popularised by the earlier landmarks Bishopscourt and Toorak House, others followed notably Rostella (1867 demolished 1970), Raheen (1870-1884), Government House (1871-1876), Eildon (1872) and Werribee Park (1874-1877). Melbourne's Chinatown and nearby Little Lon district emerged during
20600-430: The city's industries and property market. Major inner-city urban renewal has occurred in areas such as Southbank , Port Melbourne , Melbourne Docklands and South Wharf . Melbourne sustained the highest population increase and economic growth rate of any Australian capital city from 2001 to 2004. From 2006, the growth of the city extended into "green wedges" and beyond the city's urban growth boundary . Predictions of
20800-653: The city's population reaching 5 million people pushed the state government to review the growth boundary in 2008 as part of its Melbourne @ Five Million strategy. In 2009, Melbourne was less affected by the Great Recession in comparison to other Australian cities. At this time, more new jobs were created in Melbourne than any other Australian city—almost as many as the next two fastest growing cities, Brisbane and Perth, combined, and Melbourne's property market remained highly priced, resulting in historically high property prices and widespread rent increases. Beginning in
21000-514: The city's traditional destinations, like the Melbourne Zoo . Melbourne's many public artworks range from the Burke and Wills monument (1865) to the abstract sculpture Vault (1978), the latter a popular reference point amongst Melbourne designers. Architecture of Melbourne The architecture of Melbourne , Victoria , and Australia is characterised by a wide variety of styles. The city
21200-441: The city. Nauru 's then booming economy resulted in several ambitious investments in Melbourne, such as Nauru House . Melbourne remained Australia's main business and financial centre until the late 1970s, when it began to lose this primacy to Sydney. Melbourne experienced an economic downturn between 1989 and 1992, following the collapse of several local financial institutions. In 1992, the newly elected Kennett government began
21400-519: The city. The establishment of the Melbourne Hydraulic Power Company in 1886 led to the availability of high-pressure piped water, allowing for the installation of hydraulically powered elevators , which led to the construction of the first high-rise buildings in the city. The period also saw the huge expansion of a significant radial rail-based transport network throughout the city and suburbs. Melbourne's land-boom peaked in 1888,
21600-645: The collection of commercial gothic buildings on the corner of Collins and Queen Streets including the Australia & New Zealand Bank building known as the Gothic Bank (1883) due to its distinctive Venetian Gothic design by William Wardell as well its William Pitt designed neighbouring Old Stock Exchange (1887) and Safe Deposit building (1889). Other surviving tall towers include Lombard Building (1889), and Twentyman & Askew's 'high-rise' Stalbridge Chambers (1890). Smaller office buildings were also often elaborate. Elleker and Kilburn's Melbourne City Building (1888)
21800-482: The construction of several office buildings. Whelan the Wrecker went out of business in the early 1990s and heritage laws were tightened into the mid 1990s. In 1972, 140 William Street (formerly known as BHP House) became the city's first building to exceed the height of 150 metres and was the tallest in Melbourne for a few years. It was constructed in steel and concrete and features an imposing dark glass facade. Designed by
22000-436: The continued loss of the city's cultural character and European charm. During this era, new city planning policies introduced new heritage restrictions to discourage facadism, abolishing the plot ratio policies of previous decades, instituting a 10 metre rule to preserve historic buildings, podiums and setbacks for tall buildings to integrate with historic buildings, reduce the wind tunnel effect and increase natural light to
22200-791: The corner of Lonsdale and Elizabeth streets dates to 1842, the simple construction is Melbourne's oldest Gothic revival building, though its original form was later significantly augmented and altered. The Hawthorns, Hawthorn (1845), St Peter's Church, Eastern Hill (1846), Invergowie in Hawthorn (1846), Wattle House in St Kilda (1846), as well as Banyule (1846) and St John's Anglican Church (1849) in Heidelberg, Overnewton in Keilor (1849-1859) and Whitbyfield in Brunswick (c1850) are other examples of early Tudor revival. Early suburban architecture exhibited
22400-631: The corner of William and Little Collins streets in what was then the centre of town but was later relocated. Another of Melbourne's oldest buildings La Trobe's Cottage (1839) was a prefabricated home constructed in England and transported to Melbourne. Like St James it has been relocated, though several times prior to its current site in Kings Domain . Other English styles, including English Gothic , Jacobean Revival and Tudor Revival were also evident in some early buildings. Part of St Francis Church on
22600-548: The countryside from the late 1850s. Construction started on further major public buildings in the 1860s and 1870s, such as the Supreme Court , Government House , and the Queen Victoria Market . The central city filled up with shops and offices, workshops, and warehouses. Large banks and hotels faced the main streets, with fine townhouses in the east end of Collins Street, contrasting with tiny cottages down laneways within
22800-450: The crossing, windows in the drum of the dome bring in sunlight for a bright open space. The 1880s saw the price of land start to boom, and London banks were eager to extend loans to men of vision who capitalised on this by speculation, and grand, elaborate offices, hotel and department stores in the city, and endless suburban subdivisions. This was the growth that so astonished visiting journalist George Augustus Sala in 1885, that he dubbed
23000-645: The decades after World War II, including the Federal Coffee Palace (1888) and the APA Building (1889), one of the tallest early skyscrapers upon completion. Heritage listings and heritage overlays have since been introduced in an effort to prevent further losses of the city's historic fabric. In line with the city's expansion during the early 20th century, suburbs such as Hawthorn and Camberwell are defined largely by Federation and Edwardian architectural styles. The City Baths , built in 1903, are
23200-460: The design was altered with an additional floor, and work on the station building itself began in 1905. Ballarat builder Peter Rodger was awarded the £93,000 contract and the station was originally to be clad in stone, but this exceeded the allocated budget. Red brick with cement render was chosen for the Edwardian style building. Work on the dome began the following year, and delayed construction saw
23400-475: The design. Newport Railway Workshops (1888) is known as one of the best preserved of its kind in the world with their gabled bays and Italianate clock tower. Perhaps one of the most interesting of the land boom stations is the former Albert Park (now Albert Park light rail station ) which features a highly detailed composition of bluestone, polychrome brick, cast iron corinthian columns and vaulted interiors of stained wood. Brighton Beach Railway Station (1889)
23600-608: The distinctive Melbourne style consisting of high Italianate parapets to hide the roofline and rich cast iron ornament. Early predecessors include Cobden Terrace in Fitzroy (1869-1875), Rochester Terrace in Albert Park (1869-1879) part of the English style square design of St Vincent Place , and Tasma Terrace in East Melbourne (1878) by Charles Webb considered one of the finest three storey terraces in Australia. Academic classicism
23800-409: The dominance of glass curtain wall design of the late international style using open steel grill elements, scale, symmetry and a differentiated podium. The firm would later reuse similar elements in the landmark skyscraper 101 Collins Street. Melbourne's obsession with postmodernism in the late 1980s would spawn many more heritage sympathetic CBD developments particularly in what had become known as
24000-478: The early 20th century included Federation architecture , Stripped Classical, and then art deco . The rise of the suburbs in Melbourne meant that large parcels of land could be purchased and homes could be designed in appointed styles of the land owners and home builders. One of the most popular styles was art deco, and several public city buildings were designed in this style, including the Manchester Unity Building , which mixed art deco with Gothic Revival inspired by
24200-708: The early residential suburb of Fitzroy, designed to face the reserve that would become Carlton Gardens . Royal Terrace differs from Melbourne's later terraces in its ornamental restraint and long horizontal string courses give the impression of a single continuous row with party walls expressed only at ground level. The demand for more distinguished homes led to the popularity of stucco rendering to simulate stone details. Examples of this new form are evident in Glass Terrace in Fitzroy (1854-1856), along with Clarendon Terrace (1857), Nepean Terrace (1864), and Cyprus Terrace (1867) in East Melbourne. The terrace begin to evolve into
24400-471: The eastern fringe at Gembrook . Melbourne receives 48.6 clear days annually. Dewpoint temperatures in the summer range from 9.5 to 11.7 °C (49.1 to 53.1 °F). Melbourne is also prone to isolated convective showers forming when a cold pool crosses the state, especially if there is considerable daytime heating. These showers are often heavy and can include hail, squalls, and significant drops in temperature, but they often pass through very quickly with
24600-515: The entire campus that is still evident despite the later demolitions of the National Museum (1863) and Wilson Hall (1878). The Charles Webb designed Church Of England Grammar School (1856) helped establish gothic revival's popularity with the private schools and combined bluestone with impressive effect. Architects Crouch and Wilson would further promote this style in their designs for the College for
24800-634: The era is the Former Richmond Power Station (1891) by Charles D'Ebro with its polychromatic brick and Italianate tower. Melbourne's tram and railway systems boomed during the period, resulting in many significant station and terminus buildings mostly constructed in red brick of the Queen Anne style. These included the former cable tram houses in Fitzroy (1886-1887), Brunswick (1887), Carlton (1889), North Melbourne (1890) and Northcote. The former Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Building (1891) in
25000-468: The establishment of slums, including Chinatown and a temporary "tent city" on the southern banks of the Yarra. In the aftermath of the 1854 Eureka Rebellion , mass public support for the plight of the miners resulted in major political changes to the colony, including improvements in working conditions across mining, agriculture, manufacturing and other local industries. At least twenty nationalities took part in
25200-438: The ever expanding tramway network. Arcades and markets proliferated the city, while many have been demolished the most significant survivor is The Block (1891-1893) with its magnificent arcade and baroque facades on Collins and Elizabeth Streets. It became the most fashionable place to shop in the city. The classically Renaissance Revival inspired facade of Georges Department Store (1884) on Collins Street by John Harry Grainger
25400-529: The exterior, with contrasting stripes of the very dark-coloured local bluestone. An unusual design for the period is the Sacred Heart Church (1884) in St Kilda designed by Reed, Henderson and Smart in a Baroque Italianate style. The Former Church of Christ Abbotsford (1888-1889) designed by Jonathan Rankine was modelled on Temple Church in London and presents a relatively modest Renaissance Revival frontage to
25600-655: The facade of the Former Auditorium (1912) both on Collins Street. Other notable Federation buildings in Melbourne include Abbotsford Convent (1900-1903), Milton House (1901), City Baths (1903-1904), Empire Building (1903), St Kilda Pavilion (1904), Paton Building (1905), 3 Treasury Place (1906-1907), Dimmey's Department Store (1907-1910), Bryant and May Factory (1909), Queen Victoria Hospital (1910), Malvern tram depot (1910), Commonwealth Offices (1911–12), Luna Park (1912), Commercial Traveller's Association (1913) and Read's Stores (1914). The styles of
25800-479: The few major church buildings not designed in the popular gothic revival of the time, and its elevated position on the Collins Street hill made it a major landmark of the early city until the construction of nearby Scots Church (1871-1874). Described as Lombardic Romanesque in style, it features a tall square bell tower marking an important street corner, and round Romanesque arches around doors and windows and
26000-459: The former Commercial Bank of Australia Limited by Lloyd Tayler and Alfred Dunn is one of the most spectacular Renaissance Revival interiors in the city. Another impressive gothic office building is the Wright and Beaver designed Former National Mutual Life Association also known as A.C Goode House (1891-1893) directly opposite Wardell's gothic bank. Along with the advancements in rail, Melbourne during
26200-440: The former home of British explorer James Cook was transplanted in 1934 from the English village of Great Ayton , North Yorkshire by the Australian philanthropist Sir Russell Grimwade . The original inhabitants, the Wurundjeri were known to have created temporary structures called Mia-mia out of bark, saplings and timber and were observed by Protector of Aborigines William Thomas to be comfortably housed. Melbourne
26400-544: The gold rush and illustrated a significant contrast in style to the stately institutional buildings with their chaotic development among Melbourne's laneways. Portable prefabricated iron buildings were common in early Melbourne's gold rush slums and some remain especially in Fitzroy, Collingwood and Emerald Hill (South Melbourne) . Melbourne's large Chinese community originated through the gold rush. Num Pon Soon (1860-1861) in Chinatown, by Melbourne architects Knight & Kerr ,
26600-672: The gothic style by Twentyman and Askew is a prominent headquarters for administration of the growing transport system. Much of the railways had been built during earlier periods and many railway lines. Many stations have since been closed or converted to light rail. Nevertheless the land boom saw several impressive new buildings planned. Plans were drawn up for major railway hubs at Spencer Street Station and Flinders Street with an 1882 Spencer Street plan clearly modelled on St Pancras railway station , however in 1883 more restrained neoclassical designs were chosen for both stations but not built, including yet another for Spencer Street in 1892 featuring
26800-485: The gothic style with Florentine arches. Many later religious buildings across Melbourne would be influenced by these designs in the following decades. The Royal Exhibition Building, with its UNESCO World Heritage status is Melbourne's most important building internationally. Built to host the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880–81 it went on to play an enormous part in the cultural identity of
27000-539: The government began a series of controversial public housing projects in the inner city by the Housing Commission of Victoria , which resulted in the demolition of many neighbourhoods and a proliferation of high-rise towers. In later years, with the rapid rise of motor vehicle ownership, the investment in freeway and highway developments greatly accelerated the outward suburban sprawl and declining inner-city population. The Bolte government sought to rapidly accelerate
27200-549: The growth corridor of Pakenham towards West Gippsland . In the west, it extends along the Maribyrnong River and its tributaries north towards Sunbury . Melbourne's major bayside beaches are in the various suburbs along the shores of Port Phillip Bay, in areas like Port Melbourne , Albert Park , St Kilda , Elwood , Brighton , Sandringham , Mentone , Frankston , Altona , Williamstown and Werribee South. The nearest surf beaches are 85 km (53 mi) south of
27400-636: The home of the Commonwealth of Australia . The Victorian Parliament House on Spring Street was handed over to house the parliament of Australia, while the Victorian parliament moved to the Exhibition Buildings. Economic revival in the 1900s saw a resurgence of construction. In this period, architects began to look less to England for inspiration, and more to the United States, particularly the Romanesque Revival . A major landmark of this period
27600-480: The interim seat of government of the new nation until Canberra became the permanent capital in 1927. Today, Melbourne is culturally diverse and, among world cities, has the 4th largest foreign born population . It is a leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region, ranking 28th globally in the 2024 Global Financial Centres Index . The city's eclectic architecture blends Victorian era structures, such as
27800-488: The land boom underwent a period of major industrialisation. Flinders Street had benefited from construction of the old docks and turning basin and Flinders Lane in particular was a growing centre for the rag trade . Fitzroy, Collingwood, Richmond, South Melbourne and Port Melbourne emerged as major industrial areas during the period. Among the architectural legacies of the industrial era are many red brick buildings constructed as warehouses. The Cordial Factory in Fitzroy (1882)
28000-408: The largest in the world. The State Theatre (1984) features a massive open frame spire inspired by Paris's Eiffel Tower , originally designed as a solid copper cone. The interior, designed by John Truscott is decorated in rich red velvet and brass ornament. The Arts Centre would set the scene for a postmodern revival in Melbourne which gained momentum in the mid 1980s. One Collins Street (1984) on
28200-562: The late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Little Band scene and St Kilda 's Crystal Ballroom scene, which gave rise to Dead Can Dance and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds . More recent independent acts from Melbourne to achieve global recognition include The Avalanches , Gotye and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard . Melbourne is also regarded as a centre of EDM , and lends its name to
28400-505: The main building is another notable polychromatic brick construction featuring high archways and chimneys. Another interesting building is one of the few remaining old buildings in Melbourne Docklands, the No 2 Goods Shed (1889-1890) with its prominent second empire clock tower, and expansive covered railway platform featuring cast iron supports is a testament to the huge industrial impact of
28600-633: The major roads developed as shopping streets. Melbourne quickly became a major finance centre, home to several banks, the Royal Mint , and (in 1861) Australia's first stock exchange . In 1855, the Melbourne Cricket Club secured possession of its now famous ground, the MCG . Members of the Melbourne Football Club codified Australian football in 1859, and in 1861, the first Melbourne Cup race
28800-430: The modernisation of Melbourne. Major road projects including the remodelling of St Kilda Junction , the widening of Hoddle Street and then the extensive 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan changed the face of the city into a car-dominated environment. Australia's financial and mining booms during 1969 and 1970 resulted in establishment of the headquarters of many major companies ( BHP and Rio Tinto , among others) in
29000-444: The most famous Melburnian of the Edwardian era. The Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Kings Domain hosted the largest crowd ever for a music concert in Australia when an estimated 200,000 attendees saw Melbourne band The Seekers in 1967. Airing between 1974 and 1987, Melbourne's Countdown helped launch the careers of local acts as diverse as AC/DC and Kylie Minogue . Several distinct post-punk scenes flourished in Melbourne during
29200-435: The most impressive neoclassical structures in the city. Melbourne's Gothic Revival was strong, particularly in early church design, but late to gain traction for other buildings, though the seeds were sown for its extraordinary later popularity. Among the first secular buildings to incorporate the style was the Old Law School Building and Old Quadrangle at the University of Melbourne (1854-1857), which set an academic theme for
29400-469: The most successful demolition company, was responsible for most of the destruction of Melbourne's historic buildings. A vast number of city hotels also closed in the 1950s, as a result of blighting liquor laws, which meant that the cost of running a licensed venue outstripped the return. This may have explained the dwindling patronage of Melbourne's grand hotels in the 1950s and 60s. Between the late 1970s and 1980s, Melbourne's skyline reached new heights with
29600-404: The name is also used specifically for the local municipality of City of Melbourne based around its central business area . The metropolis occupies much of the northern and eastern coastlines of Port Phillip Bay and spreads into the Mornington Peninsula , part of West Gippsland , as well as the hinterlands towards the Yarra Valley , the Dandenong Ranges , and the Macedon Ranges . As of 2023,
29800-440: The nation's largest city in 2029–30 at just over 5.9 million, exceeding 6 million people the following year. Melbourne is in the southeastern part of mainland Australia, within the state of Victoria . Geologically, it is built on the confluence of Quaternary lava flows to the west, Silurian mudstones to the east, and Holocene sand accumulation to the southeast along Port Phillip . The southeastern suburbs are situated on
30000-416: The nature of the treaty has been heavily disputed, as none of the parties spoke the same language, and the elders likely perceived it as part of the gift exchanges which had taken place over the previous few days amounting to a tanderrum ceremony which allows temporary, not permanent, access to and use of the land. Batman selected a site on the northern bank of the Yarra River , declaring that "this will be
30200-446: The north and Dandenong Ranges National Park to the east. There are also a number of significant state parks just outside Melbourne. The extensive area covered by urban Melbourne is formally divided into hundreds of suburbs (for addressing and postal purposes), and administered as local government areas, 31 of which are located within the metropolitan area. Melbourne has minimal public housing and high demand for rental housing, which
30400-421: The old Commercial Bank of Australia Limited domed Chamber but its waterfall design clad in granite and its giant copper dome made a strong postmodern statement on the skyline. 333 Collins Street recreates the original facade of the bank which had been stripped off in the interwar period. The design's faceted concave and convex vertical facade and details show the strong influence from Richmond House in London built
30600-435: The oldest known building in the Hoddle grid with an unmodified original appearance. The Duke of Wellington Hotel on Flinders Street (1850), another modest two-storey Georgian style building, is also believed to date to this era and is cited as the oldest public bar in the Hoddle grid. Another building known as the Black Eagle Hotel was built in 1850 as two storey Georgian terraces in Little Lonsdale street may have operated as
30800-533: The open cloisters in each side. The interior was designed in the form of a theatre auditorium, in accordance with the principles of the Congregationalist Church, as a place where all members of the congregation could both hear and see the preacher. It features a sloping floor with tiered seating, and a steep gallery behind a ring of high aches on slender cast iron columns, ensuring good sight lines. The polychromatic style would influence Reed & Barnes' design for St Jude's Church, Carlton later that year but applied in
31000-411: The place for a village" before returning to Van Diemen's Land. In August 1835, another group of Vandemonian settlers arrived in the area and established a settlement at the site of the current Melbourne Immigration Museum . Batman and his group arrived the following month and the two groups ultimately agreed to share the settlement, initially known by the native name of Dootigala. Batman's Treaty with
31200-412: The population of the metropolitan area was 5.2 million (19% of the population of Australia ); inhabitants are referred to as "Melburnians". The area of Melbourne has been home to Aboriginal Victorians for over 40,000 years and serves as an important meeting place for local Kulin nation clans. Of the five peoples of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land encompassing Melbourne are
31400-563: The precinct. Many of Melbourne's theatres join the Melbourne Town Hall in hosting the annual Melbourne International Comedy Festival , one of the world's three largest comedy festivals. Melbourne has been called "the live music capital of the world"; one study found it has more music venues per capita than any other world city sampled, with 17.5 million patron visits to 553 venues in 2016. Australia's first global music star, opera singer Nellie Melba , took her stage name from her hometown. Composer Percy Grainger followed her in becoming
31600-440: The rebellion, giving some indication of immigration flows at the time. With the wealth brought in from the gold rush and the subsequent need for public buildings, a program of grand civic construction soon began. The 1850s and 1860s saw the commencement of Parliament House , the Treasury Building , the Old Melbourne Gaol , Victoria Barracks , the State Library , University of Melbourne , General Post Office , Customs House ,
31800-450: The richest city in the world, and the second-largest (after London) in the British Empire . The decade began with the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880, held in the large purpose-built Exhibition Building . A telephone exchange was established that year, and the foundations of St Paul's were laid. In 1881, electric light was installed in the Eastern Market , and a generating station capable of supplying 2,000 incandescent lamps
32000-399: The same places (usually the eastern suburbs) for an extended period, while the rest of Melbourne and surrounds stays dry. Overall, the area around Melbourne is, owing to its rain shadow, nonetheless significantly drier than average for southern Victoria. Within the city and surrounds, rainfall varies widely, from around 425 mm (17 in) at Little River to 1,250 mm (49 in) on
32200-434: The settlement was named Melbourne on 10 April 1837 by Bourke after the British Prime Minister , William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne , whose seat was Melbourne Hall in the market town of Melbourne , Derbyshire . That year, the settlement's general post office officially opened with that name. Between 1836 and 1842, Victorian Aboriginal groups were largely dispossessed of their land by British colonists. In 1840,
32400-417: The six storey Former Money Order Post Office (1890). However academic classicism was often seen as too restrained for the boom style and architects sometimes gave them a more baroque flavour, as in Sum Kum Lee at Chinatown (1887-1888) by George De Lacy Evans and William Salway's design for the Collins Street Mercantile Bank (1888). Suburban offices, while rare, also took similar forms. Notable examples include
32600-501: The southern hemisphere being home to several "lofty piles" as they were often called during the era. With the wealth brought by the gold rush, Melbourne rapidly gained status as a major financial and commercial capital and many large banks and building societies erected impressive buildings. Most of the tall office buildings constructed during the 1880s boom have been lost (including the prominent Federal Coffee Palace and APA Building). Many other fine examples still stand today, most notably
32800-416: The spring and summer months and can cause strong cold fronts to form. These cold fronts can be responsible for varied forms of severe weather from gales to thunderstorms and hail , large temperature drops and heavy rain. Winters, while exceptionally dry by southern Victorian standards, are nonetheless drizzly and overcast. The lack of winter rainfall is owed to Melbourne's rain shadowed location between
33000-460: The start of the boom's impact on railway building design with its striking Queen Anne design featuring tall chimneys, gable and polychromatic brick. Jewell railway station (1884) one of a template of similar station building designs which proved popular, Windsor Railway Station (1885-1886) a Queen Anne design in polychromatic brick which features Egyptian columns, North Melbourne railway station (1886) which incorporates Victorian Filigree into
33200-478: The still-quoted moniker "Marvellous Melbourne", coined by English journalist George Augustus Sala while visiting in 1885. The affluence of the period is reflected in many surviving buildings, including the Royal Exhibition Building , Australia's first UNESCO World Heritage registered building. Beyond the city centre, suburbs arose and became peppered with mansions, villas and terraces with iron lace verandahs, and many suburbs developed bustling main streets, leaving
33400-409: The street. The Former Union Church Elsternwick (1888-1890) is another unusual boom style church in the Scottish Baronial style. Another building from the land boom period which didn't have its spires completed St Mary Star of the Sea in West Melbourne (1891-1900). The Auburn Uniting Church Complex (1890) in Hawthorn is a stunning polychromatic brick building in the Lombardic Romanesque popularised by
33600-510: The streets. Melbourne's strong postmodern movement goes as far back as 1960 with Roy Grounds masterplan for the Arts Centre , though his vision for Melbourne would not be fully realised until later decades. His National Gallery of Victoria (1968) was one of the first bluestone clad buildings of the late 20th Century. While some earlier 1950s modern buildings featured ornament, notably Wilson Hall (1956), Grounds design makes direct historical references instead of rejecting them. Reminiscent of
33800-420: The surrounding suburbs of Melbourne, such as in the municipalities of Stonnington , Boroondara and Port Phillip , southeast of the central business district. Several national parks have been designated around the urban area of Melbourne, including the Mornington Peninsula National Park , Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park and Point Nepean National Park in the southeast, Organ Pipes National Park to
34000-432: The tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere , with a height of 251 metres. At the time of its opening it was the 23rd–tallest building in the world . In the 1990s, another 9 buildings were constructed in Melbourne that exceeded 150 metres; 5 of these surpassed heights of 200 metres. 101 Collins Street , which is 260-metre-tall (850 ft), became the tallest building in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere in 1991; it
34200-400: The time so what was later known as the Port Phillip District was established as a squatter's encampment . The land to the north of the Yarra was a gentle valley between hills to the east and west, and riding ground to the north. Nevertheless, in 1837, government surveyor Robert Hoddle laid out a grid of streets , approximately 30 metres wide (considerably wider than Sydney streets) between
34400-508: The two hills and aligned with the river. Early buildings were modest and typical of a frontier town, there were few landmarks of note. From early accounts and sketches there were few if any buildings taller than two storeys. Many were of timber construction and those of brick and stone. Almost all were built in the prominent colonial architectural style of the time, the Georgian revival . Most were detached or semi-detached buildings with gable or hip rooves and simple undecorated walls. Melbourne
34600-498: The urban periphery in Melbourne's outer west and east in suburbs like Wyndham Vale and Cranbourne . Middle suburbs like Box Hill became denser as a greater proportion of Melburnians began living in apartments. A construction boom resulted in 34 new skyscrapers being built in the central business district between 2010 and 2020. In 2020, Melbourne was classified as an Alpha city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network . Out of all major Australian cities, Melbourne
34800-400: The year it hosted the Centennial Exhibition. The brash boosterism that had typified Melbourne during that time ended in the early 1890s. The bubble supporting the local finance and property industries burst, resulting in a severe economic depression. Sixteen small land banks and building societies collapsed, and 133 limited companies went into liquidation. The Melbourne financial crisis was
35000-469: Was 46.4 °C (115.5 °F), on 7 February 2009 . While snow is occasionally seen at higher elevations in the outskirts of the city, and dustings were observed in 2020, it has not been recorded in the Central Business District since 1986. The sea temperature in Melbourne is warmer than the surrounding ocean during the summer months, and colder during the winter months. This is predominately due to Port Phillip Bay being an enclosed and shallow bay that
35200-459: Was Australia's tallest building at the time. ICI House, breaking Melbourne's long standing 132 ft height limit, was the first International Style skyscraper in the country. It symbolised progress, modernity, efficiency and the booming corporate power in a postwar Melbourne. Its development also paved way for the construction of other modern high-rise office buildings, thus changing the shape of Melbourne's already diverse urban centre. Melbourne
35400-451: Was a distinctive construction material used from Melbourne's earliest days however it became increasingly popular during the gold rush for institutional buildings due to its heavy rusticated effect and its stern, foreboding appearance. As such it was used extensively in buildings for enforcement, the military and warehousing most commonly in combination with Renaissance Italianate or ecclesiastical and educational institution buildings where it
35600-398: Was a successful settlement. Having grown mostly due to rich Victorian pastures it had operated as a busy port since 1841 and had a population of approximately 23,000. Despite being the youngest of the colonial capitals, it had overtaken all but Sydney. Following this early settlement period, just after the Colony of Victoria was separated from the Colony of New South Wales in 1851, gold
35800-405: Was already decided. The first prize, at £500, went to railway employees James Fawcett and HPC Ashworth of Fawcett and Ashworth in 1899. Their design, titled Green Light , was of French Renaissance style and included a large dome and tall clock tower . The train shed over the platforms was intended to have many arched roofs running north-south, but this was never built. Over the next few years,
36000-446: Was also used at 2 Treasury Place (1876). While Italianate architecture styles were outnumbered by academic classical for public buildings they would become extremely fashionable for commercial, institutional and residential architecture across the city. Institutional buildings included Victoria Barracks (1856-1872), Leonard Terry's designs for the Melbourne Club (1859) the first stage 2 storey Melbourne GPO (1861 - prior to extensions),
36200-412: Was ambitious due to the speculative nature of the gold rush. Many of the larger designs featured prominent domes, though their construction relied on future funds which would not be forthcoming. The Supreme Court Library dome, modeled on the Four Courts in Dublin is one of few original designs which was completed. Joseph Reed's original design for the State Library called for a Museum and Gallery topped by
36400-404: Was another landmark to Melbourne's large Chinese community which had strong oriental influences in its design. Joseph Reed's design for Collins Street Independent Church (1866) (now St Michael's) is notable not only as the earliest examples of elaborate polychrome brickwork in Australia (a style that became highly popular by the 1880s) but also for its unusual floorplan and tower. It was one of
36600-400: Was based around a pair of towers at 45 degree angles to the Hoddle Grid , with the triangular spaces between forming an open plaza to the street and a shopping plaza behind the towers. All open spaces are covered by a space frame , with transparent plastic roofing. The whole complex is clad in tan-coloured precast masonry panels. In 1986, the Rialto Towers surpassed Sydney's MLC Centre as
36800-422: Was built when it was finally decided to replace the ad hoc collection of train sheds Flinders Street Station with a grand terminus. A competition was held in 1899, with 17 entries received. The competition was essentially for the detailed design of the station building, since the location of the concourse, entrances, the track and platform layout, the type of platform roofing and even the room layout to some extent
37000-399: Was conducted to match the original colours as closely as possible, obtained through numerous samples of chipped paint which revealed the original colours after being cut in a polyester resin tube. From 1905 there was much debate about the merit of taller buildings in the city centre, and the idea of a height limit, influenced by the City Beautiful movement, gained popularity. There was also
37200-408: Was considered to be one of the finest church designs in Australia. Leonard Terry's landmark two storey building in Hawthorn for the ES&A Bank (1873) is an early example of gothic applied to secular buildings and also an early commercial use of Hawthorn brick a mode of building which would become highly popular with architects over the subsequent decades. John James Clark 's Old Treasury (1858–62)
37400-640: Was discovered in the Victorian fields in the 1850s. The gold rush was followed by a growth in pastoral wealth, the development of local industries, railways, suburbs, shops, and ports. The immense wealth generated during this period helped fund the construction of many large public buildings during this period including the State Library , Parliament House , the Town Hall , Old Treasury , Law courts , General Post Office and Royal Exhibition Building . They also include two of celebrated Victorian architect William Wardell 's works: St Patrick's Cathedral and Government House . Locally quarried bluestone (basalt)
37600-405: Was discovered, and thousands of people flocked to the city from the United Kingdom, as well as Europe and the United States, to seek their fortune on the Victorian goldfields . Within a year Melbourne had overtaken Sydney as Australia's most populous settlement. As a result of the Gold Rush , Melbourne's population grew from 4,000 in 1837 to 300,000 in 1854. Approximately £100 million worth of gold
37800-418: Was early to expand and spread from the Hoddle grid along the Yarra and Maribyrnong River and Port Phillip Bay . Early buildings that survived later development can be found in suburbs such as East Melbourne , Fitzroy , Hawthorn , Williamstown , St Kilda and Heidelberg among others. The best known surviving building from this period is the St James Old Cathedral (1839-1847), which originally stood at
38000-802: Was favoured for large institutions and its execution required more versatile materials with the popularity of stone and stucco features producing more elaborate but stately designs. Prolific Melbourne architect Joseph Reed 's contributions include the State Library (1854-1870), Collins Street Baptist Church (1854), facade of the Bank of New South Wales (1856–1857), Royal Society of Victoria building (1859) and Melbourne Town Hall (1869). Others significant examples include: Parliament House (1855-), Victorian Trades Hall (1859) and Supreme Court Library (1874-1884). Giant order columns or pilasters along with other classical details including pediments, porticos, vaulted ceilings and entry stairs were common elements of their design. Design of large public buildings
38200-412: Was first settled by Europeans in 1835, when rival entrepreneurs from Tasmania, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner sent expeditions looking for sheep pasture. Batman famously stated that “This is the place for a village”, generally believed to refer to the point on the Yarra River where freshwater was found (near today's Queensbridge ). However Batman's Treaty was declared void by the government of
38400-410: Was held. Melbourne acquired its first public monument, the Burke and Wills statue, in 1864. With the gold rush largely over by 1860, Melbourne continued to grow on the back of continuing gold-mining, as the major port for exporting the agricultural products of Victoria (especially wool) and with a developing manufacturing sector protected by high tariffs. An extensive radial railway network spread into
38600-499: Was in operation by 1882. The Melbourne cable tramway system opened in 1885 and became one of the world's most extensive systems by 1890. In 1885, visiting English journalist George Augustus Henry Sala coined the phrase "Marvellous Melbourne", which stuck long into the twentieth century and has come to refer to the opulence and energy of the 1880s, during which time large commercial buildings, grand hotels, banks, coffee palaces , terrace housing and palatial mansions proliferated in
38800-454: Was instead used as foundation material due to its robust and porous property. Terrace house developments also grew in importance, especially to house the new middle class and attached housing, including shop houses , became the dominant form. Early modes were inspired by the colonial Georgian, regency and Renaissance Revival. The most notable early example is Royal Terrace (1853-1854), a large triple storey bluestone row on Nicholson Street in
39000-417: Was named is a significant pre-gold rush Italianate mansion considered the finest in the colony; and, Manor House in Broadmeadows (1850) is a combination of Scottish residential style in bluestone. Devonshire Arms Hotel in Fitzroy (1843) a modest Georgian style building is the oldest extant hotel in the city. Job Warehouse (54-62 Bourke Street) (1848-1849), a double storey building in the Georgian style
39200-1020: Was often combined with a gothic revival style. HM Prison Pentridge (1851) is particularly notable as one of the largest gold rush era bluestone buildings as well as for its distinctive castellated Tudor appearance incorporating medieval style watch towers, arrow slits and panopticons . Other primarily bluestone buildings include the remaining wings of the Old Melbourne Gaol (1852-1854), Williamstown Timeball Tower (1852), Mac's Hotel (1853), St Peter's Church, Eastern Hill transepts (1846-1876), Victoria Barracks (1856-1872), Melbourne Church Of England Grammar (1856), St Andrew's Church, Brighton (1857), Wesleyan Methodist Church St Kilda (1857-1858) Wesley Church complex (1858-1859) All Saints St Kilda (1858-1882), St Patrick's Cathedral (1858-1939), Seabrook House (1858), St Mary's Church of England in North Melbourne (1858-1860), St Mary's Dandenong Road (1859-1871), St John's Toorak (1860-1873) Goldsborough Mort & Co Ltd warehouse (1861-1862), Victorian College for
39400-442: Was surpassed in height as a result of the completion of the nearby 120 Collins Street that same year. The skyscraper, which stands at 265 metres in height, held the titles for tallest building in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere for fourteen years, until the completion of the Gold Coast's Q1 in 2005. Melbourne's modern legacy began to give way in the 1980s with the culmination of a strong postmodern movement as many decried
39600-412: Was the first city in Australia to undergo a post-war high-rise boom beginning in the late 1950s, though Sydney in the following decades built more, with over 50 high-rise buildings constructed between the 1970s–90s. The 1950s and 1960s was a period before heritage controls were enacted, and many commentators now view these years of rampant demolition as one akin to urban vandalism. Whelan the Wrecker ,
39800-409: Was the tallest residential tower in the world when completed in 2006, and its spiritual successor Australia 108 . The city has also added some notable architectural landmarks including Southern Cross Station and Federation Square . Distinctively Melbourne styles include the many bluestone (basalt) constructions of the early colonial and gold rush era, extensive use of polychrome brickwork and
40000-421: Was the worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and spent a long time under lockdown restrictions, with Melbourne experiencing six lockdowns totalling 262 days. While this contributed to a net outflow of migration causing a slight reduction in Melbourne's population over the course of 2020 to 2022, Melbourne is projected to be the fastest growing capital city in Australia from 2023–24 onwards, overtaking Sydney as
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