City of Melbourne

thumb|The [[Flag of Melbourne|city flag of Melbourne.]]

thumb|The Melbourne City coat of arms

thumb|[[Melbourne Town Hall on Swanston Street built 1870–1887]]

The City of Melbourne is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central city area of Melbourne. In 2021, the city has an area of and had a population of 149,615. The city's motto is "vires acquirit eundo" which means "we gather strength as we go".

The current Lord Mayor is Nicholas Reece, who replaced Sally Capp on 2 July 2024. The Melbourne City Council (MCC) holds office in Melbourne Town Hall.

History

19th century

Melbourne was founded in 1835, during the reign of King William IV, following the arrival of the schooner Enterprize near the present site of the Queen's Wharf. Unlike other Australian capital cities, Melbourne did not originate under official auspices, instead owing its origins to non-indigenous settlers from Tasmania.

Having been a province of New South Wales from its establishment in 1835, affairs of the settlement had been administered by the Parliament of New South Wales. With the growth of the settlement there had been an increasing demand by the inhabitants for greater autonomy over their own affairs. On 12 August 1842, Melbourne was incorporated as a town by Act 6 Victoria No. 7 of the Governor and Legislative Council of New South Wales.

The town of Melbourne was raised to the status of a city by Letters Patent of Queen Victoria dated 25 June 1847, five years after its incorporation as a town. The Letters Patent also constituted the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne and declared Melbourne a cathedral city. A motion was tabled at a meeting of the Town Council to alter the style and title of Melbourne from a town to a city, a draft Bill was approved and transmitted to the Government for introduction to the Legislature. On 3 August 1849, Act 13 Victoria No. 14 was finally assented to as "An Act to effect a change in the Style and Title of the Corporation of Melbourne rendered necessary by the erection of the Town of Melbourne to a City".

The city's initial boundaries, as set down in Act 8 Victoria No. 12 (19 December 1844) extended from Point Ormond in Elwood up Barkly Street and Punt Road to the Yarra River, along the river to Merri Creek at Abbotsford, then west along Brunswick Road to Moonee Ponds Creek, then south past Flemington Bridge to Princes Pier in Port Melbourne.

thumb|The City of Melbourne's boundaries before (green) and after (yellow) the 1993 changes 🞲 Area transferred from the [[City of Moonee Valley in 2008]]

Following a recommendation by the Local Government Advisory Board in 1978, an Order in Council (27 February 1979, effective from 19 May 1979) reduced the wards from eleven to eight. In December 1980, the Hamer Government dismissed the council, and appointed three Commissioners to determine how the boundaries could best be altered to produce more effective local government, with special regard to Melbourne's central business district and its importance to the state, as well as to advise changes needed to the constitution, structure, functions and administration. However, in 1982, with the election of a new Labor government under John Cain, the Act establishing the commission was repealed, and the Melbourne Corporation (Election of Council) Act 1982 established six wards, for which an election was held on 4 December 1982. Three years later, an additional ward was added. In 2012, the number of Councillors was increased to nine, in addition to the Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor.

In 1999, local government control of the docks area on the west side of the city was given to the Victorian Government's Docklands Authority.

21st century

In 2005, the council announced the construction of a new 6-star environmental office building, Council House 2, in Little Collins Street.

On 2 July 2007, the suburb of Docklands was re-added to the City's jurisdiction.

On 1 July 2008, a section of Kensington and North Melbourne was transferred to the City of Melbourne from the City of Moonee Valley.

In July 2009, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle unveiled a new corporate identity for the City of Melbourne, costing $239,558.

Building on the council's longstanding interest in environmental issues, on 16 July 2019, the council voted to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency in line with similar declarations made elsewhere.

Following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the City of Melbourne caused controversy and breached protocol, by failing to lower the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to half mast, whilst the Australian flag was lowered in mourning.

Council

The City of Melbourne is an unsubdivided municipality, consisting of a directly elected Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor, and nine Councillors. Since 2008, all Victorian councillors serve a four-year term. The most recent general election was held on Saturday 26th October 2024, the next election will take place in October 2028.

During a general election, the City of Melbourne holds two simultaneous elections – one to elect the Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor (leadership team) and the other to elect the nine councillors.

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan="2"|Party!!Councillors

| | 

| Team Nick Reece

| align=right | 4

| | 

| Greens

| align=right | 1

| | 

| Innovate Melbourne

| align=right | 1

| | 

| Labor

| align=right | 1

| | 

| Liberal

| align=right | 1

| | 

| Team Kouta

| align=right | 1

| | 

| Team Morgan

| align=right | 1

| | 

| Team Wood

| align=right | 1

| colspan="2"|Total

| align=right | 11

{| class="wikitable""

! colspan="2"| Party

! Councillor

! Notes

| | 

| Team Nick Reece

| Nick Reece

| Mayor

| | 

| Team Nick Reece

| Roshena Campbell

| Deputy Mayor

| | 

| Team Nick Reece

| Kevin Louey

| | 

| Liberal

| Owen Guest

| | 

| Greens

| Olivia Ball

| | 

| Team Kouta

| Gladys Liu

| | 

| Team Wood

| Philip Le Liu

| | 

| Team Nick Reece

| Mark Scott

| | 

| Team Morgan

| Rafael Camillo

| | 

| Innovate Melbourne

| Andrew Rowse

| | 

| Labor

| Davydd Griffiths

Election results

2024

2020

Demographics

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan=7|Selected historical census data for City of Melbourne local government area

!colspan=3|Census year !!2001!!2006!!2011!!2016

|rowspan=4 colspan="2"|Population ||Estimated residents on census night ||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|

|align="right"|LGA rank in terms of size within Victoria ||align="right"| ||align="right"|30 ||align="right"| 25 ||align="right"| 18

|align="right"|% of Victoria population ||align="right"|1.32% ||align="right"| 1.45% ||align="right"| 1.75% ||align="right"| 2.29%

|align="right"|% of Australian population ||align="right"|0.32% ||align="right"| 0.36% ||align="right"| 0.44% ||align="right"| 0.58%

!colspan=3|Cultural and language diversity !! !! !! !!

|rowspan=5 colspan=2|Ancestry, top responses ||Chinese||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|17.1% ||align="right"| 22.8%

|English||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|16.8% ||align="right"| 14.1%

|Australian||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|12.7% ||align="right"| 9.7%

|Irish||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|7.3% ||align="right"| 6.0%

|Scottish||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|5.6% ||align="right"| 4.5%

|rowspan=8 colspan=2|Language, top responses (other than English) ||Mandarin||align="right"|4.7% ||align="right"| 8.1% ||align="right"| 10.4% ||align="right"| 18.7%

|Cantonese||align="right"|4.7% ||align="right"| 5.6% ||align="right"| 4.9% ||align="right"| 3.9%

|Indonesian||align="right"|3.1% ||align="right"| 3.1% ||align="right"| 2.7% ||align="right"| 2.2%

|Italian||align="right"|1.8% ||align="right"| 1.4% ||align="right"| ||align="right"|

|Vietnamese||align="right"|1.3% ||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|

|Korean||align="right"| ||align="right"|1.2% ||align="right"| 1.4% ||align="right"| 2.1%

|Arabic||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|1.5% ||align="right"|

|Spanish||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|1.7%

!colspan=3|Religious affiliation !! !! !! !!

|rowspan=7 colspan=2|Religious affiliation, top responses ||No religion||align="right"|21.1% ||align="right"| 26.6% ||align="right"| 33.8% ||align="right"| 44.5%

|Catholic||align="right"|20.2% ||align="right"| 18.6% ||align="right"| 17.2% ||align="right"| 12.9%

|Anglican||align="right"|11.9% ||align="right"| 8.4% ||align="right"| 6.5% ||align="right"|

|Buddhism||align="right"|6.2% ||align="right"| 7.5% ||align="right"| 7.6% ||align="right"| 6.9%

|Uniting||align="right"|4.0% ||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|

|Islam||align="right"| ||align="right"|3.5% ||align="right"| 4.5% ||align="right"|

|Hinduism||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"| ||align="right"|4.0%

!colspan=3|Median weekly incomes !! !! !! !!

|rowspan=2 colspan=2|Personal income ||Median weekly personal income||align="right"| ||align="right"|566 ||align="right"|711 ||align="right"|642

|align="right"|% of Australian median income||align="right"| ||align="right"|121.5% ||align="right"|123.2% ||align="right"|97.0%

|rowspan=2 colspan=2|Family income ||Median weekly family income||align="right"| ||align="right"|1627 ||align="right"|1962 ||align="right"|2062

|align="right"|% of Australian median income||align="right"| ||align="right"|138.9% ||align="right"|132.5% ||align="right"|118.9%

|rowspan=2 colspan=2|Household income ||Median weekly household income||align="right"| ||align="right"|1081 ||align="right"|1352 ||align="right"|1354

|align="right"|% of Australian median income||align="right"| ||align="right"|105.3% ||align="right"|109.6% ||align="right"|94.2%

!colspan=3|Dwelling structure !! !! !! !!

|rowspan=4 colspan=2|Dwelling type ||Separate house||align="right"|5.6% ||align="right"| 3.7% ||align="right"| 5.1% ||align="right"| 2.9%

|Semi-detached, terrace or townhouse||align="right"|21.1% ||align="right"|16.6%  ||align="right"| 16.7% ||align="right"| 12.7%

|Flat or apartment||align="right"|70.4% ||align="right"| 79.2% ||align="right"| 77.9% ||align="right"| 83.4%

Townships and localities

The 2021 census, the city had a population of 149,615 up from 135,959 in the 2016 census

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"

! colspan="3" | Population

! Locality !! 2016 !! 2021

| || 18,535 || 16,055

| Carlton North^ || 6,300 || 6,177

| Docklands || 10,964 || 15,495

| East Melbourne || 4,964 || 4,896

| ^ || 7,719 || 7,025

| || 10,812 || 10,745

| Melbourne CBD^ || 47,285 || 54,941

| North Melbourne || 14,940 || 14,953

| ^ || 7,409 || 7,074

| Port Melbourne^ || 16,175 || 17,633

| South Wharf || 106 || 71

| South Yarra^ || 25,147 || 25,028

| ^ || 18,709 || 22,631

| || 5,515 || 8,025

^ - Territory divided with another LGA

Population of the urban area

{| class="wikitable"

! Year || 1954 || 1958 || 1961 || 1966 || 1971 || 1976 || 1981 || 1986 || 1991 || 1996 || 2001 || 2006 || 2011 || 2016 || 2021

| Population ||align="right"| 93,172 ||align="right"| 89,800* ||align="right"| 76,810 ||align="right"| 75,709 ||align="right"| 75,830 ||align="right"| 65,167 ||align="right"| 59,100* ||align="right"| 56,100* ||align="right"| 38,504 ||align="right"| 45,253 ||align="right"| 60,745 ||align="right"| 71,380 ||align="right"| 93,625 ||align="right"| 135,959 ||align="right"| 149,615

* Estimates in 1958, 1983 and 1988 Victorian Year Books.

Railway stations

thumb|upright|Flinders Street station

|City Loop

|Upfield, Cragieburn and Werribee, Williamstown Lines

Flagstaff
Flinders Street
Melbourne Central
Parliament
Southern Cross

Other

Royal Park
Macaulay
North Melbourne
South Kensington

|Mernda and Hurstbridge Lines

Jolimont

|Flemington Racecourses Line

Showgrounds

Flemington Racecourse

|Metro Tunnel Lines

Arden

Parkville

State Library

Town Hall

Anzac

Schools

Public

University High School
Victorian College for the Deaf
Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School

Carlton Primary School
Carlton Gardens Primary School
Docklands Primary School
North Melbourne Primary School
South Yarra Primary School

Private

Christ Church Grammar School (Victoria, Primary)
Eltham College – Year 9 City Campus
Haileybury College - City Campus
Melbourne Girls' Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School
Tintern Grammar
Wesley College – St Kilda Road Campuses

Catholic

St Aloysius' College
St Joseph's College
Simonds Catholic College
St Michaels Catholic Primary School

Sister cities

thumb|250px|The Tianjin Garden on [[Spring Street, Melbourne|Spring Street serves as a symbol of Melbourne's close friendship with its sister city Tianjin.]]

The City of Melbourne has five sister cities:

Osaka, Japan (established 1978)
Tianjin, China (established 1980)
Thessaloniki, Greece (established 1984)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States (established 1985)
Milan, Italy (established 2004)

Between 1989 and 2022, the City of Melbourne had a sister city relationship with Saint Petersburg, Russia; this sister city relationship was indefinitely suspended on 1 March 2022, then terminated on 30 May 2023, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In addition to the sister cities, the City of Melbourne also cooperates with: