F1 Holiday part 7: Melbourne

Melbourne, the second-largest city in Australia, is the seventh stop that F1technical makes in its F1 Holiday series. Melbourne is a city that attracts a lot of tourists every year, but of course a lot of F1 fans as well as it's the venue for the annual Australian Grand Prix.

Melbourne is the state capital and largest city in the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-largest city in Australia.

History

The city was named after the British Prime Minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, whose home was near the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire. Melbourne in Derbyshire derives its name from the Old English for "mill stream" (mylla burne).

The European settlement at Melbourne was founded in 1835 by settlers coming from Tasmania, where they had difficulty finding available land.

The area was already inhabited by the Kulin people, then indigenous to the area. A transaction was negotiated for 600,000 acres of land from eight Wurundjeri representatives, this was later annulled by the New South Wales government (then governing all of eastern mainland Australia), who compensated the settlers in exchange. Ultimately, settlement continued regardless.

It was the capital first of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales and then of the separate colony of Victoria. With the discovery of gold in Victoria in the 1850s, leading to the Victorian gold rush, Melbourne quickly grew as a port and service centre.

Later it became Australia's leading manufacturing centre. During the 1880s, Melbourne was the second largest city in the British Empire, and came to be known as "Marvellous Melbourne". Victorian architecture abounds in Melbourne and today the city is home to the largest number of surviving Victorian era buildings of any city in the world other than London.

Melbourne was the capital city of Australia from 1901 until 1927. It became the national capital at Australia's Federation on 1 January 1901. The first Federal parliament was opened on 9 May of that year in the Royal Exhibition Building. The seat of government and the national capital remained in Melbourne until 1927 when it moved to the new capital city of Canberra.

Melbourne continued to expand steadily throughout the first half of the 20th century. It became the Allied Pacific Headquarters for a time from 1942 to 1944 as General Douglas MacArthur established Australia as a launch base for Pacific operations. During World War II Melbourne industries flourished and expanded with war time production. This set Melbourne on a course for significant post war expansion, particularly with the post-World War II influx of immigrants and the prestige of hosting the Olympic Games in 1956.

Even after the national capital moved to Canberra, Melbourne remained Australia's business and finance capital until the 1970s, when it began to lose this primacy to Sydney. Melbourne also developed as a centre of the arts.

After a boom in the 1980s Melbourne experienced a slump from 1989 to 1992, with a loss of employment and a drain of population to New South Wales and Queensland. In the 1990s, the Victorian state government of Premier Jeff Kennett sought to reverse this trend with the aggressive development of new public buildings, such as the Melbourne Museum, Federation Square, the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre (nicknamed "Jeff's Shed"), Crown Casino, capital works (most notably the City Link tollway), the (somewhat controversial) selling of state assets (the State Electricity Commission and some state schools), the pruning back of state services and the publicising of Melbourne's merits both to outsiders and Melburnians. This has continued under the government of current Premier Steve Bracks (Labor). Since 1997, Melbourne has maintained significant population and employment growth. Furthermore, there has been substantial international investment in the city's industries and property market. 2006 figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that since 2000 Melbourne has sustained the highest population and economic growth rate of any Australian city.

Museums and culture

* Melbourne Aquarium: is marine wonderland that seduces the senses of visitors with an experience that is engaging, educative and entertaining. Located on the banks of the Yarra River, Melbourne Aquarium is home to over 10,000 aquatic animals, and is the world’s foremost exhibit of the Southern Ocean. The journey takes you over four thrilling and interactive levels. Highlights include a 2.2 million litre Oceanarium, daily feeds and presentations, and a high-energy simulator rides.

* The Flinders Quarter: covers a broader area between Spring,William, Flinders and Collins Streets. It is a very buzzy place and is filled with artists, architects, writers, designers, galleries, apartments, hotels, quirky shops, cafés and bars.

* The Fitzroy Gardens: are of historical significance as one of a ring of public reserves around Melbourne established in the nineteenth century to provide respite and relaxation for the city's residents.

* National Gallery of Victoria: founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. In the International Collection there are also works by: Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Marco Palmezzano, Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Tintoretto, Paolo Uccello, and Paolo Veronese, amongst others. In the Modern collection, the gallery has continued to expand into new areas, becoming an early leader in textiles, fashion, photography, and Australian Aboriginal art. Today it has strong collections in areas as diverse as old masters, Greek vases, and historical European ceramics, and the largest and most comprehensive range of artworks in Australia.

* The Shrine of Remembrance: is one of the largest war memorials in Australia. It was built as a memorial to the men and women of Victoria who served in World War I, but soon came to be seen as Australia's major memorial to all the 60,000 Australians who died in the war. It now serves as a memorial for all Australians who served in war and it is the site of annual observances of ANZAC Day (25 April) and Remembrance Day (11 November).

* The Sidney Myer Music Bowl: is a world standard, architecturally significant, outdoor performance venue. It is located in the gentle undulating lawns and gardens of King's Domain, quite close to the Victorian Arts Centre.

* Southbank: on the southern bank of the Yarra River attracts locals and tourists alike for its mix of dining, shopping and recreational facilities.

* The Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens: is Australia's oldest zoo and was modeled on London Zoo. It is reputed to be the eleventh oldest zoo in the world. The zoo was opened in 1862 on land donated by the City of Melbourne.

Sports

Melbourne hosts a large number of spectator sports. Melbourne's best-known sporting events are the Australian Open, Australian F1 Grand Prix, numerous international Cricket matches, the Australian Football League Grand Final and the Spring Racing Carnival which culminates with the running of the Melbourne Cup horse race at Flemington. Melbourne hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

The Australian Formula One Grand Prix is held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Albert Park.