What You Need To Know

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. Melbourne consists of 31 municipalities.

Melbourne rates highly in education, entertainment, health care, research and development, tourism and sport, making it the world’s most livable city—for the fifth year in a row in 2015, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. It is a leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region, and ranks among the top 30 cities in the world in the Global Financial Centres Index.

Population: 4.4 million

Currency

• Currency. Australia has a decimal system with 100 cents to the dollar($AUD). Coins have values of 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents, $1 and $2 dollars. Notes have values of $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 AUD.

Weather

Melbourne has a temperate oceanic climate and is well known for its changeable weather conditions. This is mainly due to Melbourne’s location situated on the boundary of the very hot inland areas and the cool southern ocean. This temperature differential is most pronounced in the spring and summer months and can cause very strong cold fronts to form. These cold fronts can be responsible for all sorts of severe weather from gales to severe thunderstorms and hail, large temperature drops, and heavy rain.

Language

The official language in Melbourne is English.

Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 1.6{a33f6b2403dac92bbc4b39c00e75cf902f640f22cf5dc9f6820a3e36b62fe29e}, Italian 1.4{a33f6b2403dac92bbc4b39c00e75cf902f640f22cf5dc9f6820a3e36b62fe29e}, Arabic 1.3{a33f6b2403dac92bbc4b39c00e75cf902f640f22cf5dc9f6820a3e36b62fe29e}, Cantonese 1.2{a33f6b2403dac92bbc4b39c00e75cf902f640f22cf5dc9f6820a3e36b62fe29e} and Greek 1.2{a33f6b2403dac92bbc4b39c00e75cf902f640f22cf5dc9f6820a3e36b62fe29e}

Health and security

• The Government of Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services oversees about 30 public hospitals in the Melbourne metropolitan region, and 13 health services organisations.There are many major medical, neuroscience and biotechnology research institutions located in Melbourne: St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, Australian Stem Cell Centre, the Burnet Institute, Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Victorian Institute of Chemical Sciences, Brain Research Institute, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre.Other institutions include the Howard Florey Institute, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Instituteand the Australian Synchrotron. Many of these institutions are associated with and are located near universities.Among Australian capital cities, Melbourne ties with Canberra in first place for the highest male life expectancy (80.0 years) and ranks second behind Perth in female life expectancy (84.1 years).

Crime

Although Melbourne’s crime rate dropped 6.3{a33f6b2403dac92bbc4b39c00e75cf902f640f22cf5dc9f6820a3e36b62fe29e} in 2014, it still has Victoria’s worst crime rate with over 26,000 offences per 100,000 people, it remains a very safe city.

Transport

Like many Australian cities, Melbourne has a high dependency on the automobile for transport. Melbourne has an integrated public transport system based around extensive train, tram, bus and taxi systems.

Culture

Melbourne is an international cultural Centre, with cultural endeavors spanning major events and festivals, drama, musicals, comedy, music, art, architecture, literature, film and television. The climate, waterfront location and nightlife make it one of the most vibrant destinations in Australia. For five years in a row (as of 2015) it has held the top position in a survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit of the world’s most livable cities on the basis of a number of attributes which include its broad cultural offerings. The city celebrates a wide variety of annual cultural events and festivals of all types, including Australia’s largest free community festival—Moomba, the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Melbourne Fringe Festival. The culture of the city is an important draw card for tourists.