Description

Spanning the relatively narrow Yarra River is the Princes Bridge, surrounded in the recent years by the development of a steel, concrete and glass profile. The basis for Melbourne’s sophistication, however, is its early Gothic buildings. Melbourne is Australia’s second largest city and thought by many to be the grande dame.

Founded in 1835 by John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, Melbourne entered a boom period with the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851. Centred on the north bank of the Yarra River and at the head of Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne has a population of 3.2 million living in the flat surrounding suburbs from the east coast of the bay out to the blue hills of the Dandenongs.