MELBOURNE, the capital of Victoria, Australia, and from 1901-1927 the seat of the Commonwealth Government, situated on Port Phillip in about the central south of the State, forms, with Sydney, one of the leading cities of the Commonwealth and of the southern hemisphere. Its growth from a small settlement, made near the mouth of the Yarra in 1835 by two groups of pioneers from Tasmania, to its present status is impressive and, in some respects, typical of the development of south-eastern Aus tralia. The series of irregular and ancient block-plateaux which, aligned east and west, form the "Great Dividing Range" (q.v.) in Victoria is separated from another and more recent (Jurassic) line of heights (Cape Otway–Buln Buln hills) along the south coast by a long, and probably down-faulted, trough—the "Great Valley of Victoria." Near the centre severer subsidence has pro duced a series of coalescing basins (Port Phillip, Western Port, Middle Yarra, etc.), which together form a large area of lowland. In the centre Port Phillip (approximately 4o miles north-south; rather less east-west ; area c. Boo square miles) penetrates to the very rim of the central plateau area and has a long extension reaching westwards (Corio Bay) on which stands Geelong. Thus from east-south-east to west-south-west Melbourne is girdled on its north side and at a distance of about 35 miles by a rim of plateau-like highlands (ay. elevation on north-east c. 3,00o ft.; on north-west, c. 2,000 ft. with some volcanic bosses e.g., Mount Macedon, 3,324 ft.), in which the Kilmore Gap (1,145 ft.) forms a significant break. On the southern sector the lowlands lead east wards into Gippsland and westwards to the south-west (basalt) plains, while on the south Port Phillip has an opening little more than two miles wide having two channels (carrying 36 ft. and 40 ft. of water respectively), in which southerly winds and ebb tide produce rough and choppy seas ("The Rip"). Upon the basin converge various streams (Saltwater, Werribee, etc.), the most important being the Yarra Yarra, which, with its tributary the Plenty, rises in the north-east highlands and flows into Hob son's Bay at the head of Port Phillip. Early Melbourne was laid out as a rectangular block on and along the northern banks of the Yarra c. 7 miles from its mouth and 2 miles (air-line) from
the shore of the Bay. Here it occupied pleasantly hilly ground. But the city has long since expanded in all directions, northwards to form Brunswick, Fitzroy, Collingwood, etc. ; eastwards to Kew, Richmond, Hawthorn, Camberwell, etc. ; southwards to Prahran and especially along the shore of Port Phillip (St. Kilda, Brighton, etc.) ; on the west to Footscray, etc. On the north shore of Hob son's Bay Port Melbourne has arisen, while on the south-western promontory of the same bay, Williamstown is also important as a harbour. Greater Melbourne (founded in 1925), which includes all the districts within a radius of ten miles from the centre of the city (165,666 ac.), has a population (1933) of 992,048, or nearly 54.5% of the total population of the State. (Cf. 1901, 496,000 = 41.3%; 1911, = 1921, 783,000= 51.1%) In the growth thus indicated geographical factors have played an important part. The railway net of Victoria sufficiently reveals the reach and concentrating power of Melbourne as a financial and business centre and as a port. (The first railway in Australia was built from Melbourne to Port Melbourne in 1854.) Besides its immediate basin, rich in its agricultural and dairying industries, the fertile plains of southern and western Gippsland and the varied mineral, agricultural and pastoral lands of the western highlands and their southern slopes drain naturally to the city. Beyond these the broad wheat-lands of the north-west (Wimmera), and through the invaluable Kilmore Gap, the whole of the central Murray valley and central southern New South Wales (e.g., Deniliquin) are also tapped by Melbourne with a wide fan-work of lines. Through the Kilmore Gap goes also the overland line to Albury and Sydney (qq.v.), tapping the north western flanks of the Australian Alps and competing with Sydney for the trade of the Riverina (q.v.). Melbourne has no such barriers as hem in Sydney, and the occupation of its basin, fol lowed by the opening up of the goldfields and the agricultural and pastoral development of the State in general, have contributed to its growth and long made it the most populous city in Australia.