Victoria Cross Memorial

Melbourne ( 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. The city's name generally refers to a 9,993-square-kilometre (3,858 sq mi) area, comprising an urban agglomeration of 31 local government areas. The name is also used specifically to refer to the local government area also named the City of Melbourne, whose administrative area is centred on the Melbourne central business district and some immediate surrounds. The city occupies much of the northern and eastern coastlines of Port Phillip Bay. As of June 2025, the population of the city was 5.435 million, or 19% of the population of Australia; It is currently the southernmost city in the world with a population exceeding one million. inhabitants are known as "Melburnians". The area of Melbourne has been home to Aboriginal Victorians for over 40,000 years. Of the five peoples of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land encompassing Melbourne are 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).