Melbourne

Hello everybody. I d like to talk to you about Melbourne.

Melbourne is a very interesting city, and that s why I have chosen Melbourne for my presentation.

I have divided my talk into few parts. First I d like to give you a few facts about Melbourne.

Then I m going to talk about the history of Melbourne.

Later I will say a few words about Melbourne s cultural and ethnic diversity.

And last but not least I want to describe some sights and attractions of Melbourne.

Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia and the capital of the south eastern state of Victoria. It covers an area of 7. 280 sq kilometres and is home to 3. 2 million people from diverse backgrounds and interests. The city is divided into two parts by the Yarra River. In the North and West of Melbourne there are the working areas, in the South and East the living areas.

The climate of Melbourne is temperate, with typical daily maximums temperatures ranging from a winter low of about 13 degrees Celsius to summer high of around 35 degrees Celsius.

The government of the City of Melbourne is the Melbourne City Council, which, as Victoria s capital city, speaks on behalf of all Melbourne in local, national and international forums. The Lord Mayer in Melbourne is John So and the Deputy Lord Mayer is Susan Riley. The City of Melbourne is committed to ensuring that it s one of the safest, healthiest and cleanest cities in the world. In 1994 Melbourne was voted as the worlds most liveable city.

As a City for the Arts Melbourne is the leader in cultural activities in the Asia-Pacific region. It s also the Event Capital of Australia, with the Australian Open, the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Melbourne Cup (a world famous horse race). Melbourne has many attractions but no main attraction.

The first people who lived in Melbourne were the Aborigines. In1835 some white settlers arrived. They took land from the Aborigines and established settlements. In 1836 Captain William Lonsdale arrived to become police magistrate for the new settlement which was established from John Pascoe Fawkner. The new settlement was named after the British Prime Minister at that time: Lord Melbourne.

In 1842 Melbourne became a town. It had a population of about 10, 000 people.

In the 1850s gold was discovered. During the gold rush Melbourne became the fastest growing city of the British Empire. With the discovery of gold came great wealth to Melbourne.

In 1861 Melbourne became the largest city in Australia.

By 1881, however, the boom was over and a devastating depression started and many businesses had to close down. A few years later, in 1901 the opening of the first session of the Commonwealth Parliament was held in the Exhibition Building. At that time the population reaches 1. 5 million. From then on Melbourne was the capital of Australia till 1927 when Canberra was built. Today it s the second largest city in Australia.

After the second world war many people left their native ...