 Melbourne is the state capital and largest city in the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-largest city in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.7 million (2006 estimate). Melbourne is the southernmost city in the world to have a population of over one million people.
Melbourne is located in the south-eastern corner of mainland Australia, and is the southernmost mainland capital city. Geologically it is built on the confluence of Quaternary lava flows to the west, Silurian mudstones to the east and Holocene sand accumulation to the southeast along Port Phillip, its suburbs sprawling to the east, following the Yarra River out to the Yarra and Dandenong Ranges, south-east to the mouth of the bay, and following the Maribyrnong River and its tributaries west and north to flat farming country. |
