Founded in 1835 in the inner part of Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne today is the second largest city in Australia after Sydney and it is the capital of Victoria. While today it is the second most important city on the continent, for many years Melbourne was the largest and richest of all Australian cities. It became a popular with the famous gold rush, which arise as a result of the fact that here was found the largest piece of gold ever. At the local gold rush almost nothing is different from that in North America.
In the end it turned out that the gold in the depths of Victoria is much less than they thought as a whole.
Similar piece of gold was never found again, but even just one, it proved sufficient to trigger a wave of immigrants from Europe, eager for quick riches.
Today the situation is not very different. In the 21st century, Melbourne is considered to be one of the best cities to live in the world, competing even the leading Swiss economic centers.
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To come to Melbourne is very easy. On the International Airport every day landing and take off hundreds of planes, coming from or departing to all continents worldwide.
Possibly during the first day in Melbourne the weather will cope successfully with its mission to surprise you.
An interesting fact is that Melbourne is considered to be the city with the most variable climate in the world.
Of course, this is debatable, but with certainly is one of the leaders. First the sun shining and it is warm, later blow wind, appear clouds, the temperatures fall, the wind stops, starts to rain, then appears wind again and again the weather become warm and sunny.
Winter, spring, summer and autumn can change within a few hours. And if you think that the weather of the British Isles is variable, then you have not seen anything.
Otherwise, if you need to summarize, we should say that the climate in Melbourne is generally mild and warm, because the city falls within the subtropical climate zone.
The winter temperatures are around 13 – 14°C and in the summer reach 26 – 27°C.
Overall, the summer is much longer than winter, and the spring and autumn are quite short.
In other words, whenever you travel, carry with you your umbrella and be prepared for everything except for snow, because here it is extremely rare phenomenon.
It is important to know what clothes to wear when you travel to this beautiful city.
If you fly to Melbourne in the winter, add to the warm clothes and some spring-summer, because sometimes even in the winter become quite warm and sometimes the thermometers show 20 or more degrees.
Avoid too thick jackets. The winter in Victoria is similar to the Mediterranean. And vice versa – if you travel in the summer will be better to put some warmer clothes for each case because, like it is in England here can be cool even in the summer.
Sometimes can happens the winter to become briefly warmer even in comparison with some summer days and vice versa.
Melbourne is a large and cosmopolitan city. Today it has a population of about 4 million people. You will see people from all around the world.
If you stay in Melbourne for a long time you will notice that there is a fairly large Greek community. In fact, Melbourne is the third largest Greek city in the world after Athens and Thessaloniki.
In the recent years the emigration flow moves from Europe to Asia and therefore on the streets of Melbourne you can meet many Japanese, Chinese, Koreans and others.
Melbourne is an excellent choice for education, employment, business, investment in real estate and, of course, tourism. The local economy is very strong and versatile.
The city develops tourism, finance, high technology, and production of various goods. The city is the most expensive in Australia, but for the locals it is not a problem, because it is one of the cities with the highest living standards in the world.
As a lucrative industry that barely affects the environment, tourism has a pretty good basis for development here. The congress and cultural tourism are best embodied.
As an world financial center, Melbourne is often a center for important congresses, business meetings, symposium, seminars and others.
Melbourne offers virtually unlimited opportunities for entertainment – theatre, cinemas, restaurants, casinos and what not. This is the city with the best developed tram network in the world.
Even European cities such as Lisbon, Vienna and Budapest can not be inferior to it. Furthermore, trams, which are otherwise typical European features, Melbourne likes to the cities of the old continent in many things.
One of them is that here you can find many cobbled streets. The European charm of Melbourne is expressed also by some other iconic landmarks.
Probably the most popular is the building of the railway station – Flindars Street Station. It was opened in 1854. Given that Australia is very young country, this is nothing to sneer at.
The modern buildings prevail, such as Crown Casino – a symbol of the Australian entertainment industry.
The modern building stands next to another great attraction – Yara River, which slowly and lazily deep river bed make its way among the modern skyscrapers in the city center.
The highest tower in Melbourne is Eureka Tower. This skyscraper rises 290 meters above the city. The building looks very fine.
Impressive is also the building of the Viktortian Art Center, which shelters under one roof ballet, opera, symphony orchestra and theatre.
This remarkable structure in a contemporary manner reminiscent of the located in Paris Eiffel Tower. One of the most beautiful structures of Melbourne is the Westgate Bridge.
The bridge built in the 70 years of 20 century provides a transport link across the Yara River. The entire state of Victoria has amazing scenery.
About 180 km outside Melbourne is located the emblematic beach of the apostles. 12 rock raise in height to about 40 meters or more vertically above the ocean surface.
If you travel to Melbourne with certainly have to visit the Great Otway National Park. Located on the ocean coast, the park is covered with amazingly beautiful forests.
Visit also Hordan lake, located next to it. About an hour drive south of Melbourne, at the south end of Port Phillip Bay there is a small coastal village named Queenscliff.
With its ancient architecture, the place looks like as in the 19th century. The small authentic streets will help you feel the spirit of the early days of modern Australia.
The situation resembles that of the wild west films. This place is extremely important for the development of tourism in Melbourne because for an young nation such as Australia everything that is somehow connected with the history is tremendously esteemed.
You will really regret if you do not explore the beautiful Fitzroy park located in central Melbourne. It is an attractive places to have a cup of drink among the freshness of the nature.
In Fitzroy park you will find models of rural houses, which are created by Britisher Edgar Wilson. Perhaps the biggest attraction of this park is the amazing house of the gardener, who has maintained the park – the Scotsman James Sinclair.
Wonderful place where to relax after a full day walk in the town center are the Royal Botanic Gardens. Under the thick shade of huge trees you will find in the summer heat longed coolness.
Another place that must necessarily include in your tourist route is the historic village Sovereign Hill. Thousand of Prospectors arrived here, eager for quick riches.
Today you can walk through the streets of this museum under the open sky and even watch the people dealing with their daily activities.
These of course, are actors, who are dressed in clothes typical of those times. The beautiful countryside in the outskirts of Melbourne is preserved in numerous parks and reserves.
Some of the special places in the nature of this state are the green Yara Range National Park, where through the thick forest on the mountain slopes descend small, but very fast flowing rivers, the State Park Cathedral Range, which is revealed by the amazing overlooking to the emerald green valley and the State Park Lerderderg, which seems somehow mystical with its dense and intertwined vegetation .
Melbourne has a huge choice of hotels – from the ordinary to extremely luxurious. One of the finest hotels in the town is the Windsor Hotel.
If you stay here, you will be at only one hand off some of the big attractions of Melbourne, such as the parliament building, the known Hardrock cafe, the park and the center with its impressive skyscrapers.
Although Melbourne is famous for many things, unfortunately, its beaches are not one of them.
This is really surprising, because the city and its surroundings there are really beautiful beaches. One of the most beautiful of them you can find at an hour drive south of Melbourne.
It is called Mirror Beach and is really impressive. Where the golden-brown sand meets the waves, the sand like a mirror reflects the sky and the clouds.
The local beaches are frequented mainly by residents of the town, who come to swim and ride a surfboard and are less frequently visited by tourists.
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