Melbourne

Economy

nobody@vox.com(Melbourne) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:30:44 -0700

Melbourne is home to Australia's busiest seaport and much of Australia's automotive industry, which include Ford and Toyota manufacturing facilities, and the engine manufacturing facility of Holden. It is home to many other manufacturing industries, along with being a major business and financial centre. International freight is an important industry. The city's port, Australia's largest, handles more than $75 billion in trade every year and 39% of the nation's container trade. Melbourne Airport provides an entry point for national and international visitors.

Melbourne is also a major technology hub, with an ICT industry that employs over 60,000 people (one third of Australia's ICT workforce), has a turnover of $19.8 billion and export revenues of $615 million. Melbourne retains a significant presence of being a financial centre for Asia-Pacific. Two of the big four banks, NAB and ANZ, are headquartered in Melbourne. The city has carved out a niche as Australia’s leading centre for superannuation (pension) funds, with 40% of the total, and 65% of industry super-funds including the $40 billion-dollar Federal Government Future Fund. Tourism also plays an important role in Melbourne's economy, with approximately 7.6 million domestic visitors and 1.88 million international visitors in 2004. In 2008, Melbourne overtook Sydney with the amount of money that domestic tourists spent in the city

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Canberra

nobody@vox.com(Melbourne) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:59:30 -0800

Canberra - a city and capital of Australia located in the Alps Australijskich on the Molonglo River, at an altitude of 550-700 meters above sea level, at a distance of 320 km from Sydney and 480 km from Melbourne. In the area of the Australian Capital Territory with an area of 2,500 km ².

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Population density

nobody@vox.com(Melbourne) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:14:55 -0800

The population of Melbourne has risen sharply during the gold fever. Within a few years with various countries in the world brought together nearly 125 thousand. people. In subsequent decades (1870, 1880) was the largest city of Melbourne in Australia. Between 90 Nineteenth century Melbourne was struck by a deep economic crisis and has lost a significant proportion of the population. The need to increase population and attract new hands to work ściągnęła to Melbourne many immigrants after 1945, with countries such as the United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Greece, Italy. Today, Melbourne is one of the largest gatherings of the Greek population outside Greece. 70 Years and 80 Twentieth century is a big influx of people from Asia, particularly refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as immigrants from India, the Philippines and Malaysia.

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Federation of Australia

nobody@vox.com(Melbourne) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:32:43 -0700

At the time of Australia's Federation on 1 January 1901, Melbourne was specified as the temporary seat of government. The first Federal parliament was convened on 9 May 1901 in the Royal Exhibition Building. In 1927, the Federal parliament was moved to the planned city of Canberra, however the Governor General of Australia remained at Government House until 1930 and many major national institutions remained in Melbourne well into the 20th Century .

Melbourne was the Allied Pacific Headquarters from 1942 to 1944 as General Douglas MacArthur established Australia as a launch base for Pacific operations. During World War II, Melbourne industries thrived on wartime production and the city became Australia's leading manufacturing center.

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Religion

nobody@vox.com(Melbourne) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:37:47 -0700

The 2006 Census records show some 28.3% (1,018,113) of Melbourne residents list their religious affiliation as Catholic.The next highest response was No Religion (20.0%, 717,717), Anglican (12.1%, 433,546), Eastern Orthodox (5.9%, 212,887) and the Uniting Church (4.0%, 143,552).[69] Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and Hindus collectively account for 7.5 per cent of the population. Four out of ten Australian Jews call Melbourne home. The city is also residence to the largest number of Holocaust survivors of any Australian city, indeed the highest per capita concentration outside Israel itself.

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The city has two large cathedrals - St Patrick's (Roman Catholic), and St Paul's (Anglican). Both were built in the Victorian era and are of considerable heritage significance as major landmarks of the city

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Topography

nobody@vox.com(Melbourne) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:09:27 -0700

Melbourne is located in the south-eastern part of mainland Australia. 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 city's suburbs extend along the Yarra Valley toward the Yarra and Dandenong Ranges to the east, down towards the Mornington Peninsula and the city of Frankston, along the Maribyrnong River and its tributaries north towards the foothills of the Macedon Ranges, and along the flat volcanic plain country towards Werribee and Geelong to the south-west.

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