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Melbourne is the second most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 3.74 million (2006 estimate). Located around Port Phillip Bay in Australia's south-east, Melbourne is the state capital of Victoria. A person from Melbourne is called a Melburnian.
Melbourne is a major centre of commerce, industry and cultural activity. The city is often referred to as Australia's "sporting and cultural capital"and it is home to many of the nation's most significant cultural and sporting events and institutions. It has been recognised as a global city by the Loughborough University group's 1999 inventory. Melbourne is notable for its mix of Victorian and contemporary architecture, its extensive tram network and Victorian parks and gardens, and its diverse, multicultural society. Melbourne was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Melbourne was founded by free settlers in 1835, 47 years after the first European settlement of Australia, as a pastoral settlement situated around the Yarra River. Transformed rapidly into a major metropolis by the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s, "Marvellous Melbourne" became Australia's largest and most important city by 1865, but was overtaken by Sydney as the largest city in Australia during the early 20th century.
Geelong is the second largest city in the state of Victoria, Australia and is the largest regional centre in the state. It is a port city with an urban population of 160,991 people, and one of the largest provincial cities in Australia. The city is located on Corio Bay, 75 kilometres south-west of the state's capital, Melbourne, and is covered by the City of Greater Geelong municipality.
Geelong was named in 1837 by Governor Richard Burke, with the name derived from the local Wautharong aboriginal name for the region, Jillong, thought to mean 'land' or 'cliffs'. The city is notable as the home to car manufacturer Ford Australia, and the Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats. Geelong is also the gateway to tourist attractions including the Great Ocean Road and the Shipwreck Coast.
The Murray River, or River Murray and sometimes informally referred to as the "Mighty Murray", is Australia's second-longest river in its own right (the longest being its tributary the Darling). At approximately 3,750 kilometres in length, the Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains and, for most of its length, meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between New South Wales and Victoria as it flows to the northwest, before turning south for its final 500 kilometres or so into South Australia
then ends at the mouth at Lake Alexandrina.
The waters of the Murray flow through several lakes that fluctuate in salinity (and were often fresh until recent decades) including Lake Alexandrina and The Coorong before emptying through the Murray Mouth into the southeastern portion of the Indian Ocean, often referenced on Australian maps as the Southern Ocean, near Goolwa. Despite discharging considerable volumes of water at times, particularly before the advent of large scale river regulation, the Mouth has always been comparatively small and shallow.
The University of Melbourne, is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. The second oldest university in Australia, and the oldest in Victoria, its main campus is in Parkville, an inner suburb just north of the Melbourne CBD. Other campuses across Melbourne and rural Victoria have been acquired through amalgamation with smaller colleges of advanced education. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" lobby group, and the Sandstone universities.
Melbourne University is ranked amongst the top universities both in Australia and the world. The University is highly regarded in the fields of the arts, humanities, and biomedicine.
The University has almost 40,000 students, who are supported by nearly 6,000 staff members (full or part-time). On November 15, 2005, Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis announced a reform programme entitled "Growing Esteem". The University will aim to consolidate its three core activities - Research, Learning and Knowledge transfer - in order to become one of the world's finest institutions. The University's degree structure will be changed to the 'Melbourne Model', a combination of various practices from American and European Universities, which administrators claim will make the university consistent with the Bologna Accord, ensuring its degrees have international relevance.
Crowded House is a rock and pop group formed in Melbourne, Australia, and led by New Zealand musician and singer-songwriter Neil Finn. Finn is widely recognised as the primary songwriter and creative direction of the band, having led it through several incarnations, drawing members from New Zealand (Neil Finn, Tim Finn and Eddie Rayner), Australia (Paul Hester, Nick Seymour, Peter Jones and Craig Hooper) and United States (Mark Hart and Matt Sherrod).
Though the band owes its original success to the Australian live music scene, references to New Zealand people and places in songs pay homage to their roots ("Kare Kare" is written about Karekare Beach, "Mean to Me" refers to Finn's hometown of Te Awamutu). The success of the group's third album Woodface and the general success of Crowded House and Split Enz prompted Queen Elizabeth II of the Commonwealth in June 1993 to bestow the Order of the British Empire on both Tim and Neil Finn for their contribution to the music of New Zealand.
Originally active between 1985 and 1996, the band's notable hits from this period include "Don't Dream It's Over", "Something So Strong", "Better Be Home Soon", "Fall at Your Feet" and "Weather With You". In 2007, the group reunited with a new drummer. In this period, the group has released one album, Time on Earth, which reached #1 on Australia's ARIA Albums Chart.
