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Victoria (state)

Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state, with a land area of 227,444 km2 (87,817 sq mi); the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 6.7 million;[3] and the most densely populated state[9] in Australia (29 per km2). Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north and South Australia to the west, and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south (with the exception of a small land border with Tasmania located along Boundary Islet), the Great Australian Bight portion of the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea (a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean) to the southeast. The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the northeast and the semi-arid north-west.

Victoria
Nickname(s)
The Garden State [1]
Motto
Peace and Prosperity
Location of Victoria in Australia
37°S 144°E / 37°S 144°E / -37; 144
CountryAustralia
Before federationColony of Victoria
Establishment1 July 1851[2]
Responsible government23 November 1855
Federation1 January 1901
Named forQueen Victoria
Capital
and largest city
Melbourne
Administration79 local government areas
Demonym(s)Victorian
Government
• Monarch
Charles III
• Governor
Margaret Gardner
• Premier
Daniel Andrews (ALP)
LegislatureParliament of Victoria
Legislative Council
Legislative Assembly
JudiciarySupreme Court of Victoria
Parliament of Australia
• Senate
12 senators (of 76)
39 seats (of 151)
Area
• Total
237,657 km2 (91,760 sq mi) (6th)
• Land
227,444 km2 (87,817 sq mi)
• Water
10,213 km2 (3,943 sq mi)
Highest elevation1,986 m (6,516 ft)
Population
• December 2022 estimate
6,704,300[3] (2nd)
• Density
29/km2 (75.1/sq mi) (2nd)
GSP2020 estimate
• Total
AU$458.895 billion[4] (2nd)
• Per capita
AU$68,996 (6th)
HDI (2021) 0.948[5]
very high · 4th
Time zoneUTC+10:00 (AEST)
 • Summer (DST)
UTC+11:00 (AEDT)
Postal abbreviation
VIC
ISO 3166 codeAU–VIC
Symbols
BirdHelmeted honeyeater
(Lichenostomus melanops cassidix)
FishWeedy seadragon
(Phyllopteryx taeniolatus)
FlowerCommon heath[6]
(Epacris impressa)
MammalLeadbeater's possum
(Gymnobelideus leadbeateri)
Colour(s)Navy blue and silver[7]
MineralGold[8]
Websitevic.gov.au

The majority of the Victorian population is concentrated in the central-south area surrounding Port Phillip, and in particular within the metropolitan area of Greater Melbourne, Victoria's state capital and largest city and also Australia's second-largest city, where over three quarters of the Victorian population live. The state is home to four of Australia's 20 largest cities: Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. The population is culturally diverse, with 35.1% of inhabitants being immigrants.[10]

Victoria is home to numerous Aboriginal groups, including the Boonwurrung, the Bratauolung, the Djadjawurrung, the Gunai, the Gunditjmara, the Taungurung, the Wathaurong, the Wurundjeri, and the Yorta Yorta.[11] There were more than 30 Aboriginal languages spoken in the area prior to European colonisation. In 1770 James Cook claimed the east coast of the Australian continent for the Kingdom of Great Britain, and from 1788 the area that is now Victoria was a part of the colony of New South Wales. The first European settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay. Much of what is now Victoria was included in 1836 in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. Named in honour of Queen Victoria, Victoria was separated from New South Wales and established as a separate Crown colony in 1851, achieving responsible government in 1855.[12] The Victorian gold rush in the 1850s and 1860s significantly increased Victoria's population and wealth. By the time of Australian Federation in 1901, Melbourne had become the largest city in Australasia, and served as the federal capital of Australia until Canberra was opened in 1927. The state continued to grow strongly through various periods of the 20th and early 21st centuries as a result of high levels of international and interstate migration.

Victoria has 38 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate. At state level, the Parliament of Victoria consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. The Labor Party, led by Daniel Andrews as premier, has governed Victoria since 2014. The Governor of Victoria, the representative of the Monarchy of Australia in the state, is currently Margaret Gardner. Victoria is divided into 79 local government areas, as well as several unincorporated areas which the state administers directly.

Victoria's economy is the second-largest among Australian states and is highly diversified, with service sectors predominating. Culturally, Melbourne hosts a number of museums, art galleries, and theatres, and is also described as the world's sporting capital,[13][14] and the spiritual home of Australian cricket and Australian rules football.[15]

History Edit

Indigenous Victorians Edit

The state of Victoria was originally home to many Aboriginal Australian nations that had occupied the land for tens of thousands of years before European settlement.[16] According to Gary Presland, Aboriginal people have lived in Victoria for about 40,000 years,[17] living a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farming eels.[18]

At the Keilor Archaeological Site a human hearth excavated in 1971 was radiocarbon-dated to about 31,000 years BP, making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia.[19] A cranium found at the site has been dated at between 12,000[20] and 14,700 years BP.[19]

Archaeological sites in Tasmania and on the Bass Strait Islands have been dated to between 20,000 – 35,000 years ago, when sea levels were 130 metres below present level allowing First Nations Peoples to move across the region of southern Victoria and on to the land bridge of the Bassian plain to Tasmania by at least 35,000 years ago.[21][22]

During the Ice Age about 20,000 years BP, the area now the bay of Port Phillip would have been dry land, and the Yarra and Werribee river would have joined to flow through the heads then south and south west through the Bassian plain before meeting the ocean to the west. Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands became separated from mainland Australia around 12,000 BP, when the sea level was approximately 50m below present levels.[21] Port Phillip was flooded by post-glacial rising sea levels between 8000 and 6000 years ago.[21]

Oral history and creation stories from the Wada wurrung, Woiwurrung and Bun wurrung languages describe the flooding of the bay. Hobsons Bay was once a kangaroo hunting ground. Creation stories describe how Bunjil was responsible for the formation of the bay,[22] or the bay was flooded when the Yarra river was created.[23]

British colonisation Edit

 
Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross at the Eureka Stockade on 1 December 1854 – watercolour by Charles Doudiet

Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria, who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851.[2]

After the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788, Australia was divided into an eastern half named New South Wales and a western half named New Holland, under the administration of the colonial government in Sydney. The first British settlement in the area later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip. It consisted of 402 people (five government officials, nine officers of marines, two drummers, and 39 privates, five soldiers' wives and a child, 307 convicts, 17 convicts' wives, and seven children).[24] They had been sent from England in HMS Calcutta under the command of Captain Daniel Woodriff, principally out of fear that the French, who had been exploring the area, might establish their own settlement and thereby challenge British rights to the continent.

In 1826, Colonel Stewart, Captain Samuel Wright, and Lieutenant Burchell were sent in HMS Fly (Captain Wetherall) and the brigs Dragon and Amity, took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments. The expedition landed at Settlement Point (now Corinella), on the eastern side of Western Port Bay, which was the headquarters until the abandonment of Western Port at the insistence of Governor Darling about 12 months afterwards.[25][26]

Victoria's next settlement was at Portland, on the south west coast of what is now Victoria. Edward Henty settled Portland Bay in 1834.[27]

Batman's treaty Edit

Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, who set up a base in Indented Head, and John Pascoe Fawkner. From settlement, the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. Shortly after, the site now known as Geelong was surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W. H. Smythe, three weeks after Melbourne. And in 1838, Geelong was officially declared a town, despite earlier European settlements dating back to 1826.

On 6 June 1835, just under two years before Melbourne was officially recognised as a settlement, John Batman, the leader of the Port Phillip Association presented Wurundjeri Elders with a land use agreement. This document, now referred to as the Batman treaty, was later given to the British government to claim that local Aboriginal people had given Batman access to their land in exchange for goods and rations. Today, the meaning and interpretation of this treaty is contested. Some argue it was pretence for taking Aboriginal land in exchange for trinkets, while others argue it was significant in that it sought to recognise Aboriginal land rights.

The exact location of the meeting between Batman and the Kulin Ngurungaeta (head clan-men) with whom he made the treaty is unknown, although it is believed to have been by the Merri Creek. According to historian Meyer Eidelson, it is generally believed to have occurred on the Merri near modern-day Rushall Station.[28]

Colonial Victoria Edit

Victoria Colony
British Crown Colony
1851–1901
CapitalMelbourne
History
Government
 • TypeSelf-governing colony
Monarch 
• 1851–1901
Victoria
Governor 
• 1851–1854
Charles La Trobe (first)
• 1895–1900
Thomas Brassey (last)
History 
• independence from the New South Wales colony
1851
1901
Preceded by
Succeeded by

On 1 July 1851, writs were issued for the election of the first Victorian Legislative Council, and the absolute independence of Victoria from New South Wales was established proclaiming a new Colony of Victoria.[29] Days later, still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at many sites across Victoria. This triggered one of the largest gold rushes the world has ever seen. The colony grew rapidly in both population and economic power. In 10 years, the population of Victoria increased sevenfold from 76,000 to 540,000. All sorts of gold records were produced, including the "richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world" and the largest gold nugget. In the decade 1851–1860 Victoria produced 20 million ounces of gold, one-third of the world's output.[30]

Immigrants arrived from all over the world to search for gold, especially from Ireland and China.[31] By 1857, 26,000 Chinese miners worked in Victoria, and their legacy is particularly strong in Bendigo and its environs.

In 1854 at Ballarat, an armed rebellion against the government of Victoria was made by miners protesting against mining taxes (the "Eureka Stockade"). This was crushed by British troops, but the confrontation persuaded the colonial authorities to reform the administration of mining concessions (reducing the hated mining licence fees) and extend the electoral franchise. The following year, the Imperial Parliament granted Victoria responsible government with the passage of the Colony of Victoria Act 1855. Some of the leaders of the Eureka rebellion went on to become members of the Victorian Parliament.

In 1857, reflecting the growing presence of Irish Catholic immigrants, John O'Shanassy became the colony's second Premier with the former Young Irelander, Charles Gavan Duffy as his deputy. Melbourne's Protestant establishment was ill-prepared "to countenance so startling a novelty".[32] In 1858–59, Melbourne Punch cartoons linked Duffy and O'Shanassy to the terrors of the French Revolution.[33]

In 1862 Duffy's Land Act attempted, but failed, through a system of extended pastoral licences, to break the land-holding monopoly of the so-called "squatter" class.[34] In 1871, having led, on behalf of small farmers, opposition to Premier Sir James McCulloch's land tax, Duffy, himself, was briefly Premier.

In 1893 widespread bank failures brought to an end a sustained period of prosperity and of increasingly wild speculation in land and construction. Melbourne nonetheless retained, as the legacy of the gold rush, its status as Australia's primary financial centre and largest city.

In 1901, Victoria became a state in the Commonwealth of Australia. While Canberra was being built, Melbourne served until 1927 as country's first federal capital.[35]

Geography Edit

Victoria's northern border follows a straight line from Cape Howe to the start of the Murray River and then follows the Murray River as the remainder of the northern border. On the Murray River, the border is the southern bank of the river. This precise definition was not established until 1980, when a ruling by Justice Ninian Stephen of the High Court of Australia settled the question as to which state had jurisdiction in the unlawful death of a man on an island in the middle of the river. The ruling clarified that no part of the watercourse is in Victoria.[36][37] The border also rests at the southern end of the Great Dividing Range, which stretches along the east coast and terminates west of Ballarat. It is bordered by South Australia to the west and shares Australia's shortest land border with Tasmania. The official border between Victoria and Tasmania is at 39°12' S, which passes through Boundary Islet in the Bass Strait for 85 metres.[38][39][40]

Victoria contains many topographically, geologically and climatically diverse areas, ranging from the wet, temperate climate of Gippsland in the southeast to the snow-covered Victorian alpine areas which rise to almost 2,000 m (6,600 ft), with Mount Bogong the highest peak at 1,986 m (6,516 ft). There are extensive semi-arid plains to the west and northwest. There is an extensive series of river systems in Victoria. Most notable is the Murray River system. Other rivers include: Ovens River, Goulburn River, Patterson River, King River, Campaspe River, Loddon River, Wimmera River, Elgin River, Barwon River, Thomson River, Snowy River, Latrobe River, Yarra River, Maribyrnong River, Mitta River, Hopkins River, Merri River and Kiewa River. The state symbols include the pink heath (state flower), Leadbeater's possum (state animal) and the helmeted honeyeater (state bird). Ecological communities include Victorian Volcanic Plain grasslands, Northern Plains Grassland and Gippsland Plains Grassy Woodland, all of which are critically endangered.[41]

According to Geoscience Australia, the geographic centre of Victoria is located in Mandurang at 36° 51' 15"S, 144° 16' 52" E. The small rural locality is located 10 km (6 mi) south of Bendigo. Due to its central location and the region's historical ties to the gold rush, the town is widely regarded as the "Heart of Gold".

The state's capital, Melbourne, contains about 70% of the state's population and dominates its economy, media, and culture. For other cities and towns, see list of localities (Victoria) and local government areas of Victoria.


Regions Edit

 
Greater Melbourne at night from the International Space Station

Victoria is divided into distinct geographic regions, most commonly for the purposes of economic development, while others for land management (e.g. agriculture or conservation) and for censusing (such as statistical or meteorological) or electoral purposes. Many regions have similar names and extents according to the different regionalisations, and the boundaries of regions can overlap even in popular usage.

In addition to Greater Melbourne, the Victoria State Government has divided Victoria into five regions covering all parts of the state. The five regional Victoria divisions are:[42]

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology defines regions for its own purposes, some of which share names with the economic regions, even though the exact boundaries may not correlate.[43] As of November 2014, they are:

Cities and towns Edit

This is a list of places in the Australian state of Victoria by population.

Urban centres are defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as being a population cluster of 1,000 or more people. The below figures broadly represent the populations of the contiguous built-up areas of each city.

Population by Statistical Urban Centre
Rank Urban centre Population
2006 census 2011 census 2016 census 2021 census
1 Melbourne 3,375,341 3,707,530 4,196,201 4,917,750
2 Geelong 135,965 143,921 157,103 393,216
3 Ballarat 77,766 85,936 93,761 116,201
4 Bendigo 75,420 82,795 92,384 103,034
5 Melton 35,194 45,625 54,455 N/A
6 Mildura 30,761 31,363 33,445 56,972
7 Shepparton - Mooroopna 38,247 42,742 46,194 68,409
- Pakenham 18,621 32,913 46,421 54,118
8 Wodonga 29,538 31,605 35,131 43,253
9 Sunbury 29,071 33,062 34,425 38,851
10 Warrnambool 28,015 29,286 30,707 35,406
11 Traralgon 21,474 24,590 25,482 26,907
12 Wangaratta 16,732 17,376 18,567 29,808
13 Ocean Grove - Barwon Heads 13,701 16,091 18,208 19,394
14 Bacchus Marsh 13,046 14,914 17,303 24,717
15 Torquay - Jan Juc 9,463[N 1] 13,336 16,942 18,534
16 Horsham 13,945 15,261 15,630 20,429
17 Moe - Newborough 15,159 15,293 15,062 16 844
18 Warragul 11,333 13,081 14,274 23,051
19 Morwell 13,399 13,689 13,540 14,432
20 Sale 13,090 12,764 13,507 15,472

Climate Edit

 
Köppen climate types in Victoria
Average monthly maximum
temperatures in Victoria
Month Melbourne
°C (°F)
Mildura
°C (°F)
January 25.8 (78) 32.8 (91)
February 25.8 (78) 32.7 (91)
March 23.8 (75) 29.3 (85)
April 20.2 (68) 24.1 (75)
May 16.6 (62) 19.6 (67)
June 14.0 (57) 16.0 (61)
July 13.4 (56) 15.4 (60)
August 14.9 (59) 17.7 (64)
September 17.2 (63) 21.1 (70)
October 19.6 (67) 25.0 (77)
November 21.8 (71) 29.0 (84)
December 24.1 (75) 31.7 (89)
Source: Bureau of Meteorology

Victoria has a varied climate despite its small size. It ranges from semi-arid temperate with hot summers in the north-west, to temperate and cool along the coast. Victoria's main land feature, the Great Dividing Range, produces a cooler, mountain climate in the centre of the state. Winters along the coast of the state, particularly around Melbourne, are relatively mild (see chart at right).

The coastal plain south of the Great Dividing Range has Victoria's mildest climate. Air from the Southern Ocean helps reduce the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Melbourne and other large cities are located in this temperate region.

The Mallee and upper Wimmera are Victoria's warmest regions with hot winds blowing from nearby semi-deserts. Average temperatures exceed 32 °C (90 °F) during summer and 15 °C (59 °F) in winter. Except at cool mountain elevations, the inland monthly temperatures are 2–7 °C (4–13 °F) warmer than around Melbourne (see chart). Victoria's highest maximum temperature of 48.8 °C (119.8 °F) was recorded in Hopetoun on 7 February 2009, during the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave.[44]

The Victorian Alps in the northeast are the coldest part of Victoria. The Alps are part of the Great Dividing Range mountain system extending east–west through the centre of Victoria. Average temperatures are less than 9 °C (48 °F) in winter and below 0 °C (32 °F) in the highest parts of the ranges. The state's lowest minimum temperature of −11.7 °C (10.9 °F) was recorded at Omeo on 15 June 1965, and again at Falls Creek on 3 July 1970.[44] Temperature extremes for the state are listed in the table below:

Climate data for Victoria
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 47.2
(117.0)
48.8
(119.8)
44.4
(111.9)
39.3
(102.7)
32.2
(90.0)
25.7
(78.3)
27.1
(80.8)
29.9
(85.8)
37.7
(99.9)
40.2
(104.4)
45.8
(114.4)
46.6
(115.9)
48.8
(119.8)
Record low °C (°F) −3.9
(25.0)
−3.9
(25.0)
−4.3
(24.3)
−8.2
(17.2)
−8.3
(17.1)
−11.7
(10.9)
−11.7
(10.9)
−10.5
(13.1)
−9.4
(15.1)
−8.4
(16.9)
−7.0
(19.4)
−5.2
(22.6)
−11.7
(10.9)
Source: Bureau of Meteorology[45]

Rainfall Edit

Rainfall in Victoria increases from south to the northeast, with higher averages in areas of high altitude. Mean annual rainfall exceeds 1,800 millimetres (71 inches) in some parts of the northeast but is less than 280 mm (11 in) in the Mallee.

Rain is heaviest in the Otway Ranges and Gippsland in southern Victoria and in the mountainous northeast. Snow generally falls only in the mountains and hills in the centre of the state. Rain falls most frequently in winter, but summer precipitation is heavier. Rainfall is most reliable in Gippsland and the Western District, making them both leading farming areas. Victoria's highest recorded daily rainfall was 377.8 mm (14.87 in) at Tidal River in Wilsons Promontory National Park on 23 March 2011.[44]

Source: Bureau of Meteorology, Department of Primary Industries, Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Demographics Edit

 
The estimated resident population since 1981
Population growth
estimates for Victoria
Year Population
estimate
2007 5,087,000
2011 5,500,000
2016 6,000,000
2021 6,400,000
2026 6,800,000
2031 7,300,000
Source: Dept of Planning and
Community Development
 
Melbourne, the state capital, is home to more than three in four Victorians.
 
Chinatown, Melbourne. 2.7% of the Victorian population was born in China, 6.7% of the Victorian population is of Chinese ancestry, and 3.2% of the Victorian population speaks Mandarin at home

At June 2022 Victoria had a population of 6,613,700.[3] The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that the population may well reach 7.2 million by 2050.

Victoria's founding Anglo-Celtic population has been supplemented by successive waves of migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia and, most recently, Africa and the Middle East. Victoria's population is ageing in proportion with the average of the remainder of the Australian population.

About 72% of Victorians are Australian-born. This figure falls to around 66% in Melbourne but rises to higher than 95% in some rural areas in the north west of the state. Less than 1% of Victorians identify themselves as Aboriginal.

More than 75% of Victorians live in Melbourne, located in the state's south. The greater Melbourne metropolitan area is home to an estimated 4,850,740 people.[46] Urban centres outside Melbourne include Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Mildura, Warrnambool, Wodonga and the Latrobe Valley.

Victoria is Australia's most urbanised state: nearly 90% of residents living in cities and towns. State Government efforts to decentralise population have included an official campaign run since 2003 to encourage Victorians to settle in regional areas,[47] however Melbourne continues to rapidly outpace these areas in terms of population growth.[48]

Ancestry and immigration Edit

Country of Birth (2016)[10]
Birthplace[N 2] Population
Australia 3,845,493
England 171,443
India 169,802
Mainland China 160,652
New Zealand 93,253
Vietnam 80,253
Italy 70,527
Sri Lanka 55,830
Philippines 51,290
Malaysia 50,049
Greece 47,240

At the 2016 census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:[N 3][10][49]

0.8% of the population, or 47,788 people, identified as Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders) in 2016.[N 5][10][49]

At the 2016 census, 64.9% of residents were born in Australia. The other most common countries of birth were England (2.9%), India (2.9%), Mainland China (2.7%), New Zealand (1.6%) and Vietnam (1.4%).[10][49]

Language Edit

As of the 2016 census, 72.2% of Victorians speak English at home. Speakers of other languages include Mandarin (3.2%), Italian (1.9%), Greek (1.9%), Vietnamese (1.7%), and Arabic (1.3%).[10][49]

Religion Edit

In the 2016 Census, 47.9% of Victorians described themselves as Christian, 10.6% stated that they followed other religions and 32.1% stated that they had no religion or held secular or other spiritual beliefs.[51] In the survey, 31.7% of Victorians stated they had no religion, Roman Catholics were 23.2%, 9.4% did not answer the question, 9% were Anglican and 3.5% were Eastern Orthodox.[52]

In 2017 the proportion of couples marrying in a civil ceremony in Victoria was 77.3%; the other 22.7% were married in a religious ceremony.[53]

Age structure and fertility Edit

The government predicts that nearly a quarter of Victorians will be aged over 60 by 2021. The 2016 census revealed that Australian median age has crept upward from 35 to 37 since 2001, which reflects the population growth peak of 1969–72.[54] In 2017, Victoria recorded a TFR of 1.724.[55]

Average demographic Edit

The "average Victorian" according to the demographic statistics may be described as follows: [56]

2016 Victorian Census
Median Age 37
Sex (Mode) Female
Country of Birth of Person (Mode) Australia
Country of Birth of Parents (Mode) At least one parent born overseas
Language Spoken at Home (Mode) English
Ancestry 1st Response (Mode) English
Social Marital Status (Mode) Married in a registered marriage
Family Composition (Mode) Couple family with children
Count of All Children in Family (Mode) Two children in family
Highest Year of School Completed (Mode) Year 12 or equivalent
Unpaid Domestic Work: Number of Hours (Mode) 5 to 14 hours
Number of Motor Vehicles (Mode) Two vehicles
Number of Bedrooms in Private Dwelling (Mode) Three bedrooms
Tenure Type (Dwelling Count) (Mode) Owned with a mortgage

Crime Edit

In the year ending September 2020, the statistics were skewed by the introduction of six new public safety offences relating to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.[57] Total offences numbered 551,710, with 32,713 of these were breaches of Chief Health Officer Directions. The total offences occurred at a rate of 8,227 per 100,000 people, up 4.4% on the previous year. While there have been some dips along the way, the rate of recorded offences have increased year on year since 2011, when the figure was 6,937.7 offences per 100,000 people.[58]

Criminal offences recorded in Victoria 2010–14[59]
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Number of offences 378,082 386,061 423,555 437,409 456,381

Government Edit

 
The Victorian Parliament House, built in 1856, stands in Spring Street, Melbourne. The building was intended to be finished with a dome, but was not completed due to budget constraints.
 
The Legislative Council Chamber, as photographed in 1878
 
One of many local government seats, Geelong Town Hall

Parliament Edit

Victoria has a parliamentary form of government based on the Westminster System. Legislative power resides in the Parliament consisting of the Governor (the representative of the King), the executive (the Government), and two legislative chambers. The Parliament of Victoria consists of the lower house Legislative Assembly, the upper house Legislative Council and the monarch of Australia.

Eighty-eight members of the Legislative Assembly are elected to four-year terms from single-member electorates.

In November 2006, the Victorian Legislative Council elections were held under a new multi-member proportional representation system. The State of Victoria was divided into eight electorates with each electorate represented by five representatives elected by Single Transferable Vote. The total number of upper house members was reduced from 44 to 40 and their term of office is now the same as the lower house members—four years. Elections for the Victorian Parliament are now fixed and occur in November every four years. Prior to the 2006 election, the Legislative Council consisted of 44 members elected to eight-year terms from 22 two-member electorates.

Party Legislative Assembly Legislative Council
Labor 56 15
Liberal 19 12
National 9 2
Greens 4 4
Others 0 7

Premier and cabinet Edit

The Premier of Victoria is the leader of the political party or coalition with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Premier is the public face of government and, with cabinet, sets the legislative and political agenda. Cabinet consists of representatives elected to either house of parliament. It is responsible for managing areas of government that are not exclusively vested in the Commonwealth, by the Australian Constitution, such as education, health and law enforcement. The current Premier of Victoria is Daniel Andrews.

Governor Edit

Executive authority is vested in the Governor of Victoria who represents and is appointed by the monarch of Australia. The post is usually filled by a retired prominent Victorian. The governor acts on the advice of the premier and cabinet. The current Governor of Victoria is Margaret Gardner.

Constitution Edit

Victoria has a written constitution enacted in 1975,[60] but based on the 1855 colonial constitution, passed by the United Kingdom Parliament as the Victoria Constitution Act 1855, which establishes the Parliament as the state's law-making body for matters coming under state responsibility. The Victorian Constitution can be amended by the Parliament of Victoria, except for certain "entrenched" provisions that require either an absolute majority in both houses, a three-fifths majority in both houses, or the approval of the Victorian people in a referendum, depending on the provision.

Politics Edit

Victorians, and Melburnians in particular, are considered by some analysts to be more progressive than other Australians.[61] The state recorded the highest Yes votes of any state in the republic referendum and same-sex marriage survey. Victorians are said to be "generally socially progressive, supportive of multiculturalism, wary of extremes of any kind".[62]

Premier Daniel Andrews leads the Australian Labor Party that won the November 2014 Victorian state election.

The centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP), the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia, the rural-based National Party of Australia, and the left-wing environmentalist Australian Greens are Victoria's main political parties. Traditionally, Labor is strongest in Melbourne's working and middle class western, northern and inner-city suburbs, and the regional cities of Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. The Liberals' main support lies in Melbourne's more affluent eastern suburbs and outer suburbs, and some rural and regional centres. The Nationals are strongest in Victoria's North Western and Eastern rural regional areas. The Greens, who won their first lower house seats in 2014, are strongest in inner Melbourne.

Federal government Edit

Victorian voters elect 50 representatives to the Parliament of Australia, including 38 members of the House of Representatives and 12 members of the Senate. Since 1 April 2023, the ALP hold 25 Victorian house seats, the Liberals 10, the Nationals three, the Greens one, and independents the remaining three. The ALP and the Liberals hold four senate seats each, while the Nationals, Greens, UAP and an independent hold one seat each.

Local government Edit

Victoria is incorporated into 79 municipalities for the purposes of local government, including 39 shires, 32 cities, seven rural cities and one borough. Shire and city councils are responsible for functions delegated by the Victorian parliament, such as city planning, road infrastructure and waste management. Council revenue comes mostly from property taxes and government grants.[63]

Education Edit

Primary and secondary Edit

 
Camberwell High School, a public secondary school in Victoria
 
The University of Melbourne, ranked as one of the best universities in Australia and in the Southern Hemisphere, is Victoria's oldest university.
 
Deakin University consistently leads the state in student satisfaction, and is consistently ranked as one of the world's best young universities
 
The State Library of Victoria is the fourth most visited public library in the world.[64][65]

Victoria's state school system dates back to 1872, when the colonial government legislated to make schooling both free and compulsory. The state's public secondary school system began in 1905. Before then, only private secondary schooling was available. Today, a Victorian school education consists of seven years of primary schooling (including one preparatory year) and six years of secondary schooling.

The final years of secondary school are optional for children aged over 17. Victorian children generally begin school at age five or six. On completing secondary school, students earn the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) or Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL). Students who successfully complete their VCE also receive an ATAR, to determine university admittance.

Victorian schools are either publicly or privately funded. Public schools, also known as state or government schools, are funded and run directly by the Victoria Department of Education Department of Education and Training Victoria. Students do not pay tuition fees, but some extra costs are levied. Private fee-paying schools include parish schools run by the Roman Catholic Church and independent schools similar to British public schools. Independent schools are usually affiliated with Protestant churches. Victoria also has several private Jewish and Islamic primary and secondary schools. Private schools also receive some public funding. All schools must comply with government-set curriculum standards. In addition, Victoria has six government selective schools, Melbourne High School for boys, MacRobertson Girls' High School for girls, the coeducational schools John Monash Science School, Nossal High School and Suzanne Cory High School, and the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School. Students at these schools are exclusively admitted on the basis of an academic selective entry test.

As of February 2019, Victoria had 1,529 public schools, 496 Catholic schools and 219 independent schools. Just under 631,500 students were enrolled in public schools, and just over 357,000 in private schools. Over 58 per cent of private students attend Catholic schools. More than 552,300 students were enrolled in primary schools and more than 418,600 in secondary schools. Retention rates for the final two years of secondary school were 84.3 per cent for public school students and 91.5 per cent for private school students. Victoria has about 46,523 full-time teachers.[66]

Tertiary education Edit

Victoria has nine universities. The first to offer degrees, the University of Melbourne, enrolled its first student in 1855. The largest, Monash University, has an enrolment of over 83,000 students—more than any other Australian university.[67]

The number of students enrolled in Victorian universities was 418,447 in 2018, an increase of 5.3% on the previous year. International students made up 40% of enrolments and account for the highest percentage of pre-paid university tuition fees.[67] The largest number of enrolments were recorded in the fields of business, administration and economics, with nearly 30% of all students, followed by arts, humanities, and social science, with 18% of enrolments.[67]

Victoria has 12 government-run institutions of technical and further education (TAFE).[68] The first vocational institution in the state was the Melbourne Mechanics' Institute (established in 1839), which is now the Melbourne Athenaeum. More than 1,000 adult education organisations are registered to provide recognised TAFE programs. In 2014, there were 443,000 students enrolled in vocational education in the state. By 2018, the number of students in the sector had dropped by 40 per cent to 265,000—a five-year low which the education department attributed to withdrawal of funding to low-quality providers and a societal shift to university education.[69]

Libraries Edit

The State Library Victoria is the State's research and reference library. It is responsible for collecting and preserving Victoria's documentary heritage and making it available through a range of services and programs. Material in the collection includes books, newspapers, magazines, journals, manuscripts, maps, pictures, objects, sound and video recordings and databases.

In addition, local governments maintain local lending libraries, typically with multiple branches in their respective municipal areas.

Economy Edit

Victorian production and
workers by economic activities
Economic
sector
GSP
produced[70]
Number of
workers ('000s)
Percentage
of workers
Finance, insurance
services
12.8% 115.5 3.8%
Professional,
technical services
9.1% 274.3 9.0%
Manufacturing 8.6% 274.4 9.0%
Health Care,
social services
8.5% 390.6 12.8%
Construction 7.7% 255.7 6.4%
Education 6.7% 257.7 8.5%
Retail Trade 6.0% 310.6 10.2%
Transport Services 5.7% 165.4 5.4%
Wholesale Trade 5.6% 113.4 3.7%
Public
Administration
5.0% 146.5 4.8%
Communications
and IT
3.9% 57.0 1.9%
Real Estate 3.7% 43.6 1.4%
Administrative
services
3.3% 119.0 3.9%
Accommodation and
food services
2.9% 209.9 6.9%
Agriculture, forestry
and fishing
2.8% 86.1 2.8%
Utilities 2.4% 39.4 1.3%
Mining 2.0% 11.0 0.4%
Arts and
recreation
1.1% 63.2 2.1%
Other Services 115.1 3.8%
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics. GSP as of June 2016. Employment as of Aug 2016.

The state of Victoria is the second largest economy in Australia after New South Wales, accounting for a quarter of the nation's gross domestic product. The total gross state product (GSP) at current prices for Victoria was A$459 billion in June 2020, with a GSP per capita of A$68,996.[4]

Finance and insurance is Victoria's largest income producing sector, while the health care and social assistance sector is the state's biggest employer. The shift towards service industries in the preceding decades has seen manufacturing lose its mantle as Victoria's largest employer and income producer.

Agriculture Edit

 
Victoria's stand at the Paris Exhibition Universal of 1867, showing bales of wool

During 2003–04, the gross value of Victorian agricultural production increased by 17% to $8.7 billion. This represented 24% of national agricultural production total gross value. As of 2004, an estimated 32,463 farms occupied around 136,000 square kilometres (53,000 sq mi) of Victorian land. This comprises more than 60% of the state's total land surface. Victorian farms range from small horticultural outfits to large-scale livestock and grain productions. A quarter of farmland is used to grow consumable crops.

More than 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 sq mi) of Victorian farmland are sown for grain, mostly in the state's west. More than 50% of this area is sown for wheat, 33% for barley and 7% for oats. A further 6,000 square kilometres (2,300 sq mi) is sown for hay. In 2003–04, Victorian farmers produced more than 3 million metric tons (3.3 million short tons) of wheat and 2 million metric tons (2.2 million short tons) of barley. Pgt standard race 126 was the most common Stem Rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici) race here from 1929 to 1941, as it was for the whole of Australia.[71] First detected on Tasmania in 1954, standard race 21 was the most common race by the next year in this state, the southern part of NSW, and Tasmania.[71] Leaf Rust (P. triticina) is known to have been present here, and throughout the continent, at least since European colonization.[71] P. triticina pathotype 104-2,3,(6),(7),11 was first found here in 1984 and has contributed to populations ever since.[71] It is considered to be foreign to Australia due to a difference in pathogenicity and due to its unique Pgm2 c allele.[71]

Victorian farms produce nearly 90% of Australian pears and a third of apples. It is also a leader in stone fruit (Prunus) production. The main vegetable crops include asparagus, broccoli, carrots, potatoes and tomatoes. Last year, 121,200 metric tons (133,600 short tons) of pears and 270,000 metric tons (300,000 short tons) of tomatoes were produced.

More than 14 million sheep and 5 million lambs graze over 10% of Victorian farms, mostly in the state's north and west. In 2004, nearly 10 million lambs and sheep were slaughtered for local consumption and export. Victoria also exports live sheep to the Middle East for meat and to the rest of the world for breeding. More than 108,000 metric tons (119,000 short tons) of wool clip was also produced—one-fifth of the Australian total.

Victoria is the centre of dairy farming in Australia. It is home to 60% of Australia's 3 million dairy cattle and produces nearly two-thirds of the nation's milk, almost 6.4 billion litres (1.7 billion US gallons). The state also has 2.4 million beef cattle, with more than 2.2 million cattle and calves slaughtered each year. In 2003–04, Victorian commercial fishing crews and aquaculture industry produced 11,634 metric tons (12,824 short tons) of seafood valued at nearly A$109 million. Blacklipped abalone is the mainstay of the catch, bringing in A$46 million, followed by southern rock lobster worth A$13.7 million. Most abalone and rock lobster is exported to Asia.

As of 2022 there are almost 100 strawberry farms here, most close to Melbourne CBD in the Yarra Valley.[72] They are represented by the Victorian Strawberries organization.[72] They recommend[73] varieties for production here.

Most of Australia – including this state – imposed a moratorium on GM canola in 2003 to consider the positives and negatives.[74] After consideration the ban here was lifted in 2008 and the state's produced a review of the effects of the moratorium and the expected economic and other effects of adoption or failure to adopt GM canola.[74] The government finds a benefit of AUS$45 per hectare ($18/acre)/season over conventional.[74]

Manufacturing Edit

Victoria has a diverse range of manufacturing enterprises and Melbourne is considered Australia's most important industrial city. The post-World War II manufacturing boom was fuelled by international investment; attracted to the state by the availability of cheap land close to the city and inexpensive energy from the Latrobe Valley. Victoria produced 26.4% of total manufacturing output in Australia in 2015–16, behind New South Wales at 32.4%.

Machinery and equipment manufacturing is the state's most valuable manufacturing activity, followed by food and beverage products, petrochemicals and chemicals. Prominent manufacturing plants in the state include the Portland and Point Henry aluminium smelters, owned by Alcoa; Geelong and Altona oil refineries; a major petrochemical facility at Laverton; and Victorian-based CSL, a global biotechnology company that produces vaccines and plasma products, among others. Victoria also plays an important role in providing goods for the defence industry.

Victoria proportionally relies on manufacturing more than any other state in Australia, constituting 8.6% of total state product; slightly higher than South Australia at 8.0%. However, this proportion has been declining for three decades; in 1990 at the time of the early 1990s recession manufacturing constituted 20.3% of total state output. Manufacturing output peaked in absolute terms in 2008, reaching $28.8 billion and has slowly fallen over the decade to $26.8 billion in 2016 (−0.77% per annum). Since 1990, manufacturing employment has also fallen in both aggregate (367,700 to 274,400 workers) and proportional (17.8% to 9.0%) terms. The strong Australian dollar as a result of the 2000s mining boom, small population and isolation, high wage base and the general shift of manufacturing production towards developing countries have been cited as some of the reasons for this decline.

Historically, Victoria has been a hub for the manufacturing plants of the major car brands Ford, Toyota and Holden; however, closure announcements by all three companies in the 2010s has meant Australia will completely lose their car manufacturing industry by the end of 2017. Holden's announcement occurred in May 2013 following Ford's decision in December the previous year (Ford's Victorian plants, in Broadmeadows and Geelong, closed in October 2016).[75][76] Toyota followed suit in February 2014 with an expected announcement as without Holden or Ford, local supply chains would struggle to create the economics of scale required to supply one manufacturer.[77]

Land Edit

Victoria adopted the Torrens system of land registration with the Real Property Act 1862.[78] The Torrens system did not replace the common law system but applied only to new land grants and to land that has been voluntarily registered under the Act, and its successors. The common law system continues to apply to all other private landholdings. Crown land held in Victoria is managed under the Crown Land (Reserves) Act 1978 and the Land Act 1958.

Mining Edit

 
Yallourn Power Station in the Latrobe Valley

Mining in Victoria contributes around A$6 billion to the gross state product (~2%) but employs less than 1% of workers. The Victorian mining industry is concentrated on energy producing minerals, with brown coal, petroleum and gas accounting for nearly 90% of local production. The oil and gas industries are centred off the coast of Gippsland in the state's east, while brown coal mining and power generation is based in the Latrobe Valley.

In the 2005–06 fiscal year, the average gas production was over 700 million cubic feet (20,000,000 m3) per day (M cuft/d) and represented 18% of the total national gas sales, with demand growing at 2% per year.[79]

In 1985, oil production from the offshore Gippsland Basin peaked to an annual average of 450,000 barrels (72,000 m3) per day. In 2005–2006, the average daily oil production has declined to 83,000 bbl (13,200 m3)/d, but despite the decline Victoria still produces almost 19.5% of crude oil in Australia.[79]

Brown coal is Victoria's leading mineral, with 66 million tonnes mined each year for electricity generation in the Latrobe Valley, Gippsland.[80] The region is home to the world's largest known reserves of brown coal.

Despite being the historic centre of Australia's gold rush, Victoria today contributes a mere 1% of national gold production. Victoria also produces limited amounts of gypsum and kaolin.

Service industry Edit

The service industries sector is the fastest growing component of the Victorian economy. It includes the wide range of activities generally classified as financial and professional services; health care and social assistance, education, transportation, IT and communication services, government services and wholesale and retail trade. Most service industries are located in Melbourne and the state's larger regional centres.

As of 2015–16, service industries employed over three-quarters of Victorian workers and more than three-quarters of the state's GSP. Finance and insurance as a group provide more value-add to the economy than any other economic activity in Victoria while health care and social assistance employ the most workers.

Tourism Edit

Some major tourist destinations in Victoria are:

Other popular tourism activities are gliding, hang-gliding, hot air ballooning and scuba diving.

Major events that explore cultural diversity, music and sports play a big part in Victoria's tourism. The V8 Supercars and Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island, the Grand Annual Steeplechase at Warrnambool and the Australian International Airshow at Avalon and numerous local festivals such as the popular Port Fairy Folk Festival, Queenscliff Music Festival, Pako Festa in Geelong West, Bells Beach Surf Classic and the Bright Autumn Festival amongst others.

Transport Edit

 
Two E-Class trams on Bourke St on the Melbourne tram network.

Victoria has the highest population density in any state in Australia, with population centres spread out over most of the state; only the far northwest and the Victorian Alps lack permanent settlement.

The Victorian road network services the population centres, with highways generally radiating from Melbourne and other major cities and rural centres with secondary roads interconnecting the highways to each other. Many of the highways are built to freeway standard ("M" freeways), while most are generally sealed and of reasonable quality.

 
A V/Line train at Ballarat station.

Rail transport in Victoria is provided by several private and public railway operators who operate over government-owned lines. Major operators include: Metro Trains Melbourne which runs an extensive, electrified, passenger system throughout Melbourne and suburbs; V/Line which is now owned by the Victorian Government, operates a concentrated service to major regional centres, as well as long-distance services on other lines; Pacific National, CFCL Australia which operate freight services; Great Southern Rail which operates The Overland Melbourne—Adelaide; and NSW TrainLink which operates XPTs Melbourne—Sydney.

There are also several smaller freight operators and numerous tourist railways operating over lines which were once parts of a state-owned system. Victorian lines mainly use the 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge. However, the interstate trunk routes, as well as a number of freight lines in the north and west of the state have been converted to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+12 in) standard gauge. Two tourist railways operate over 760 mm (2 ft 6 in) narrow gauge lines, which are the remnants of five formerly government-owned lines which were built in mountainous areas.

Melbourne has the world's largest tram network,[82] currently operated by Yarra Trams. As well as being a popular form of public transport, over the last few decades trams have become one of Melbourne's major tourist attractions. There are also tourist trams operating over portions of the former Ballarat and Bendigo systems. There are also tramway museums at Bylands and Haddon.

Melbourne Airport is the major domestic and international gateway for the state. Avalon Airport is the state's second busiest airport, which complements Essendon and Moorabbin Airports to see the remainder of Melbourne's air traffic. Hamilton Airport, Mildura Airport, Mount Hotham and Portland Airport are the remaining airports with scheduled domestic flights. There are no fewer than 27 other airports in the state with no scheduled flights.

The Port of Melbourne is the largest port for containerised and general cargo in Australia,[83] and is located in Melbourne on the mouth of the Yarra River, which is at the head of Port Phillip. Additional seaports are at Westernport, Geelong, and Portland.

As of October 2013, smoking tobacco is prohibited in the sheltered areas of train stations, and tram and bus stops—between 2012 and 2013, 2002 people were issued with infringement notices. The state government announced a plan in October 2013 to prohibit smoking on all Victorian railway station platforms and raised tram stops.[84]

 
A High Capacity Metro Train on the Melbourne metropolitan train network operated by Metro Trains Melbourne. The trains have been introduced as part of the Metro Tunnel project.
 
A VLocity train at Flinders Street station. V/Line is a government-owned train and coach service provider in Victoria, providing inter-city services to a number of regional cities in the state.

Utilities Edit

Energy Edit

Victoria's major utilities include a collection of brown-coal-fired power stations, particularly in the Latrobe Valley. One of these was the recently decommissioned Hazelwood Power Station, which was number 1 on the worldwide List of least carbon efficient power stations. The Victorian government is aiming to cut 40.6 mega tonnes of greenhouse gases emissions by 2025.[85][86]

Water Edit

Victoria's water infrastructure includes a series of dams and reservoirs, predominantly in Central Victoria, that hold and collect water for much of the state. The water collected is of a very high quality and requires little chlorination treatment, giving the water a taste more like water collected in a rainwater tank. In regional areas however, such as in the west of the state, chlorination levels are much higher.

The Victorian Water Grid consists of a number of new connections and pipelines being built across the State. This allows water to be moved around Victoria to where it is needed most and reduces the impact of localised droughts in an era thought to be influenced by climate change. Major projects already completed as part of the Grid include the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline and the Goldfields Superpipe.[87]

Sport Edit

 
Statue outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground commemorating the origins of Australian rules football
 
Panorama of the MCG during the AFL Grand Final on 30 September 2017

Victoria is the home of Australian rules football, with ten of the 18 Australian Football League (AFL) clubs based in the state. The AFL Grand Final is traditionally held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the last Saturday of September. The state has a public holiday the day before the Grand Final, which coincides with the AFL Grand Final parade.

The Victorian cricket team play in the national Sheffield Shield cricket competition. Victoria is represented in the National Rugby League by the Melbourne Storm and in Super Rugby by the Melbourne Rebels. It is represented in the National Basketball League by Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix. It is also represented in soccer by Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City and Western United in the A-League.

Melbourne has held the 1956 Summer Olympics, 2006 Commonwealth Games and the FINA World Swimming Championship.

Melbourne is also home to the Australian Open tennis tournament in January each year, which is the first of the world's four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, as well as the Formula One Australian Grand Prix, which is, on an annual basis, usually held in March or April. It hosted the Australian Masters golf tournament from 1979 to 2015.

Victoria's Bells Beach hosts one of the world's longest-running surfing competition, the Bells Beach SurfClassic, which is part of The ASP World Tour.

The Melbourne Vixens and Collingwood Magpies Netball represent Victoria in the National Netball League.

Victoria's Phillip Island is home of the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit which hosts the Australian motorcycle Grand Prix which features MotoGP (the world's premier motorcycling class), as well as the Australian round of the World Superbike Championship and the domestic V8 Supercar racing, which also visits Sandown Raceway and the rural Winton Motor Raceway circuit.

Australia's most prestigious footrace, the Stawell Gift, is an annual event.

Victoria is also home to the Aussie Millions poker tournament, the tournament with the highest potential proceeds in the Southern Hemisphere.

The main horse racing tracks in Victoria are Caulfield Racecourse, Flemington Racecourse and Sandown Racecourse. The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival is one of the biggest horse racing events in the world and is one of the world's largest sporting events. The main race is for the $6 million Melbourne Cup, and crowds for the carnival usually exceed 700,000.

Victoria was due to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games but withdrew on 18 July 2023 as a result of increased costs of holding the event.[88][89]

Major professional teams include:

Sister states Edit

Victoria has four sister states:[90]

See also Edit

Notes Edit

  1. ^ This figure is for Torquay only
  2. ^ In accordance with the Australian Bureau of Statistics source, England, Scotland, Mainland China and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau are listed separately
  3. ^ As a percentage of 5,533,099 persons who nominated their ancestry at the 2016 census.
  4. ^ The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most who nominate "Australian" as their ancestry are part of the Anglo-Celtic group.[50]
  5. ^ Of any ancestry. Includes those identifying as Aboriginal Australians or Torres Strait Islanders. Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry.

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Further reading Edit

Victorian frontier history Edit

  • Jan Critchett (1990), A distant field of murder: Western district frontiers, 1834–1848, Melbourne University Press (Carlton, Vic. and Portland, Or.) ISBN 0522843891.
  • Ian D Clark (1990), Aboriginal languages and clans: An historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800–1900, Dept. of Geography & Environmental Science, Monash University (Melbourne), ISBN 0-909685-41-X.
  • Ian D Clark (1995), Scars in the landscape: A register of massacre sites in western Victoria, 1803–1859, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (Canberra), ISBN 0-85575-281-5.
  • Ian D Clark (2003), "That's my country belonging to me": Aboriginal land tenure and dispossession in nineteenth century Western Victoria, Ballarat Heritage Services, Ballarat.

External links Edit

  • Official website of Victorian Government
  • Official Government tourism website
  • Victorian Places website
  • Tourism Victoria's Online Image Library
  • Victoria's Households Schemes
  • Properties for Sale in Mornington Peninsula
  •   Geographic data related to Victoria (state) at OpenStreetMap

victoria, state, this, article, about, australian, state, other, places, named, victoria, victoria, disambiguation, places, victoria, state, southeastern, australia, second, smallest, state, with, land, area, second, most, populated, state, after, south, wales. This article is about the Australian state For other places named Victoria see Victoria disambiguation Places Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia It is the second smallest state with a land area of 227 444 km2 87 817 sq mi the second most populated state after New South Wales with a population of over 6 7 million 3 and the most densely populated state 9 in Australia 29 per km2 Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north and South Australia to the west and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south with the exception of a small land border with Tasmania located along Boundary Islet the Great Australian Bight portion of the Southern Ocean to the southwest and the Tasman Sea a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean to the southeast The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the northeast and the semi arid north west VictoriaStateFlagCoat of armsNickname s The Garden State 1 Motto Peace and ProsperityLocation of Victoria in Australia37 S 144 E 37 S 144 E 37 144CountryAustraliaBefore federationColony of VictoriaEstablishment1 July 1851 2 Responsible government23 November 1855Federation1 January 1901Named forQueen VictoriaCapitaland largest cityMelbourneAdministration79 local government areasDemonym s VictorianGovernment MonarchCharles III GovernorMargaret Gardner PremierDaniel Andrews ALP LegislatureParliament of Victoria Upper houseLegislative Council Lower houseLegislative AssemblyJudiciarySupreme Court of VictoriaParliament of Australia Senate12 senators of 76 House of Representatives39 seats of 151 Area Total237 657 km2 91 760 sq mi 6th Land227 444 km2 87 817 sq mi Water10 213 km2 3 943 sq mi Highest elevation Mount Bogong 1 986 m 6 516 ft Population December 2022 estimate6 704 300 3 2nd Density29 km2 75 1 sq mi 2nd GSP2020 estimate TotalAU 458 895 billion 4 2nd Per capitaAU 68 996 6th HDI 2021 0 948 5 very high 4thTime zoneUTC 10 00 AEST Summer DST UTC 11 00 AEDT Postal abbreviationVICISO 3166 codeAU VICSymbolsBirdHelmeted honeyeater Lichenostomus melanops cassidix FishWeedy seadragon Phyllopteryx taeniolatus FlowerCommon heath 6 Epacris impressa MammalLeadbeater s possum Gymnobelideus leadbeateri Colour s Navy blue and silver 7 MineralGold 8 Websitevic wbr gov wbr auThe majority of the Victorian population is concentrated in the central south area surrounding Port Phillip and in particular within the metropolitan area of Greater Melbourne Victoria s state capital and largest city and also Australia s second largest city where over three quarters of the Victorian population live The state is home to four of Australia s 20 largest cities Melbourne Geelong Ballarat and Bendigo The population is culturally diverse with 35 1 of inhabitants being immigrants 10 Victoria is home to numerous Aboriginal groups including the Boonwurrung the Bratauolung the Djadjawurrung the Gunai the Gunditjmara the Taungurung the Wathaurong the Wurundjeri and the Yorta Yorta 11 There were more than 30 Aboriginal languages spoken in the area prior to European colonisation In 1770 James Cook claimed the east coast of the Australian continent for the Kingdom of Great Britain and from 1788 the area that is now Victoria was a part of the colony of New South Wales The first European settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay Much of what is now Victoria was included in 1836 in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales Named in honour of Queen Victoria Victoria was separated from New South Wales and established as a separate Crown colony in 1851 achieving responsible government in 1855 12 The Victorian gold rush in the 1850s and 1860s significantly increased Victoria s population and wealth By the time of Australian Federation in 1901 Melbourne had become the largest city in Australasia and served as the federal capital of Australia until Canberra was opened in 1927 The state continued to grow strongly through various periods of the 20th and early 21st centuries as a result of high levels of international and interstate migration Victoria has 38 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate At state level the Parliament of Victoria consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council The Labor Party led by Daniel Andrews as premier has governed Victoria since 2014 The Governor of Victoria the representative of the Monarchy of Australia in the state is currently Margaret Gardner Victoria is divided into 79 local government areas as well as several unincorporated areas which the state administers directly Victoria s economy is the second largest among Australian states and is highly diversified with service sectors predominating Culturally Melbourne hosts a number of museums art galleries and theatres and is also described as the world s sporting capital 13 14 and the spiritual home of Australian cricket and Australian rules football 15 Contents 1 History 1 1 Indigenous Victorians 1 2 British colonisation 1 2 1 Batman s treaty 1 3 Colonial Victoria 2 Geography 2 1 Regions 2 2 Cities and towns 2 3 Climate 2 3 1 Rainfall 3 Demographics 3 1 Ancestry and immigration 3 2 Language 3 3 Religion 3 4 Age structure and fertility 3 5 Average demographic 4 Crime 5 Government 5 1 Parliament 5 2 Premier and cabinet 5 3 Governor 5 4 Constitution 5 5 Politics 5 6 Federal government 5 7 Local government 6 Education 6 1 Primary and secondary 6 2 Tertiary education 6 3 Libraries 7 Economy 7 1 Agriculture 7 2 Manufacturing 7 3 Land 7 4 Mining 7 5 Service industry 7 6 Tourism 8 Transport 9 Utilities 9 1 Energy 9 2 Water 10 Sport 11 Sister states 12 See also 13 Notes 14 References 15 Further reading 15 1 Victorian frontier history 16 External linksHistory EditMain article History of Victoria Indigenous Victorians Edit Further information Aboriginal Victorians The state of Victoria was originally home to many Aboriginal Australian nations that had occupied the land for tens of thousands of years before European settlement 16 According to Gary Presland Aboriginal people have lived in Victoria for about 40 000 years 17 living a semi nomadic existence of fishing hunting and gathering and farming eels 18 At the Keilor Archaeological Site a human hearth excavated in 1971 was radiocarbon dated to about 31 000 years BP making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia 19 A cranium found at the site has been dated at between 12 000 20 and 14 700 years BP 19 Archaeological sites in Tasmania and on the Bass Strait Islands have been dated to between 20 000 35 000 years ago when sea levels were 130 metres below present level allowing First Nations Peoples to move across the region of southern Victoria and on to the land bridge of the Bassian plain to Tasmania by at least 35 000 years ago 21 22 During the Ice Age about 20 000 years BP the area now the bay of Port Phillip would have been dry land and the Yarra and Werribee river would have joined to flow through the heads then south and south west through the Bassian plain before meeting the ocean to the west Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands became separated from mainland Australia around 12 000 BP when the sea level was approximately 50m below present levels 21 Port Phillip was flooded by post glacial rising sea levels between 8000 and 6000 years ago 21 Oral history and creation stories from the Wada wurrung Woiwurrung and Bun wurrung languages describe the flooding of the bay Hobsons Bay was once a kangaroo hunting ground Creation stories describe how Bunjil was responsible for the formation of the bay 22 or the bay was flooded when the Yarra river was created 23 British colonisation Edit Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross at the Eureka Stockade on 1 December 1854 watercolour by Charles DoudietVictoria like Queensland was named after Queen Victoria who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851 2 After the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788 Australia was divided into an eastern half named New South Wales and a western half named New Holland under the administration of the colonial government in Sydney The first British settlement in the area later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip It consisted of 402 people five government officials nine officers of marines two drummers and 39 privates five soldiers wives and a child 307 convicts 17 convicts wives and seven children 24 They had been sent from England in HMS Calcutta under the command of Captain Daniel Woodriff principally out of fear that the French who had been exploring the area might establish their own settlement and thereby challenge British rights to the continent In 1826 Colonel Stewart Captain Samuel Wright and Lieutenant Burchell were sent in HMS Fly Captain Wetherall and the brigs Dragon and Amity took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments The expedition landed at Settlement Point now Corinella on the eastern side of Western Port Bay which was the headquarters until the abandonment of Western Port at the insistence of Governor Darling about 12 months afterwards 25 26 Victoria s next settlement was at Portland on the south west coast of what is now Victoria Edward Henty settled Portland Bay in 1834 27 Batman s treaty Edit Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman who set up a base in Indented Head and John Pascoe Fawkner From settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District a separately administered part of New South Wales Shortly after the site now known as Geelong was surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W H Smythe three weeks after Melbourne And in 1838 Geelong was officially declared a town despite earlier European settlements dating back to 1826 On 6 June 1835 just under two years before Melbourne was officially recognised as a settlement John Batman the leader of the Port Phillip Association presented Wurundjeri Elders with a land use agreement This document now referred to as the Batman treaty was later given to the British government to claim that local Aboriginal people had given Batman access to their land in exchange for goods and rations Today the meaning and interpretation of this treaty is contested Some argue it was pretence for taking Aboriginal land in exchange for trinkets while others argue it was significant in that it sought to recognise Aboriginal land rights The exact location of the meeting between Batman and the Kulin Ngurungaeta head clan men with whom he made the treaty is unknown although it is believed to have been by the Merri Creek According to historian Meyer Eidelson it is generally believed to have occurred on the Merri near modern day Rushall Station 28 Colonial Victoria Edit Victoria ColonyBritish Crown Colony1851 1901 Flag 1870 1901 Coat of armsCapitalMelbourneHistoryGovernment TypeSelf governing colonyMonarch 1851 1901VictoriaGovernor 1851 1854Charles La Trobe first 1895 1900Thomas Brassey last History independence from the New South Wales colony1851 Federation of Australia1901Preceded by Succeeded by Colony of New South Wales Australia Victoria Australia On 1 July 1851 writs were issued for the election of the first Victorian Legislative Council and the absolute independence of Victoria from New South Wales was established proclaiming a new Colony of Victoria 29 Days later still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat and subsequently at Bendigo Later discoveries occurred at many sites across Victoria This triggered one of the largest gold rushes the world has ever seen The colony grew rapidly in both population and economic power In 10 years the population of Victoria increased sevenfold from 76 000 to 540 000 All sorts of gold records were produced including the richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world and the largest gold nugget In the decade 1851 1860 Victoria produced 20 million ounces of gold one third of the world s output 30 Immigrants arrived from all over the world to search for gold especially from Ireland and China 31 By 1857 26 000 Chinese miners worked in Victoria and their legacy is particularly strong in Bendigo and its environs In 1854 at Ballarat an armed rebellion against the government of Victoria was made by miners protesting against mining taxes the Eureka Stockade This was crushed by British troops but the confrontation persuaded the colonial authorities to reform the administration of mining concessions reducing the hated mining licence fees and extend the electoral franchise The following year the Imperial Parliament granted Victoria responsible government with the passage of the Colony of Victoria Act 1855 Some of the leaders of the Eureka rebellion went on to become members of the Victorian Parliament In 1857 reflecting the growing presence of Irish Catholic immigrants John O Shanassy became the colony s second Premier with the former Young Irelander Charles Gavan Duffy as his deputy Melbourne s Protestant establishment was ill prepared to countenance so startling a novelty 32 In 1858 59 Melbourne Punch cartoons linked Duffy and O Shanassy to the terrors of the French Revolution 33 In 1862 Duffy s Land Act attempted but failed through a system of extended pastoral licences to break the land holding monopoly of the so called squatter class 34 In 1871 having led on behalf of small farmers opposition to Premier Sir James McCulloch s land tax Duffy himself was briefly Premier In 1893 widespread bank failures brought to an end a sustained period of prosperity and of increasingly wild speculation in land and construction Melbourne nonetheless retained as the legacy of the gold rush its status as Australia s primary financial centre and largest city In 1901 Victoria became a state in the Commonwealth of Australia While Canberra was being built Melbourne served until 1927 as country s first federal capital 35 Geography EditMain articles Geography of Victoria and Geology of Victoria Victoria s northern border follows a straight line from Cape Howe to the start of the Murray River and then follows the Murray River as the remainder of the northern border On the Murray River the border is the southern bank of the river This precise definition was not established until 1980 when a ruling by Justice Ninian Stephen of the High Court of Australia settled the question as to which state had jurisdiction in the unlawful death of a man on an island in the middle of the river The ruling clarified that no part of the watercourse is in Victoria 36 37 The border also rests at the southern end of the Great Dividing Range which stretches along the east coast and terminates west of Ballarat It is bordered by South Australia to the west and shares Australia s shortest land border with Tasmania The official border between Victoria and Tasmania is at 39 12 S which passes through Boundary Islet in the Bass Strait for 85 metres 38 39 40 Victoria contains many topographically geologically and climatically diverse areas ranging from the wet temperate climate of Gippsland in the southeast to the snow covered Victorian alpine areas which rise to almost 2 000 m 6 600 ft with Mount Bogong the highest peak at 1 986 m 6 516 ft There are extensive semi arid plains to the west and northwest There is an extensive series of river systems in Victoria Most notable is the Murray River system Other rivers include Ovens River Goulburn River Patterson River King River Campaspe River Loddon River Wimmera River Elgin River Barwon River Thomson River Snowy River Latrobe River Yarra River Maribyrnong River Mitta River Hopkins River Merri River and Kiewa River The state symbols include the pink heath state flower Leadbeater s possum state animal and the helmeted honeyeater state bird Ecological communities include Victorian Volcanic Plain grasslands Northern Plains Grassland and Gippsland Plains Grassy Woodland all of which are critically endangered 41 According to Geoscience Australia the geographic centre of Victoria is located in Mandurang at 36 51 15 S 144 16 52 E The small rural locality is located 10 km 6 mi south of Bendigo Due to its central location and the region s historical ties to the gold rush the town is widely regarded as the Heart of Gold The state s capital Melbourne contains about 70 of the state s population and dominates its economy media and culture For other cities and towns see list of localities Victoria and local government areas of Victoria Island Archway on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria Australia Aireys Inlet Victorian cities towns settlements and road network Regions Edit Main article Regions of Victoria Greater Melbourne at night from the International Space StationVictoria is divided into distinct geographic regions most commonly for the purposes of economic development while others for land management e g agriculture or conservation and for censusing such as statistical or meteorological or electoral purposes Many regions have similar names and extents according to the different regionalisations and the boundaries of regions can overlap even in popular usage In addition to Greater Melbourne the Victoria State Government has divided Victoria into five regions covering all parts of the state The five regional Victoria divisions are 42 Barwon South West Gippsland Grampians Hume Loddon MalleeThe Australian Bureau of Meteorology defines regions for its own purposes some of which share names with the economic regions even though the exact boundaries may not correlate 43 As of November 2014 they are Mallee Wimmera Northern Country North East Victoria East Gippsland West amp South Gippsland Central Victoria North Central Victoria South West Victoria Alpine Victoria MelbourneCities and towns Edit This is a list of places in the Australian state of Victoria by population Urban centres are defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as being a population cluster of 1 000 or more people The below figures broadly represent the populations of the contiguous built up areas of each city Population by Statistical Urban Centre Rank Urban centre Population2006 census 2011 census 2016 census 2021 census1 Melbourne 3 375 341 3 707 530 4 196 201 4 917 7502 Geelong 135 965 143 921 157 103 393 2163 Ballarat 77 766 85 936 93 761 116 2014 Bendigo 75 420 82 795 92 384 103 0345 Melton 35 194 45 625 54 455 N A6 Mildura 30 761 31 363 33 445 56 9727 Shepparton Mooroopna 38 247 42 742 46 194 68 409 Pakenham 18 621 32 913 46 421 54 1188 Wodonga 29 538 31 605 35 131 43 2539 Sunbury 29 071 33 062 34 425 38 85110 Warrnambool 28 015 29 286 30 707 35 40611 Traralgon 21 474 24 590 25 482 26 90712 Wangaratta 16 732 17 376 18 567 29 80813 Ocean Grove Barwon Heads 13 701 16 091 18 208 19 39414 Bacchus Marsh 13 046 14 914 17 303 24 71715 Torquay Jan Juc 9 463 N 1 13 336 16 942 18 53416 Horsham 13 945 15 261 15 630 20 42917 Moe Newborough 15 159 15 293 15 062 16 84418 Warragul 11 333 13 081 14 274 23 05119 Morwell 13 399 13 689 13 540 14 43220 Sale 13 090 12 764 13 507 15 472Climate Edit Koppen climate types in VictoriaAverage monthly maximumtemperatures in Victoria Month Melbourne C F Mildura C F January 25 8 78 32 8 91 February 25 8 78 32 7 91 March 23 8 75 29 3 85 April 20 2 68 24 1 75 May 16 6 62 19 6 67 June 14 0 57 16 0 61 July 13 4 56 15 4 60 August 14 9 59 17 7 64 September 17 2 63 21 1 70 October 19 6 67 25 0 77 November 21 8 71 29 0 84 December 24 1 75 31 7 89 Source Bureau of MeteorologyVictoria has a varied climate despite its small size It ranges from semi arid temperate with hot summers in the north west to temperate and cool along the coast Victoria s main land feature the Great Dividing Range produces a cooler mountain climate in the centre of the state Winters along the coast of the state particularly around Melbourne are relatively mild see chart at right The coastal plain south of the Great Dividing Range has Victoria s mildest climate Air from the Southern Ocean helps reduce the heat of summer and the cold of winter Melbourne and other large cities are located in this temperate region The Mallee and upper Wimmera are Victoria s warmest regions with hot winds blowing from nearby semi deserts Average temperatures exceed 32 C 90 F during summer and 15 C 59 F in winter Except at cool mountain elevations the inland monthly temperatures are 2 7 C 4 13 F warmer than around Melbourne see chart Victoria s highest maximum temperature of 48 8 C 119 8 F was recorded in Hopetoun on 7 February 2009 during the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave 44 The Victorian Alps in the northeast are the coldest part of Victoria The Alps are part of the Great Dividing Range mountain system extending east west through the centre of Victoria Average temperatures are less than 9 C 48 F in winter and below 0 C 32 F in the highest parts of the ranges The state s lowest minimum temperature of 11 7 C 10 9 F was recorded at Omeo on 15 June 1965 and again at Falls Creek on 3 July 1970 44 Temperature extremes for the state are listed in the table below Climate data for VictoriaMonth Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec YearRecord high C F 47 2 117 0 48 8 119 8 44 4 111 9 39 3 102 7 32 2 90 0 25 7 78 3 27 1 80 8 29 9 85 8 37 7 99 9 40 2 104 4 45 8 114 4 46 6 115 9 48 8 119 8 Record low C F 3 9 25 0 3 9 25 0 4 3 24 3 8 2 17 2 8 3 17 1 11 7 10 9 11 7 10 9 10 5 13 1 9 4 15 1 8 4 16 9 7 0 19 4 5 2 22 6 11 7 10 9 Source Bureau of Meteorology 45 Rainfall Edit Rainfall in Victoria increases from south to the northeast with higher averages in areas of high altitude Mean annual rainfall exceeds 1 800 millimetres 71 inches in some parts of the northeast but is less than 280 mm 11 in in the Mallee Rain is heaviest in the Otway Ranges and Gippsland in southern Victoria and in the mountainous northeast Snow generally falls only in the mountains and hills in the centre of the state Rain falls most frequently in winter but summer precipitation is heavier Rainfall is most reliable in Gippsland and the Western District making them both leading farming areas Victoria s highest recorded daily rainfall was 377 8 mm 14 87 in at Tidal River in Wilsons Promontory National Park on 23 March 2011 44 Average temperatures and precipitation for Victoria Average January maximum temperatures Victoria s north is almost always hotter than coastal and mountainous areas Average July maximum temperatures Victoria s hills and ranges are coolest during winter Snow also falls there Average yearly precipitation Victoria s rainfall is concentrated in the mountainous north east and coast Source Bureau of Meteorology Department of Primary Industries Australian Natural Resources AtlasDemographics EditSee also Demographics of Australia The estimated resident population since 1981Population growthestimates for Victoria Year Populationestimate2007 5 087 0002011 5 500 0002016 6 000 0002021 6 400 0002026 6 800 0002031 7 300 000Source Dept of Planning andCommunity Development Melbourne the state capital is home to more than three in four Victorians Chinatown Melbourne 2 7 of the Victorian population was born in China 6 7 of the Victorian population is of Chinese ancestry and 3 2 of the Victorian population speaks Mandarin at homeAt June 2022 Victoria had a population of 6 613 700 3 The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that the population may well reach 7 2 million by 2050 Victoria s founding Anglo Celtic population has been supplemented by successive waves of migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe Asia and most recently Africa and the Middle East Victoria s population is ageing in proportion with the average of the remainder of the Australian population About 72 of Victorians are Australian born This figure falls to around 66 in Melbourne but rises to higher than 95 in some rural areas in the north west of the state Less than 1 of Victorians identify themselves as Aboriginal More than 75 of Victorians live in Melbourne located in the state s south The greater Melbourne metropolitan area is home to an estimated 4 850 740 people 46 Urban centres outside Melbourne include Geelong Ballarat Bendigo Shepparton Mildura Warrnambool Wodonga and the Latrobe Valley Victoria is Australia s most urbanised state nearly 90 of residents living in cities and towns State Government efforts to decentralise population have included an official campaign run since 2003 to encourage Victorians to settle in regional areas 47 however Melbourne continues to rapidly outpace these areas in terms of population growth 48 Ancestry and immigration Edit See also Immigration to Australia Country of Birth 2016 10 Birthplace N 2 PopulationAustralia 3 845 493England 171 443India 169 802Mainland China 160 652New Zealand 93 253Vietnam 80 253Italy 70 527Sri Lanka 55 830Philippines 51 290Malaysia 50 049Greece 47 240At the 2016 census the most commonly nominated ancestries were N 3 10 49 English 32 Australian 29 9 N 4 Irish 10 8 Scottish 8 9 Chinese 6 7 Italian 6 4 Indian 3 8 German 3 6 Greek 3 1 Vietnamese 2 Dutch 1 8 Maltese 1 3 Filipino 1 2 Polish 1 0 8 of the population or 47 788 people identified as Indigenous Australians Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders in 2016 N 5 10 49 At the 2016 census 64 9 of residents were born in Australia The other most common countries of birth were England 2 9 India 2 9 Mainland China 2 7 New Zealand 1 6 and Vietnam 1 4 10 49 Language Edit As of the 2016 census 72 2 of Victorians speak English at home Speakers of other languages include Mandarin 3 2 Italian 1 9 Greek 1 9 Vietnamese 1 7 and Arabic 1 3 10 49 Religion Edit In the 2016 Census 47 9 of Victorians described themselves as Christian 10 6 stated that they followed other religions and 32 1 stated that they had no religion or held secular or other spiritual beliefs 51 In the survey 31 7 of Victorians stated they had no religion Roman Catholics were 23 2 9 4 did not answer the question 9 were Anglican and 3 5 were Eastern Orthodox 52 In 2017 the proportion of couples marrying in a civil ceremony in Victoria was 77 3 the other 22 7 were married in a religious ceremony 53 Age structure and fertility Edit See also Birth rate and fertility rate in Australia The government predicts that nearly a quarter of Victorians will be aged over 60 by 2021 The 2016 census revealed that Australian median age has crept upward from 35 to 37 since 2001 which reflects the population growth peak of 1969 72 54 In 2017 Victoria recorded a TFR of 1 724 55 Average demographic Edit The average Victorian according to the demographic statistics may be described as follows 56 2016 Victorian Census Median Age 37Sex Mode FemaleCountry of Birth of Person Mode AustraliaCountry of Birth of Parents Mode At least one parent born overseasLanguage Spoken at Home Mode EnglishAncestry 1st Response Mode EnglishSocial Marital Status Mode Married in a registered marriageFamily Composition Mode Couple family with childrenCount of All Children in Family Mode Two children in familyHighest Year of School Completed Mode Year 12 or equivalentUnpaid Domestic Work Number of Hours Mode 5 to 14 hoursNumber of Motor Vehicles Mode Two vehiclesNumber of Bedrooms in Private Dwelling Mode Three bedroomsTenure Type Dwelling Count Mode Owned with a mortgageCrime EditMain article Crime in Victoria In the year ending September 2020 the statistics were skewed by the introduction of six new public safety offences relating to the COVID 19 pandemic in Australia 57 Total offences numbered 551 710 with 32 713 of these were breaches of Chief Health Officer Directions The total offences occurred at a rate of 8 227 per 100 000 people up 4 4 on the previous year While there have been some dips along the way the rate of recorded offences have increased year on year since 2011 when the figure was 6 937 7 offences per 100 000 people 58 Criminal offences recorded in Victoria 2010 14 59 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014Number of offences 378 082 386 061 423 555 437 409 456 381Government EditMain article Government of Victoria The Victorian Parliament House built in 1856 stands in Spring Street Melbourne The building was intended to be finished with a dome but was not completed due to budget constraints The Legislative Council Chamber as photographed in 1878 One of many local government seats Geelong Town HallParliament Edit Main articles Parliament of Victoria Victorian Legislative Assembly and Victorian Legislative Council Victoria has a parliamentary form of government based on the Westminster System Legislative power resides in the Parliament consisting of the Governor the representative of the King the executive the Government and two legislative chambers The Parliament of Victoria consists of the lower house Legislative Assembly the upper house Legislative Council and the monarch of Australia Eighty eight members of the Legislative Assembly are elected to four year terms from single member electorates In November 2006 the Victorian Legislative Council elections were held under a new multi member proportional representation system The State of Victoria was divided into eight electorates with each electorate represented by five representatives elected by Single Transferable Vote The total number of upper house members was reduced from 44 to 40 and their term of office is now the same as the lower house members four years Elections for the Victorian Parliament are now fixed and occur in November every four years Prior to the 2006 election the Legislative Council consisted of 44 members elected to eight year terms from 22 two member electorates Party Legislative Assembly Legislative CouncilLabor 56 15Liberal 19 12National 9 2Greens 4 4Others 0 7Premier and cabinet Edit The Premier of Victoria is the leader of the political party or coalition with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly The Premier is the public face of government and with cabinet sets the legislative and political agenda Cabinet consists of representatives elected to either house of parliament It is responsible for managing areas of government that are not exclusively vested in the Commonwealth by the Australian Constitution such as education health and law enforcement The current Premier of Victoria is Daniel Andrews Governor Edit Main article Governor of Victoria Executive authority is vested in the Governor of Victoria who represents and is appointed by the monarch of Australia The post is usually filled by a retired prominent Victorian The governor acts on the advice of the premier and cabinet The current Governor of Victoria is Margaret Gardner Constitution Edit Main article Constitution of Victoria Victoria has a written constitution enacted in 1975 60 but based on the 1855 colonial constitution passed by the United Kingdom Parliament as the Victoria Constitution Act 1855 which establishes the Parliament as the state s law making body for matters coming under state responsibility The Victorian Constitution can be amended by the Parliament of Victoria except for certain entrenched provisions that require either an absolute majority in both houses a three fifths majority in both houses or the approval of the Victorian people in a referendum depending on the provision Politics Edit Main articles Politics of Victoria and Electoral regions of Victoria Victorians and Melburnians in particular are considered by some analysts to be more progressive than other Australians 61 The state recorded the highest Yes votes of any state in the republic referendum and same sex marriage survey Victorians are said to be generally socially progressive supportive of multiculturalism wary of extremes of any kind 62 Premier Daniel Andrews leads the Australian Labor Party that won the November 2014 Victorian state election The centre left Australian Labor Party ALP the centre right Liberal Party of Australia the rural based National Party of Australia and the left wing environmentalist Australian Greens are Victoria s main political parties Traditionally Labor is strongest in Melbourne s working and middle class western northern and inner city suburbs and the regional cities of Ballarat Bendigo and Geelong The Liberals main support lies in Melbourne s more affluent eastern suburbs and outer suburbs and some rural and regional centres The Nationals are strongest in Victoria s North Western and Eastern rural regional areas The Greens who won their first lower house seats in 2014 are strongest in inner Melbourne Federal government Edit Victorian voters elect 50 representatives to the Parliament of Australia including 38 members of the House of Representatives and 12 members of the Senate Since 1 April 2023 the ALP hold 25 Victorian house seats the Liberals 10 the Nationals three the Greens one and independents the remaining three The ALP and the Liberals hold four senate seats each while the Nationals Greens UAP and an independent hold one seat each Local government Edit Main article Local government areas of Victoria Victoria is incorporated into 79 municipalities for the purposes of local government including 39 shires 32 cities seven rural cities and one borough Shire and city councils are responsible for functions delegated by the Victorian parliament such as city planning road infrastructure and waste management Council revenue comes mostly from property taxes and government grants 63 Education EditMain article Education in Victoria Primary and secondary Edit Camberwell High School a public secondary school in Victoria The University of Melbourne ranked as one of the best universities in Australia and in the Southern Hemisphere is Victoria s oldest university Deakin University consistently leads the state in student satisfaction and is consistently ranked as one of the world s best young universities The State Library of Victoria is the fourth most visited public library in the world 64 65 Victoria s state school system dates back to 1872 when the colonial government legislated to make schooling both free and compulsory The state s public secondary school system began in 1905 Before then only private secondary schooling was available Today a Victorian school education consists of seven years of primary schooling including one preparatory year and six years of secondary schooling The final years of secondary school are optional for children aged over 17 Victorian children generally begin school at age five or six On completing secondary school students earn the Victorian Certificate of Education VCE or Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning VCAL Students who successfully complete their VCE also receive an ATAR to determine university admittance Victorian schools are either publicly or privately funded Public schools also known as state or government schools are funded and run directly by the Victoria Department of Education Department of Education and Training Victoria Students do not pay tuition fees but some extra costs are levied Private fee paying schools include parish schools run by the Roman Catholic Church and independent schools similar to British public schools Independent schools are usually affiliated with Protestant churches Victoria also has several private Jewish and Islamic primary and secondary schools Private schools also receive some public funding All schools must comply with government set curriculum standards In addition Victoria has six government selective schools Melbourne High School for boys MacRobertson Girls High School for girls the coeducational schools John Monash Science School Nossal High School and Suzanne Cory High School and the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School Students at these schools are exclusively admitted on the basis of an academic selective entry test As of February 2019 Victoria had 1 529 public schools 496 Catholic schools and 219 independent schools Just under 631 500 students were enrolled in public schools and just over 357 000 in private schools Over 58 per cent of private students attend Catholic schools More than 552 300 students were enrolled in primary schools and more than 418 600 in secondary schools Retention rates for the final two years of secondary school were 84 3 per cent for public school students and 91 5 per cent for private school students Victoria has about 46 523 full time teachers 66 Tertiary education Edit Victoria has nine universities The first to offer degrees the University of Melbourne enrolled its first student in 1855 The largest Monash University has an enrolment of over 83 000 students more than any other Australian university 67 The number of students enrolled in Victorian universities was 418 447 in 2018 an increase of 5 3 on the previous year International students made up 40 of enrolments and account for the highest percentage of pre paid university tuition fees 67 The largest number of enrolments were recorded in the fields of business administration and economics with nearly 30 of all students followed by arts humanities and social science with 18 of enrolments 67 Victoria has 12 government run institutions of technical and further education TAFE 68 The first vocational institution in the state was the Melbourne Mechanics Institute established in 1839 which is now the Melbourne Athenaeum More than 1 000 adult education organisations are registered to provide recognised TAFE programs In 2014 there were 443 000 students enrolled in vocational education in the state By 2018 the number of students in the sector had dropped by 40 per cent to 265 000 a five year low which the education department attributed to withdrawal of funding to low quality providers and a societal shift to university education 69 Libraries Edit The State Library Victoria is the State s research and reference library It is responsible for collecting and preserving Victoria s documentary heritage and making it available through a range of services and programs Material in the collection includes books newspapers magazines journals manuscripts maps pictures objects sound and video recordings and databases In addition local governments maintain local lending libraries typically with multiple branches in their respective municipal areas Economy EditSee also Economy of Australia Victorian production andworkers by economic activitiesEconomicsector GSPproduced 70 Number ofworkers 000s Percentageof workersFinance insuranceservices 12 8 115 5 3 8 Professional technical services 9 1 274 3 9 0 Manufacturing 8 6 274 4 9 0 Health Care social services 8 5 390 6 12 8 Construction 7 7 255 7 6 4 Education 6 7 257 7 8 5 Retail Trade 6 0 310 6 10 2 Transport Services 5 7 165 4 5 4 Wholesale Trade 5 6 113 4 3 7 PublicAdministration 5 0 146 5 4 8 Communicationsand IT 3 9 57 0 1 9 Real Estate 3 7 43 6 1 4 Administrativeservices 3 3 119 0 3 9 Accommodation andfood services 2 9 209 9 6 9 Agriculture forestryand fishing 2 8 86 1 2 8 Utilities 2 4 39 4 1 3 Mining 2 0 11 0 0 4 Arts andrecreation 1 1 63 2 2 1 Other Services 115 1 3 8 Source Australian Bureau of Statistics GSP as of June 2016 Employment as of Aug 2016 The state of Victoria is the second largest economy in Australia after New South Wales accounting for a quarter of the nation s gross domestic product The total gross state product GSP at current prices for Victoria was A 459 billion in June 2020 with a GSP per capita of A 68 996 4 Finance and insurance is Victoria s largest income producing sector while the health care and social assistance sector is the state s biggest employer The shift towards service industries in the preceding decades has seen manufacturing lose its mantle as Victoria s largest employer and income producer Agriculture Edit See also Agriculture in Australia This section needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information February 2014 Victoria s stand at the Paris Exhibition Universal of 1867 showing bales of woolDuring 2003 04 the gross value of Victorian agricultural production increased by 17 to 8 7 billion This represented 24 of national agricultural production total gross value As of 2004 an estimated 32 463 farms occupied around 136 000 square kilometres 53 000 sq mi of Victorian land This comprises more than 60 of the state s total land surface Victorian farms range from small horticultural outfits to large scale livestock and grain productions A quarter of farmland is used to grow consumable crops More than 26 000 square kilometres 10 000 sq mi of Victorian farmland are sown for grain mostly in the state s west More than 50 of this area is sown for wheat 33 for barley and 7 for oats A further 6 000 square kilometres 2 300 sq mi is sown for hay In 2003 04 Victorian farmers produced more than 3 million metric tons 3 3 million short tons of wheat and 2 million metric tons 2 2 million short tons of barley Pgt standard race 126 was the most common Stem Rust Puccinia graminis f sp tritici race here from 1929 to 1941 as it was for the whole of Australia 71 First detected on Tasmania in 1954 standard race 21 was the most common race by the next year in this state the southern part of NSW and Tasmania 71 Leaf Rust P triticina is known to have been present here and throughout the continent at least since European colonization 71 P triticina pathotype 104 2 3 6 7 11 was first found here in 1984 and has contributed to populations ever since 71 It is considered to be foreign to Australia due to a difference in pathogenicity and due to its unique Pgm2 c allele 71 Victorian farms produce nearly 90 of Australian pears and a third of apples It is also a leader in stone fruit Prunus production The main vegetable crops include asparagus broccoli carrots potatoes and tomatoes Last year 121 200 metric tons 133 600 short tons of pears and 270 000 metric tons 300 000 short tons of tomatoes were produced More than 14 million sheep and 5 million lambs graze over 10 of Victorian farms mostly in the state s north and west In 2004 nearly 10 million lambs and sheep were slaughtered for local consumption and export Victoria also exports live sheep to the Middle East for meat and to the rest of the world for breeding More than 108 000 metric tons 119 000 short tons of wool clip was also produced one fifth of the Australian total Victoria is the centre of dairy farming in Australia It is home to 60 of Australia s 3 million dairy cattle and produces nearly two thirds of the nation s milk almost 6 4 billion litres 1 7 billion US gallons The state also has 2 4 million beef cattle with more than 2 2 million cattle and calves slaughtered each year In 2003 04 Victorian commercial fishing crews and aquaculture industry produced 11 634 metric tons 12 824 short tons of seafood valued at nearly A 109 million Blacklipped abalone is the mainstay of the catch bringing in A 46 million followed by southern rock lobster worth A 13 7 million Most abalone and rock lobster is exported to Asia As of 2022 update there are almost 100 strawberry farms here most close to Melbourne CBD in the Yarra Valley 72 They are represented by the Victorian Strawberries organization 72 They recommend 73 varieties for production here Most of Australia including this state imposed a moratorium on GM canola in 2003 to consider the positives and negatives 74 After consideration the ban here was lifted in 2008 and the state s produced a review of the effects of the moratorium and the expected economic and other effects of adoption or failure to adopt GM canola 74 The government finds a benefit of AUS 45 per hectare 18 acre season over conventional 74 Manufacturing Edit Victoria has a diverse range of manufacturing enterprises and Melbourne is considered Australia s most important industrial city The post World War II manufacturing boom was fuelled by international investment attracted to the state by the availability of cheap land close to the city and inexpensive energy from the Latrobe Valley Victoria produced 26 4 of total manufacturing output in Australia in 2015 16 behind New South Wales at 32 4 Machinery and equipment manufacturing is the state s most valuable manufacturing activity followed by food and beverage products petrochemicals and chemicals Prominent manufacturing plants in the state include the Portland and Point Henry aluminium smelters owned by Alcoa Geelong and Altona oil refineries a major petrochemical facility at Laverton and Victorian based CSL a global biotechnology company that produces vaccines and plasma products among others Victoria also plays an important role in providing goods for the defence industry Victoria proportionally relies on manufacturing more than any other state in Australia constituting 8 6 of total state product slightly higher than South Australia at 8 0 However this proportion has been declining for three decades in 1990 at the time of the early 1990s recession manufacturing constituted 20 3 of total state output Manufacturing output peaked in absolute terms in 2008 reaching 28 8 billion and has slowly fallen over the decade to 26 8 billion in 2016 0 77 per annum Since 1990 manufacturing employment has also fallen in both aggregate 367 700 to 274 400 workers and proportional 17 8 to 9 0 terms The strong Australian dollar as a result of the 2000s mining boom small population and isolation high wage base and the general shift of manufacturing production towards developing countries have been cited as some of the reasons for this decline Historically Victoria has been a hub for the manufacturing plants of the major car brands Ford Toyota and Holden however closure announcements by all three companies in the 2010s has meant Australia will completely lose their car manufacturing industry by the end of 2017 Holden s announcement occurred in May 2013 following Ford s decision in December the previous year Ford s Victorian plants in Broadmeadows and Geelong closed in October 2016 75 76 Toyota followed suit in February 2014 with an expected announcement as without Holden or Ford local supply chains would struggle to create the economics of scale required to supply one manufacturer 77 Land Edit Victoria adopted the Torrens system of land registration with the Real Property Act 1862 78 The Torrens system did not replace the common law system but applied only to new land grants and to land that has been voluntarily registered under the Act and its successors The common law system continues to apply to all other private landholdings Crown land held in Victoria is managed under the Crown Land Reserves Act 1978 and the Land Act 1958 Mining Edit Yallourn Power Station in the Latrobe ValleySee also Energy in Victoria Mining in Victoria contributes around A 6 billion to the gross state product 2 but employs less than 1 of workers The Victorian mining industry is concentrated on energy producing minerals with brown coal petroleum and gas accounting for nearly 90 of local production The oil and gas industries are centred off the coast of Gippsland in the state s east while brown coal mining and power generation is based in the Latrobe Valley In the 2005 06 fiscal year the average gas production was over 700 million cubic feet 20 000 000 m3 per day M cuft d and represented 18 of the total national gas sales with demand growing at 2 per year 79 In 1985 oil production from the offshore Gippsland Basin peaked to an annual average of 450 000 barrels 72 000 m3 per day In 2005 2006 the average daily oil production has declined to 83 000 bbl 13 200 m3 d but despite the decline Victoria still produces almost 19 5 of crude oil in Australia 79 Brown coal is Victoria s leading mineral with 66 million tonnes mined each year for electricity generation in the Latrobe Valley Gippsland 80 The region is home to the world s largest known reserves of brown coal Despite being the historic centre of Australia s gold rush Victoria today contributes a mere 1 of national gold production Victoria also produces limited amounts of gypsum and kaolin Service industry Edit The service industries sector is the fastest growing component of the Victorian economy It includes the wide range of activities generally classified as financial and professional services health care and social assistance education transportation IT and communication services government services and wholesale and retail trade Most service industries are located in Melbourne and the state s larger regional centres As of 2015 16 service industries employed over three quarters of Victorian workers and more than three quarters of the state s GSP Finance and insurance as a group provide more value add to the economy than any other economic activity in Victoria while health care and social assistance employ the most workers Tourism Edit Some major tourist destinations in Victoria are The metropolis of Melbourne particular its inner city suburbs known also for shopping tourism and the attractions of the city centre such as Melbourne Zoo Melbourne Museum the Melbourne Aquarium and Scienceworks tourism precincts such as Melbourne Docklands Southbank and St Kilda as well as cultural and sporting tourist icons such as Arts Centre Melbourne the East End Theatre District the National Gallery of Victoria the Melbourne Cricket Ground also known as the MCG and the Eureka Tower with the highest observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere Skydeck 88 Victoria has more than 2000 kilometres of coastline with hundreds of beaches 81 The Goldfields region featuring the historic cities of Ballarat Beechworth Bendigo Castlemaine Maldon and Daylesford Natural attractions such as The Twelve Apostles Wilsons Promontory The Grampians the fairy penguins particularly at Phillip Island and St Kilda the Buchan Caves and the Gippsland Lakes The Dandenong Ranges in particular the Puffing Billy Railway Healesville Sanctuary which specialises in local Australian species Towns along the Murray River and Riverina including Echuca and Mildura including waterskiing Geelong and its famous Waterfront Eastern Beach and Geelong West s Pakington Street The Bellarine Peninsula which features vineyards and historic resort towns such as Queenscliff Drysdale and Portarlington The Werribee Mansion and Werribee Open Range Zoo The Surf Coast which features famous beaches such as Bells Beach Torquay and Lorne Mornington Peninsula particularly for its wineries in Red Hill and secluded beaches in Mount Eliza and Mornington The Pillars in Mount Martha Arthur s Seat and the coastal attractions of Portsea Sorrento and Flinders Yarra Valley in particular Healesville Sanctuary and wineries Great Ocean Road which features The Twelve Apostles historic towns of Port Fairy and Portland cliffs and whale watching and resort towns such as Lorne The Victorian Alpine Region part of the Australian Alps particularly for skiing The Central Victorian Highlands High country are very well known for winter sports and bushwalking Wine regions across the entire state Other popular tourism activities are gliding hang gliding hot air ballooning and scuba diving Major events that explore cultural diversity music and sports play a big part in Victoria s tourism The V8 Supercars and Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island the Grand Annual Steeplechase at Warrnambool and the Australian International Airshow at Avalon and numerous local festivals such as the popular Port Fairy Folk Festival Queenscliff Music Festival Pako Festa in Geelong West Bells Beach Surf Classic and the Bright Autumn Festival amongst others The Melbourne skyline at night Brighton Beach bathing boxes Mornington Mills Beach Autumn in the Dandenong Ranges The Twelve Apostles Jan Juc TorquayTransport EditSee also Transport in Melbourne and Rail transport in Victoria Two E Class trams on Bourke St on the Melbourne tram network Victoria has the highest population density in any state in Australia with population centres spread out over most of the state only the far northwest and the Victorian Alps lack permanent settlement The Victorian road network services the population centres with highways generally radiating from Melbourne and other major cities and rural centres with secondary roads interconnecting the highways to each other Many of the highways are built to freeway standard M freeways while most are generally sealed and of reasonable quality A V Line train at Ballarat station Rail transport in Victoria is provided by several private and public railway operators who operate over government owned lines Major operators include Metro Trains Melbourne which runs an extensive electrified passenger system throughout Melbourne and suburbs V Line which is now owned by the Victorian Government operates a concentrated service to major regional centres as well as long distance services on other lines Pacific National CFCL Australia which operate freight services Great Southern Rail which operates The Overland Melbourne Adelaide and NSW TrainLink which operates XPTs Melbourne Sydney There are also several smaller freight operators and numerous tourist railways operating over lines which were once parts of a state owned system Victorian lines mainly use the 1 600 mm 5 ft 3 in broad gauge However the interstate trunk routes as well as a number of freight lines in the north and west of the state have been converted to 1 435 mm 4 ft 8 1 2 in standard gauge Two tourist railways operate over 760 mm 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge lines which are the remnants of five formerly government owned lines which were built in mountainous areas Melbourne has the world s largest tram network 82 currently operated by Yarra Trams As well as being a popular form of public transport over the last few decades trams have become one of Melbourne s major tourist attractions There are also tourist trams operating over portions of the former Ballarat and Bendigo systems There are also tramway museums at Bylands and Haddon Melbourne Airport is the major domestic and international gateway for the state Avalon Airport is the state s second busiest airport which complements Essendon and Moorabbin Airports to see the remainder of Melbourne s air traffic Hamilton Airport Mildura Airport Mount Hotham and Portland Airport are the remaining airports with scheduled domestic flights There are no fewer than 27 other airports in the state with no scheduled flights The Port of Melbourne is the largest port for containerised and general cargo in Australia 83 and is located in Melbourne on the mouth of the Yarra River which is at the head of Port Phillip Additional seaports are at Westernport Geelong and Portland As of October 2013 smoking tobacco is prohibited in the sheltered areas of train stations and tram and bus stops between 2012 and 2013 2002 people were issued with infringement notices The state government announced a plan in October 2013 to prohibit smoking on all Victorian railway station platforms and raised tram stops 84 A High Capacity Metro Train on the Melbourne metropolitan train network operated by Metro Trains Melbourne The trains have been introduced as part of the Metro Tunnel project A VLocity train at Flinders Street station V Line is a government owned train and coach service provider in Victoria providing inter city services to a number of regional cities in the state Utilities EditEnergy Edit Victoria s major utilities include a collection of brown coal fired power stations particularly in the Latrobe Valley One of these was the recently decommissioned Hazelwood Power Station which was number 1 on the worldwide List of least carbon efficient power stations The Victorian government is aiming to cut 40 6 mega tonnes of greenhouse gases emissions by 2025 85 86 Water Edit See also Water management in Victoria Victoria s water infrastructure includes a series of dams and reservoirs predominantly in Central Victoria that hold and collect water for much of the state The water collected is of a very high quality and requires little chlorination treatment giving the water a taste more like water collected in a rainwater tank In regional areas however such as in the west of the state chlorination levels are much higher The Victorian Water Grid consists of a number of new connections and pipelines being built across the State This allows water to be moved around Victoria to where it is needed most and reduces the impact of localised droughts in an era thought to be influenced by climate change Major projects already completed as part of the Grid include the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline and the Goldfields Superpipe 87 Sport EditMain article Sport in Victoria Statue outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground commemorating the origins of Australian rules football Panorama of the MCG during the AFL Grand Final on 30 September 2017Victoria is the home of Australian rules football with ten of the 18 Australian Football League AFL clubs based in the state The AFL Grand Final is traditionally held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the last Saturday of September The state has a public holiday the day before the Grand Final which coincides with the AFL Grand Final parade The Victorian cricket team play in the national Sheffield Shield cricket competition Victoria is represented in the National Rugby League by the Melbourne Storm and in Super Rugby by the Melbourne Rebels It is represented in the National Basketball League by Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix It is also represented in soccer by Melbourne Victory Melbourne City and Western United in the A League Melbourne has held the 1956 Summer Olympics 2006 Commonwealth Games and the FINA World Swimming Championship Melbourne is also home to the Australian Open tennis tournament in January each year which is the first of the world s four Grand Slam tennis tournaments as well as the Formula One Australian Grand Prix which is on an annual basis usually held in March or April It hosted the Australian Masters golf tournament from 1979 to 2015 Victoria s Bells Beach hosts one of the world s longest running surfing competition the Bells Beach SurfClassic which is part of The ASP World Tour The Melbourne Vixens and Collingwood Magpies Netball represent Victoria in the National Netball League Victoria s Phillip Island is home of the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit which hosts the Australian motorcycle Grand Prix which features MotoGP the world s premier motorcycling class as well as the Australian round of the World Superbike Championship and the domestic V8 Supercar racing which also visits Sandown Raceway and the rural Winton Motor Raceway circuit Australia s most prestigious footrace the Stawell Gift is an annual event Victoria is also home to the Aussie Millions poker tournament the tournament with the highest potential proceeds in the Southern Hemisphere The main horse racing tracks in Victoria are Caulfield Racecourse Flemington Racecourse and Sandown Racecourse The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival is one of the biggest horse racing events in the world and is one of the world s largest sporting events The main race is for the 6 million Melbourne Cup and crowds for the carnival usually exceed 700 000 Victoria was due to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games but withdrew on 18 July 2023 as a result of increased costs of holding the event 88 89 Major professional teams include Australian rules football AFL Carlton Collingwood Essendon Geelong Cats Hawthorn Melbourne North Melbourne Richmond St Kilda Western Bulldogs Basketball NBL Melbourne United South East Melbourne Phoenix Cricket BBL Melbourne Renegades Melbourne Stars Cricket Sheffield Shield and Marsh One Day Cup Victoria cricket team Netball NNL Melbourne Vixens Collingwood Magpies Rugby league NRL Melbourne Storm Rugby union Super Rugby Melbourne Rebels Soccer A League Melbourne City Melbourne Victory Western UnitedSister states EditVictoria has four sister states 90 Jiangsu China 1979 91 Aichi Prefecture Japan 1980 92 93 Busan South Korea 1994 94 Sichuan China 2016 95 96 See also Edit Geography portal Oceania portal Australia portal Victoria portalList of highways in Victoria Protected areas of Victoria Australia Vicmap Topographic Map SeriesNotes Edit This figure is for Torquay only In accordance with the Australian Bureau of Statistics source England Scotland Mainland China and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau are listed separately As a percentage of 5 533 099 persons who nominated their ancestry at the 2016 census The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most who nominate Australian as their ancestry are part of the Anglo Celtic group 50 Of any ancestry Includes those identifying as Aboriginal Australians or Torres Strait Islanders Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry References Edit Victoria 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2 Archived from the original ZIP on 18 March 2020 Retrieved 30 March 2023 Statistics c AU o Commonwealth of Australia ou Australian Bureau of January 1995 Feature Article Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Australia Feature Article abs gov au Archived from the original on 20 April 2016 Retrieved 22 June 2019 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link 2071 0 Census of Population and Housing Reflecting Australia Stories from the Census 2016 Religion in the States and Territories Australian Bureau of Statistics 2019 Archived from the original on 25 April 2019 Retrieved 25 April 2019 2016 Census QuickStats Victoria Australian Bureau of Statistics 2019 Archived from the original on 9 June 2019 Retrieved 25 April 2019 Australian Bureau of Statistics 3310 0 Marriages and Divorces Australia 2017 Australian Bureau of Statistics Australian Bureau of Statistics 27 November 2018 Archived from the original on 25 April 2019 Retrieved 25 April 2019 Australian Bureau of Statistics 31 October 2012 Victoria 2011 Census QuickStats Retrieved 24 February 2013 3301 0 Births Australia 2017 Australian Bureau of Statistics Archived from the original on 21 July 2020 Retrieved 23 November 2019 Statistics c AU o Commonwealth of Australia ou Australian Bureau of 11 April 2017 Media Release Census reveals the typical Victorian abs gov au Archived from the original on 24 September 2020 Retrieved 7 August 2020 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Latest Victorian crime data Crime Statistics Agency Victoria 28 September 2020 Archived from the original on 13 February 2021 Retrieved 13 February 2021 Text may have been copied from this source which is available under a Attribution 4 0 International CC BY 4 0 Archived 16 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine licence Recorded Offences Crime Statistics Agency Victoria 17 December 2020 Archived from the original on 13 February 2021 Retrieved 13 February 2021 Text may have been copied from this source which is available under an Attribution 4 0 International CC BY 4 0 Archived 16 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine licence Investigation into the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners in Victoria September 2015 Ombudsman Victoria Archived from the original on 4 March 2019 Retrieved 22 August 2018 CONSTITUTION ACT 1975 Austlii edu au Archived from the original on 25 May 2016 Retrieved 17 July 2016 Debbie Cuthbertson 17 November 2017 Victoria s new age of enlightenment puts NSW in the shade The Sydney Morning Herald Archived from the original on 5 January 2022 Retrieved 30 November 2017 Sunny Sydneysiders might consider themselves much more open minded and free thinking than their archetypal black clad Melbourne cousins But taking the political temperature of the two states shows that supposedly dour Victorians are loosening their corsets and becoming much more progressive Gay Alcorn 10 May 2013 Welcome to Victoria the progressive state The Age Archived from the original on 17 October 2013 Retrieved 2 October 2013 Victorian Parliamentary Library Department of Victorian Communities Australian Electoral Commission State Library Victoria Vision 2020 Redevelopment Victorian Premiers Design Awards 2020 Retrieved 26 March 2023 theaustralian com au A bright new chapter opens for rejuvenated state library thanks to the help of good friends Retrieved 26 March 2023 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a Check url value help Snapshot Victorian Schools Summary Statistics PDF Victorian Department of Education and Training Archived PDF from the original on 19 May 2020 Retrieved 23 November 2019 a b c Higher Education Statistics uCube Department of Education and Training Archived from the original on 3 April 2022 Retrieved 20 November 2019 TAFE governance Department of Education and Training Archived from the original on 22 November 2019 Retrieved 22 November 2019 Carey Adam 31 October 2019 State puts training wheels in motion with vocational education review The Age Archived from the original on 22 November 2019 Retrieved 22 November 2019 The figures are taken as a proportion of total Victoria Gross State Product Industry Value Added with the exclusion of Ownership of dwellings Taxes Less Subsidiaries and the Statistical Discrepancy adjustment 5220 0 Australian National Accounts State Accounts 2015 16 18 November 2016 Archived from the original on 25 August 2017 Retrieved 25 August 2017 a b c d e Park Robert F Wellings Colin R 8 September 2012 Somatic Hybridization in the Uredinales Annual Review of Phytopathology Annual Reviews 50 1 219 239 doi 10 1146 annurev phyto 072910 095405 ISSN 0066 4286 PMID 22920559 S2CID 712909 a b Victorian Strawberries Berry Delicious Victorian Strawberries Berry Delicious Archived from the original on 27 May 2022 Retrieved 27 July 2022 varieties Victorian Strawberries Berry Delicious Archived from the original on 27 September 2021 Retrieved 27 July 2022 a b c Biden Scott Smyth Stuart J Hudson David 2018 The economic and environmental cost of delayed GM crop adoption The case of Australia s GM canola moratorium GM Crops amp Food Taylor amp Francis 9 1 13 20 doi 10 1080 21645698 2018 1429876 ISSN 2164 5698 PMC 5927647 PMID 29359993 Victoria GM Canola Review Panel Secretariat 2007 Melbourne Victoria Department of Primary Industries pp xii 144 illustrations tables ISBN 9781741996753 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a Missing or empty title help South Australia stunned as GM announces Holden s closure in Adelaide in 2017 News com au 12 December 2013 Archived from the original on 9 February 2014 Retrieved 12 February 2014 Ford closure sends shockwave through manufacturing industry ABC News 24 May 2013 Archived from the original on 6 February 2014 Retrieved 12 February 2014 Toyota to stop making cars in Australia follows Ford and Holden The Australian 10 February 2014 Archived from the original on 23 August 2017 Retrieved 25 August 2017 Real Property Act 1862 Vic a b Department of Primary Industries Oil and Gas Archived from the original on 19 July 2008 Retrieved 22 August 2013 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Year Book Australia 2004 Profile of major commodities Abs gov au 27 February 2004 Archived from the original on 27 July 2011 Retrieved 17 July 2016 WA Today Waves of fancy Victoria s best beaches Archived from the original on 3 February 2011 DoI 2008 1 Retrieved 28 April 2008 dead link DoI media release Government outlines vision for Port of Melbourne Freight Hub 14 August 2006 Archived from the original on 17 September 2007 Retrieved 26 July 2007 Vic transport smoking bans to be extended The Australian Australian Associated Press 13 October 2013 Retrieved 14 October 2013 dead link About the Victorian Energy Upgrades program Essential Services Commission Archived from the original on 4 February 2020 Retrieved 23 January 2020 Victorian Energy Upgrades VEU Program Ecofin Solutions Archived from the original on 27 January 2020 Retrieved 23 January 2020 Department of Sustainability amp Environment Expansion of the Water Grid Our Water Our Future Expansion of the Water Grid Archived from the original on 19 February 2011 Retrieved 27 January 2011 Retrieved 27 January 2011 Regional Victoria announced as host of 2026 Commonwealth Games Victoria The Guardian 12 April 2022 Archived from the original on 12 April 2022 Retrieved 18 April 2022 Commonwealth Games 2026 event in doubt after Victoria cancels BBC News 18 July 2023 Retrieved 10 August 2023 International relations Parliament of Victoria Archived from the original on 25 August 2017 Retrieved 25 August 2017 35th Anniversary of Jiangsu s Sister State Relationship with Victoria Governor of Victoria Archived from the original on 25 August 2017 Retrieved 25 August 2017 Aichi Victoria 35th Anniversary of the Sister State Relationship Japan in Melbourne Archived from the original on 25 August 2017 Retrieved 25 August 2017 Victoria s relationship with Japan Trade Victoria 3 January 2017 Archived from the original on 25 August 2017 Retrieved 25 August 2017 Victoria s relationship with Korea Invest Victoria 12 February 2015 Archived from the original on 25 August 2017 Retrieved 25 August 2017 Victoria And Sichuan Move To Become Sister States Premier of Victoria 26 September 2015 Archived from the original on 25 August 2017 Retrieved 25 August 2017 Victorian Jobs To Be Created With New Sister State Sichuan Premier of Victoria 24 September 2016 Archived from the original on 25 August 2017 Retrieved 25 August 2017 Further reading EditVictorian frontier history Edit Jan Critchett 1990 A distant field of murder Western district frontiers 1834 1848 Melbourne University Press Carlton Vic and Portland Or ISBN 0522843891 Ian D Clark 1990 Aboriginal languages and clans An historical atlas of western and central Victoria 1800 1900 Dept of Geography amp Environmental Science Monash University Melbourne ISBN 0 909685 41 X Ian D Clark 1995 Scars in the landscape A register of massacre sites in western Victoria 1803 1859 Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Canberra ISBN 0 85575 281 5 Ian D Clark 2003 That s my country belonging to me Aboriginal land tenure and dispossession in nineteenth century Western Victoria Ballarat Heritage Services Ballarat External links EditVictoria at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons News from Wikinews Travel information from Wikivoyage Official website of Victorian Government Official Government tourism website Victorian Places website Tourism Victoria s Online Image Library Victoria s Households Schemes Properties for Sale in Mornington Peninsula Geographic data related to Victoria state at OpenStreetMap Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Victoria state amp oldid 1170866802 Victorian Strawberries, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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