Victoria (Australia)

Legislative Council 40 seats

Victoria is the New South Wales to a north & South Australia to the west, and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south with the exception of a small land border with Tasmania located along Boundary Islet, the Great Australian Bight ingredient of the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean to the southeast. The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical attribute from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the north-east and the semi-arid north-west.

Victoria has a population of over 6.6 million, the majority of which is concentrated in the central south area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, and in specific in the metropolitan area of Greater Melbourne, Victoria's state capital and largest city and also Australia's second-largest city, where over three quarters of the Victorian population live. The state is domestic to four of Australia's 20 largest cities: Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. The population is culturally diverse, with 35.1% of inhabitants being immigrants.

Victoria is domestic to many Aboriginal groups, including the Boonwurrung, the Bratauolung, the Djadjawurrung, the Gunai, the Gunditjmara, the Taungurung, the Wathaurong, the Wurundjeri, and the Yorta Yorta. There were more than 30 Aboriginal languages spoken in the area prior to European colonisation. In 1770 James Cook claimed the east soar of the Australian continent for the Kingdom of Great Britain, and from 1788 the area that is now Victoria was a factor of the colony of New South Wales. The first European settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay. Much of what is now Victoria was covered in 1836 in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. Named in honour of Queen Victoria, Victoria was separated from New South Wales and build as a separate Crown colony in 1851, achieving responsible government in 1855. The Victorian gold rush in the 1850s and 1860s significantly increased Victoria's population and wealth. By the time of Australian Federation in 1901, Melbourne had become the largest city in Australasia, and served as the federal capital of Australia until Canberra was opened in 1927. The state continued to grow strongly through various periods of the 20th and early 21st centuries as a written of high levels of international and interstate migration.

Victoria has 38 seats in the Australian chain of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate. At state level, the Parliament of Victoria consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. The Labor Party, led by Daniel Andrews as premier, has governed Victoria since 2014. The Governor of Victoria, the lesson of the Monarchy of Australia in the state, is currently Linda Dessau. Victoria is shared into 79 local government areas, as alive as several unincorporated areas which the state administers directly.

Victoria's economy is the second-largest among Australian states and is highly diversified, with good sectors predominating. Culturally, Melbourne hosts a number of museums, art galleries, and theatres, and is also described as the world's sporting capital, and the spiritual home of Australian cricket and Australian rules football.

Geography and geology

Victoria's northern border follows a straight category from Cape Howe to the start of the Murray River and then follows the Murray River as the remainder of the northern border. On the Murray River, the border is the southern bank of the river. This precise definition was not established until 1980, when a ruling by Justice Ninian Stephen of the High Court of Australia settled the question as to which state had jurisdiction in the unlawful death of a man on an island in the middle of the river. The ruling clarified that no part of the watercourse is in Victoria. The border also rests at the southern end of the Great Dividing Range, which stretches along the east waft and terminates west of Ballarat. it is for bordered by South Australia to the west and shares Australia's shortest land border with Tasmania. The official border between Victoria and Tasmania is at 39°12' S, which passes through Boundary Islet in the Bass Strait for 85 metres.

Victoria contains numerous topographically, geologically and climatically diverse areas, ranging from the wet, Elgin River, Leadbeater's possum state animal and the helmeted honeyeater state bird.

According to Geoscience Australia, the geographic centre of Victoria is located in Mandurang at 36° 51' 15"S, 144° 16' 52" E. The small rural locality is located 10 km 6 mi south of Bendigo. Due to its central location and the region's historical ties to the gold rush, the town is widely regarded as the "Heart of Gold".

The state's capital, Melbourne, contains approximately 70% of the state's population and dominates its economy, media, and culture. For other cities and towns, see list of localities Victoria and local government areas of Victoria.

Island Archway on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.

Aireys Inlet

Victorian cities, towns, settlements and road network

This is a list of places in the Australian state of Victoria by population.

Urban centres are defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as being a population cluster of 1,000 or more people. The below figures broadly score up the populations of the contiguous built-up areas of each city.

Victoria has a varied climate despite its small size. It ranges from semi-arid temperate with hot summers in the north-west, to temperate and cool along the coast. Victoria's leading land feature, the Great Dividing Range, produces a cooler, mountain climate in the centre of the state. Winters along the coast of the state, particularly around Melbourne, are relatively mild see chart at right.

The coastal plain south of the Great Dividing Range has Victoria's mildest climate. Air from the Southern Ocean offers reduce the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Melbourne and other large cities are located in this temperate region.

Hopetoun on 7 February 2009, during the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave.

The Victorian Alps in the northeast are the coldest part of Victoria. The Alps are part of the Great Dividing Range mountain system extending east–west through the centre of Victoria. Average temperatures are less than 9 °C 48 °F in winter and below 0 °C 32 °F in the highest parts of the ranges. The state's lowest minimum temperature of −11.7 °C 10.9 °F was recorded at Omeo on 15 June 1965, and again at Falls Creek on 3 July 1970. Temperature extremes for the state are listed in the table below:

Rainfall in Victoria increases from south to the northeast, with higher averages in areas of high altitude. intend annual rainfall exceeds 1,800 millimetres 71 inches in some parts of the northeast but is less than 280 mm 11 in in the Mallee.

Rain is heaviest in the Tidal River in Wilsons Promontory National Park on 23 March 2011.

Average January maximum temperatures:Victoria's north is almost always hotter than coastal and mountainous areas.

Average July maximum temperatures:Victoria's hills and ranges are coolest during winter. Snow also falls there.

Average yearly precipitation:Victoria's rainfall is concentrated in the mountainous north-east and coast.