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Victoria

The state of Victoria is located in the south-eastern corner of mainland Australia and occupies approximately 3% of the area of land covered by Australia as a whole. To the north is the state of New South Wales, while its western edge borders South Australia. In the south, Victoria is separated from the island state of Tasmania by the waters of Bass Strait. Victoria is the smallest mainland state in area but the most densely populated and urbanised. Victoria began in the 1830s as a farming community. The discovery of gold in 1851 transformed Victoria into a leading industrial and commercial center.

Victoria is the second most populous Australian state, after New South Wales, with an estimated population of 5,037,700 as at September 2005. Melbourne is Victoria's capital and largest city and it is estimated that more than 70% of all Victorians live there. Greater Melbourne is set around the shores of Port Phillip Bay, while the city center is laid out in a large rectangle on the northern banks of the Yarra River, about five kilometres from the bay. This lively and cosmopolitan city combines a fanatical love for the creative arts and good living with a state-wide sports addiction to make a city like no other - food, art, music, wine and football. One glance at a map and it's obvious that Melbourne is a planned city: a tidy, balanced grid of neatly angled streets. But beneath this lies a restless creative energy constantly pushing back at the city's seeming conservatism. From Southbank and the Yarra to the Flinders and Greek Quarters, the CBD is made up of precincts - distinct enclaves each with its own flavor and charm.

Lauded for its sense of style and elegance, Melbourne boasts glamorous festivals and events, Australia's best shopping, a lively passion for eating and drinking, and a flourishing interest in the arts. Restored and preserved nineteenth-century architecture, built following the discovery of gold, provides a heady reminder of a prosperous age, while beautifully tended parks and gardens present a therapeutic respite from the pace of city life.

Victoria's dominant land feature is the substantial mountain formation known as the Great Dividing Range. It commences at the northern tip of Queensland and extends southwards along the entire eastern coastline of Australia. Upon reaching Victoria's eastern edge, it then heads westwards and flattens out after reaching the Grampians National Park in western Victoria. In comparison, the north, north-west and far west of Victoria are fairly flat.

Hugging the tip of the Australian east coast, Victoria is Australia's second-smallest state, covering 227,600 square kilometres - roughly the size of the British Isles. Packed into such a compact area is a wealth of diverse regional areas and attractions, from sweeping coastline and pristine beaches to national parks and forests teeming with wildlife to wineries, lakes and mountains offering skiing, climbing and hiking. Best of all, many of Victoria's unique and varied landscapes are easily accessible as day trips from Melbourne. Despite its small size, the Victorian climate varies across the state. The north is much drier and warmer weather than the south. Australia's seasons are the reverse of those in the northern hemisphere. The climate can be characterised as warm to hot in summer (December to February), mild in autumn (March to May), cold and damp in winter (June to August), and cool in spring (September to November).

The first authentic identification of what is now the State of Victoria dates from 19 April 1770, when Captain Cook, in the barque "Endeavour," sighted the eastern coast of Australia at a spot which ho named Point Hicks-probably the Cape Everard of to-day. Twenty-seven years afterwards a store ship was wrecked on one of the islands beyond Cape Howe, and some of the crew, reaching the mainland, walked along the coast a distance of 240 miles to Sydney. In the month of December, 1802, Lieutenant John Murray, in the command of the "Lady Nelson," reaped the first harvest from Victorian soil, and then sailed on to the mouth of a large inlet, into which he sent his first mate, Lieutenant Bowen, in a launch. Some days later, the brig herself entered the Heads, and, after three weeks of exploration along the shores of the harbor, the territory was taken possession of in the name of the King, with the usual ceremonies, at Point Paterson.

On the 16th December, 1824, Hume and Hovell, who had led an expedition overland from Lake George, in New South Wales, encamped on the site of the present city of Geelong. Two years later, in order to forestall French designs on the southern territory, a party was sent by sea from Sydney to form a station at Western Port; but this was abandoned in consequence of the unfavourable reports of the leaders. The first serious attempt at settlement on Victorian soil was that of the brothers Henty, who established themselves at Portland Bay in 1834, with flocks, farm-servants, and agricultural implements, and were there found by Major Mitchell, in the course of his famous expedition through Australia Felix, as the explorer named the territory now known as Western Victoria.

The first years of settlement were marked by steady progress. In 1842, Melbourne was incorporated, Henry Condell being its first mayor, and savings-banks were established in the new city. On the 5th August, 1850, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania were granted representative institutions by Imperial Statute ; and when, on the 11th November news arrived in Melbourne of the granting of separation from New South Wales, the rejoicing thereat continued for five days. On the 1st July, 1851, Victoria was proclaimed a separate colony. On the 16th of the month Mr. La Trobe was appointed LieutenantGovernor, Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, of New South Wales, being named about the same time as Governor-General of Australia; and on the 11th November the first Victorian Legislature-of which two-thirds were elected members-met at Melbourne. In 1850, the year preceding separation, the year also prior to that in which gold was discovered, and only forty-eight years since its discovery by Lieutenant Murray, Port Phillip had a revenue of £230,000, its exports amounted to £760,000, and its population was over 76,000.

The beginning of the year 1851 brought ruin and desolation to many a home, and in the gruesome designation of "Black Thursday" there has been preserved the bitter memory of the 6th of February, when the hot blasts from the north swept with fury over the earth, carrying with them flame and death. An eye-witness reported that the conflagration was terrible in its completeness; men, women, and children, sheep and cattle, birds and snakes, fled commingled before the fire in one common panic. For hundreds of miles the country was. wrapped in flames; the most fertile districts were swept clean, flocks and herds were abandoned, and the entire population rushed in terrified hordes for their lives. The ashes from the forests on fire at Macedon, 46 miles distant, littered the streets of Melbourne.

The diggers - they were not miners in those days - flocked to Victoria after gold was discovered in Clunes which sparked discoveries elsewhere in Victoria, resulting in a gold rush and a period of huge population growth and prosperity as immigrants arrived from all over the world to search for gold. In the early days of the gold diggings, the miners in Victoria had a very rough and hard time of it, by reason of bad laws, and even these being badly carried out. A miner was allowed to dig for gold on public land by taking out from the Government a license to dig, for which he paid thirty shillings per month. The harassing of the prospectors by the police, combined with the excessive charge in connection with miners' licenses, led to the Eureka Stockade revolt at Ballaratt.

The diggers became so exasperated by the harsh ways in which they were treated, and the excessive government charge for the right to mine, that they armed themselves, drilled, built up an earthwork, which was known as the Eureka Stockade. The Eureka stockade was at first intended more as a screen behind which the diggers might drill than as a fortification. It was an area of about an acre, rudely enclosed with slabs. The diggers, among their tents, set up a flagstaff, and hoisted a banner of blue, with four silver stars in the corner. The leaders knelt beneath it, and swore to defend one another to the death.

Some regular troops were sent to Ballaratt, and camped there for some weeks. One morning at daybreak the regulars attacked the stockade, and defeated the rebels and captured the stockade, the regulars occupying it. The number of insurgents killed is estimated at from thirty-five to forty, and many of those brought in wounded afterwards died. Of the troops, three privates were killed, and several wounded, one of whom died. Eureka resulted in what many regard as a pivotal moment in the development of democracy in Australia. The prisoners taken at the Stockade, and tried in Melbourne, were acquitted on the charge of high treason, which is considered a triumph to the popular cause. And the concessions for which the diggers contended, were reluctantly granted by the Government of the day. The colony very rapidly returned to its former state of peaceful progress, and the goldfields were soon distinguished for their orderly and industrious appearance.

The bushfires of 13 January 1939, known as the 'Black Friday' fires, were the result of a long drought and a severe, hot, dry summer. Fanned by extremely strong winds, these fires swept rapidly across large areas of Victoria, causing widespread destruction. In Victoria an area of almost 2 million hectares was burnt, with 71 people losing their lives. Whole townships were destroyed, many sawmills burnt to the ground and thousands of sheep, cattle and horses were killed by the intense heat and flames. Where the fires were most intense, soil was burnt to such a degree and depth that it was decades before it was restored to its natural chemistry. Water catchments were severely impacted with ash, dirt and burnt debris being washed into rivers during heavy rain. These contaminated water catchments for years after the fires.

In 2009 Victoria's worst disaster, the Black Saturday bushfires, killed 173 people and destroyed a large number of buildings in the tourist towns of Kinglake and Marysville.