Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria and the second-most populous city in Australia. The city occupies much of the northern and eastern coastlines of Port Phillip Bay. As of June 2025, the population of the city was 5.435 million. It is currently the southernmost city in the world with a population exceeding one million. Melbourne was founded in 1835 with the arrival of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush, the city entered a lengthy boom period that, by the late 1880s, had transformed it into one of the world's largest and wealthiest metropolises.
Typical weather
1981–presentCity Rhythm
measuredOpening hours, by kind of place
median across mapped venuesVital absurdities
measured · the Anti-AwardsSame time system
by rhythmWhat to do each season
4summer
warm and changeable; openmeteo mean 17.8-19.9 °C (Feb warmest 19.9); the driest months (Jan-Feb 1.7-1.5 mm/day); strong cold fronts can drop temperatures sharply and bring gales, thunderstorms or hail
- the Australian Open (January) and the summer cricket/AFL pre-season; the Port Phillip Bay beach season
- the changeable 'four-seasons-in-a-day' summer is the city's defining climate trait
autumn
cooling; openmeteo mean 12.5-18.4 °C; the 'mad March' festival window; rainfall increasing
- 'mad March' — the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, the Comedy Festival, the F1 Australian Grand Prix and Moomba cluster in early autumn
- the AFL season begins (mid-March)
winter
cool and cloudy but relatively dry; openmeteo mean 9.1-10.1 °C (Jul coolest 9.1); the rain-shadowed winter; only 48.6 clear days annually
- the cool cloudy winter — the indoor cultural season (theatre, galleries, the laneway cafés); the AFL mid-season
spring
warming and the wettest; openmeteo mean 11.4-15.8 °C; the changeable-cold-front window is 'most pronounced in the spring and summer months'; the wettest months (Sep-Nov 2.3-2.4 mm/day)
- the AFL Grand Final (late September) and the Melbourne Cup (first Tuesday of November)
- the bay-effect rain and isolated convective showers of spring
What it is known for
Important moments in a year
Australian Open
- the Australian Open — the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments
Melbourne Cup
- the Melbourne Cup — 'the race that stops a nation'
- the world's richest handicap horse race; a public holiday since 1873
Australian Grand Prix
- the Formula One Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Circuit (since 1996)
Afl Grand Final
- the AFL Grand Final — the championship of Australian rules football, Australia's most popular sport
1956 Summer Olympics
- Melbourne hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics — the first Olympic Games held outside Europe and the United States
Mad March
- 'mad March' — the cluster of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, the Comedy Festival, Moomba and the F1
On the record
source-trackedMelbourne has a temperate oceanic (Köppen: Cfb) or humid subtropical (Trewartha: Cf) climate, with warm summers and cool winters.
Melbourne is well known for its changeable weather conditions, mainly due to it being located on the boundary of hot inland areas and the cool southern ocean. This temperature differential is most pronounced in the spring and summer months and can cause strong cold fronts to form.
Winters, while exceptionally dry by southern Victorian standards, are often cloudy. The lack of winter rainfall is because of Melbourne's rain shadowed location between the Otway and Macedon Ranges.
Melbourne is well known for its changeable weather conditions, mainly due to it being located on the boundary of hot inland areas and the cool southern ocean.
Often referred to as Australia's cultural capital, Melbourne is known for its music, theatre and arts scenes.
For much of the 2010s, Melbourne topped The Economist Intelligence Unit's list of the world's most liveable cities.
In 2008, it became the second UNESCO City of Literature.
Melbourne's laneways and arcades are of particular importance for the city's tourism — Hosier Lane attracted one million visitors in each year prior to the COVID pandemic.
The Melbourne Cup is the world's richest handicap horse race, and is known as 'the race that stops a nation'.
Melbourne's tram network overtook Sydney's to become the world's largest in the 1940s.
The club [Melbourne Cricket Club] manages one of the world's largest stadiums, the 100,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
The method behind this atlas — 196 pp. Not published yet.