the Wurundjeri-william clan were custodians of an area along the Yarra and Plenty rivers and spoke a Kulin dialect called Woi wurrung. Boon wurrung were custodians of the Mornington Peninsula and Westernport region.

in 1803, David Collins (1756-1810) immortalised by the naming of Collins St, sailed into Port Phillip Bay with 300 convicts and tried unsuccessfully to establish a settlement at Sorrento (from where the famous convict Buckley escaped and managed to live with the local Aborigines for some 30 odd years until the British returned).

in 1824, Hume & Hovell passed through the grassy plains of Sunshine & Keilor, camping in the vicinity of Taylors & Sydenham Rds

in 1835, the settlement on the site of Melbourne was founded after John Batman proclaimed “This is the site for a village” as he sailed past on the Yarra River. Batman traded commodities with the Wurundjeri tribe in return for 600,000 acres of land. NSW Governor Richard Bourke later declared this deal illegal, claimed it for the Crown and named it after British Prime Minister William Lamb, Lord Melbourne instead of its previous name Bearbrass village.

John Pascoe Fawkner (1792-1869), a teetotaller, publican settles in Bearbrass village, building the 1st house - a hut near the Rialto. He is remembered by Fawkner Cemetery (where Batman is buried in the pioneers section), the suburb Pascoe Vale and Enterprize Park along the Yarra named after his vessel in which he sailed from Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania).

see also the squatter era in Victoria 1835-1847

Major Mitchell travels south to Melbourne in 1836

in 1838, a punt service was established across the Yarra River, followed shortly after by a ferry service.

1842, establishment of the Native Police Corps (1842-53) recruited from Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung people, based in Narre Warren and Dandenong but often used the Police Paddock barracks on the site of the MCG

1845, a crude timber toll bridge was built downstream of present Princes Bridge.

1846, Lennox's stone Prince's bridge over the Yarra was built (replaced in 1888)

1850, the first permanent bridge over the Yarra was built and was the longest stone arch ever built in Australia at 45.7m.

Map of Melbourne and suburbs 1866

see the Victorian gold rush of the 1850's

in January 1849, an ex-convict called Thomas Chapman found a 38 ounce gold nugget in Daisy Creek (7 km from Talbot) while working as a shepherd, this was to spark a minor Gold Rush which authorities had been trying to keep quiet to avoid lawlessness invading the land. The main gold rush only commenced in 1851 after the law was changed allowing miners to own the gold as long as they paid a miner's licence (formerly, any gold found was deemed property of the Crown).

1850: Lorne (Louttit Bay) in the Otways is used as a port for timber and its 1st settler developed a cattle run in 1853.

1851, colony of Victoria founded, with Charles La Trobe of Latrobe St fame (1801-1875) appointed as 1st governor, coinciding with the gold rush which resulted in 313,000 new settlers immigrating to Victoria, rapidly outstripping NSW in population & development. In 1852 alone, 86,000 British migrated seeking their fortune.

1853: In an effort to remove swampy areas in Melbourne, a law was passed in 1853 requiring those in low-lying areas to bury their homes. If a landowner refused or was too slow, the council was empowered to raise the level of the land itself and charge the costs. Hence excavations have discovered this buried fences and houses!

1853, James Blackburn (1803-1854) commences construction of Melbourne's 1st controlled water supply - the Yan Yean Reservoir, but soon after died of typhoid. Fresh tap water became available in 1857.

1853, govt grants MCC a new site for a cricket ground in the Government Paddock / Yarra Park which was to become the MCG.

1853, Joseph Reed (1828-1890), architect, wins competition to design Melbourne's Public Library and later teams with Frederick Barnes (1824-1884) to create a number of leading buildings in the boom era including Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne Town Hall, Trades Hall, Rippon Lea and St Michael's Church.

1854, the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat; The Age newspaper is founded and was soon taken over by David Syme (1827-1908).

1854, Melbourne's first railway bridge was built for Hobsons Bay Railway - a timber trestle bridge just below Yarra Falls, and soon a government built iron railway bridge with a record clear span of 61m was built across the Maribyrnong River for access to Williamstown.

1855, the gold rush brought a housing supply crisis in Melbourne, and to relieve the situation, prefabricated iron houses were imported from the United Kingdom and erected in some of Melbourne’s inner suburbs. By 1855 there were around 100 of these very modest dwellings in South Melbourne alone, a suburb then known for its many tents and known as canvas town. These were ordered from a catalogue, constructed in UK, dismantled, labelled, crated, shipped to Melbourne. At least 3 of these houses remain today, with one - Patterson House - still on its original site: 399 Coventry Street South Melbourne. Two others, Abercrombie House and Bellhouse were relocated from North Melbourne and Fitzroy.

1856, a wrought iron bridge built at Church St

1856: 136 hotels, inns and taverns crowded into an area one mile long and half a mile broad, bounded by Flinders, Spencer, Latrobe and Spring Streets, The hours were 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the warmer months of the year, with special licences available until midnight. Beer for ‘off the premises consumption’ could be bought on Sundays for two hours after 1 p.m.

1857, Ferdinand Von Mueller (1825-1896) becomes Victoria's 1st government botanist and curator for the Royal Botanic Gardens. 16 years later he was replaced by English landscape gardener William Guilfoyle(1840-1912) to changed it from an educational facility to a recreational one much to Von Mueller's displeasure.

1857: Kyneton was proclaimed a municipality and, thanks to the gold rush and through traffic, Kyneton became the state's major agricultural town and the general prosperity and development resulted in a building boom which saw bluestone quarrying become a substantial industry.

1859: the Bendigo train line construction reaches Sunbury

1861, iron lattice-girder road bridge built across the Yarra at eastern end of Bridge Rd which is Australia's oldest surviving metal truss bridge, although it has been modified twice since.

1861, the Albion & Darlington steam train stations on the Sunbury line which opened in 1860, are closed and demolished, Maidstone is closed in 1865

1862: the Bendigo train line construction reaches Castlemaine then Bendigo. It was extended to Echuca in 1864.

1863: the Great Flood of the Yarra River and inner suburbs in Dec 1863 but the original Princes Bridge survived although initiated plans to replace it and further flood mitigation strategies were later introduced

1876: William Wardell (1823-1899) architect, builds St Patrick's Cathedral, one of the biggest Gothic Revival churches in the world, and Government House.

1876: the 8 storey Yorkshire Brewery Tower in Collingwood becomes the tallest building in Melbourne and remains the tallest for the next 12 years.

1878: the private Melbourne and Hobson's Bay United Railway Company which controlled the lines from Flinders Street station to South Yarra was purchased by the State Government enabling the Gippsland line to be brought directly into Melbourne.

The 1880s saw extraordinary growth: consumer confidence, easy access to credit, and steep increases in land prices led to an enormous amount of construction. During this “land boom”, Melbourne reputedly became the richest city in the world and the second-largest (after London) in the British Empire.

1880, the Melbourne International Exhibition held in the large purpose-built Exhibition Building

1880, telephone exchange established

1880, foundations of St Paul's were laid

1880, white population reaches 2.2m; Ned Kelly hanged for murder of Mounted Constable Thomas Lonigan;

1880, train line opens from Carlsruhe to Daylesford, and then connected to Ballarat in 1887 (this line closed in 1978)

1881, the different gauges of the NSW and Vic train lines at Albury become joined to end the need for passengers to change trains

1881, George Adams (1839-1904), the founder of Tattersalls, initiates Australia's 1st public sweepstake on Easter Monday in Sydney.

1881, electric light was installed in the Eastern Market, and a generating station capable of supplying 2,000 incandescent lamps was in operation by 1882

1883, Edward W. Cole (1832-1918) founds his book arcade in Bourke St which stayed in business until 1929.

Melbourne's elite develop coastal resort towns of Sorrento, Queenscliff, Torquay and Lorne as well as a multitude of bay-side sea baths and bathing boxes for health and status purposes.

speculative investors borrow money in property boom which included new estates in Footscray

1887: establishment of a hydraulic facility allowed for the local manufacture of elevators, resulting in the first construction of high-rise buildings such as the 12-story APA Building, among the world's tallest commercial buildings upon completion in 1889.

1887: Dame Nellie Melba debuts in her opera career in Brussels.

1887: Ocean Grove developed and marketed to members of the Methodist Church as a alcohol-free beach camp meeting site with total bans on alcohol sales or production within its boundaries after two American Methodists — Reverend John Inskip and Reverend William Bramwell Osborn visited Australia in 1881 and were associated with a similar temperance town development in New Jersey which was also called Ocean Grove. The land was subdivided into about 2,500 allotments with an alcohol-free covenant placed on the land and advertised from £5 to £20 per lot in their Spectator journal. The first new building was the 60 room Coffee Palace social hub with tennis courts and bowling green - the building was demolished in 1969. Holiday makers often brought their own alcohol and drank on the quiet, but eventually pubs opened outside of the covenant region such as Barwon Heads, Bonnyvale Road and Sheel Roads. The covenant was squashed by a VCAT ruling in 2014.¹⁾

1888: Melbourne chosen over Sydney to commemorate the 100th anniversary of British settlement

1888: work started on the double track Flinders Street Viaduct linking Spencer Street Station to Flinders Street Station. This was expanded to 4 tracks in 1915.

1888, Lennox's stone Prince's bridge over the Yarra was replaced with an ornate three-span iron arch bridge which was much photographed with the city skyline behind it. Sandridge Rail Bridge built.

1888 royal commission probing the state of the city's public health (and its major sewage issue Smelbourne) led to the development of a crucial piece of the city's infrastructure: Melbourne's Western Treatment Plant at Werribee

1888: 10 storey Fink's Building in Elizabeth St becomes the tallest building in Melbourne at 43m height

1889: 12 storey The Australian Building in Elizabeth Street becomes the tallest building at 53m height

1889, Queens Bridge built

1889, horse-drawn trams (wheels on flat tracks to give smoother rides) introduced (eg. Sydney Road to Coburg) and ran until 1916 when they were replaced by cable trams

1890: steam strain service from Bendigo to Swan Hill opens

late 1880s: To avoid Humbug Reach, an area of the Yarra River which was prone to sailing ships being becalmed, the Yarra River course was changed by the creation of a canal which created Coode Island

1890, a steel lattice-truss bridge at Fairfield was completed for the Outer Circle Railway which ran from Fairfield station, on what is today the Hurstbridge line, to Oakleigh station

Melbourne street numbering system was discontinued in the 1880s to be replaced by the numbers starting from Spring Street and finishing at Spencer Street with no east/west name change for the streets.

1891: the stock market crash of 1891 leads to an extended period of economic depression

1890's, falling export prices, over-borrowing for expansion, bank failures, & general depression leads to strikes & class bitterness which encourages labour parties into politics.

1891: H.V. McKay's combined grain harvester revolutionised the farming process and helped make Australia a significant grain exporter. Initially manufactured in his Braybrook factory, peaking in 1910, he then went on to found a new factory, technical school, railway station & football oval and essentially, a new suburb called Sunshine - see History of Sunshine.

1893, iron swing bridge across the Maribyrnong built at Napier St to provide the first direct road access to the western suburbs, without closing the river to navigation.

recession contributes to slowing down of immigration. Many Chinese immigrants begin to return to China (some 100,000 arrived between 1840-90) as the gold rush ended & they became isolated with Victoria introducing a poll tax on new arrivals & creating protectorates.

NSW once again gains ascendancy over Victoria & the new colony of Queensland.

the Heidelberg School of Australian impressionist painters - see Ian Potter Gallery.

1899, the Morell Bridge opposite the Botanic Gardens was built using the patent Monier Reinforced Concrete process. It is generally regarded as Victoria's first major reinforced concrete structure and was the last significant bridge to be built over the Yarra for 25 years.

1900: Sidney Myer opens his 1st store - in Bendigo.

1901: Australia's federation hosted in Sydney which had become more populous than Melbourne after Melbourne's population dived 10% after the 1890's crash

1905: The licencing Reduction Board, later the Licencing Court, was set up and within ten years had closed more than a thousand hotels, many of them in the metropolitan area

1905: work begins on creating the Waranga Basin dam near Rushworth an 8.8m high and 7km long embankment was the largest project of its kind in the world at the time and the first major dam built in Australia.

1907: RACV introduces certificates of competency for car drivers to improve safety

1908: planning begins on the electrification of the suburban train system

1910: escapologist, Harry Houdini flies 1st plane in Australia at Diggers Rest, north of Melbourne

1911: Sidney Myer buys Bourke St drapery and begins a 20 year property consolidation to form the Myer complex in the 1920's & 30's.

1912: increasing use of Melbourne's beaches by the working classes, although still required to wear neck to knee bathing costumes, and only to wear bathing costumes whilst bathing and walking directly to change rooms results in mixed bathing on Melbourne beaches branded “the viper of promiscuous hoodlums” by a Presbyterian minister. Luna Park established in St Kilda to profit from the new beach culture based on fun rather than just health and status. Many Surf Life Saving Clubs became established in 1900-1910.

1919: first electric trains in service in Melbourne - running to Essendon, and to Sandringham

the rise in popularity of cars and buses and the electrification of the suburban train system

1921: Keith Murdoch (the father of Rupert Murdoch) begins as editor of The Herald newspaper, and then started The Sun News Pictorial.

1921: the suburban train line to Broadmeadows, the Whittlesea line to Reservoir, the Bendigo line to St Albans, and the inner sections of the Hurstbridge line were electrified

1922: the Gippsland line to Dandenong and Frankston line and the inner sections of the Ringwood line were electrified

1922: Fred Walker (1884-1935) enlists help of chemist Cyril Callister to create Vegemite.

1923, new Church Street Bridge built in reinforced concrete.

1923: the suburban train electrification scheme was officially completed, but over the next three years a number of short extensions were carried out. The Ashburton line was electrified in 1924, final works on the Lilydale line were completed in 1925, as was electrification on the line to Upper Ferntree Gully. Electrification on the outer ends of the Hurstbridge line were completed by 1926, the Whittlesea line to Thomastown was electrified in 1929.

1926: Myer's store Lonsdale St facade completed.

1929-30: the Railways Construction Branch built the Spencer Street Bridge in steel.

1930: the Burnley - Darling line was extended to Glen Waverley to become the Glen Waverley line.

1930: Spencer Street Bridge built blocking river traffic upstream and increasing usage of Victoria Dock.

1932: Cole's Book Arcade in Collins St demolished to make way for G.J.Coles' store (no relation to E.W.Cole, founder of Cole's Book Arcade)

1932: Manchester Unity Building opens and sports Melbourne's 1st public escalator (the 1st in Australia was in Sydney and opened earlier that year).

1933, The Country Roads (Borrowing) Act 1933 finally gave the CRB the powers to raise loan funds for metropolitan bridges.

Melbourne's Myer's Store becomes the largest department store in Australia.

1934: a big storm destroys many of Melbourne's bayside sea baths and bathing boxes that had been established in the late 19thC.

1934: the Grange Road Bridge built from a donation by confectionary entrepreneur MacPherson Robertson to celebrate Victoria's centenary.

1934 Dec: Great Flood Yarra bursts banks, over 400 buildings damaged, 6000 people made homeless, 36 people died. A single lake formed between Sth Yarra and Warrandyte.

1936-38: a composite design of welded steel girders and reinforced concrete deck was used to build Lynch's Bridge over the Maribyrnong while a single-piece concrete superstructure, cast as a single process over 117 hours, was used to build the Hoddle Bridge over the Yarra.

1939: after a long drought, on Jan 13th, Black Friday - 71 killed in a devastating bushfire affecting a large area of eastern Victoria and destroying the township of Narbethong - subsequently the Country Fire Authority (CFA) was formed.

cars were put up on blocks in garages because of lack of fuel

car headlights had to be almost completely covered in case of enemy attack

1944: 32 killed in a severe bushfire season which destroyed 700 homes including 50 in beachside suburbs Beaumaris and Mentone

1946: Melbourne was the first capital to herald the baby boom after World War II

1948: the FX Holden car introduced, followed in the 1950's by the iconic FJ

1948-52: the Swan Street Bridge over the Yarra took five years to complete.

1948: extension of the electrified train system - The Ashburton line was extended along the old Outer Circle track formation to Alamein station

1950: new Harris steel trains allowed retirement of the oldest swing door trains on the suburban lines

1953: "Puffing Billy" steam train ceases services after a landslide blocked the line between Selby and Menzies Creek, and it was formally closed in 1954, and not restored again until c1962.

1954: after the Country Roads and Level Crossings Act 1954 provided funding for bridges to eliminate dangerous railway crossings, a new type of bridge emerged the concrete ramp overpass - the first was the Clifton Hill Railway Overpass.

1955: the 20 storey Orica House in Nicholson St becomes the tallest building in Melbourne at 81m height

1955: a progressive Melbourne split the ALP and kept a reactionary DLP [Democratic Labor Party] alive.

1956: Myer's Bourke St facade gets a facelift.

1956: Lancefield branch train line closes after 75yrs service

1956: Melbourne Olympic Games; B&W commercial TV starts; Barry Humphries creates “Edna Everage”; subscriber trunk dialling introduced in Sydney & Melbourne;

perhaps the international interest in Melbourne resulting from the Olympics is a significant factor in the start of wholesale demolition of many of Melbourne's historic buildings.

1957-61: King St Bridge built, although a span collapsed in 1962 due to brittle failure in a cold spell.

1958: Bendigo-Heathcote train line closes after 70yrs service

1959: historic Melbourne Fish Market building on Flinders & Spencers Sts built in 1890, demolished to make way for the Flinders St overpass at King St which was built in 1961.

1959: historic Equitable Life Assurance Building (built 1896) on the cnr of Collins & Elizabeth Streets demolished. A 7 storey building of marble walls & floors with 15 tonne roof blocks. The building's 4m sculpture Charity being kind to the Poor had towered 4 storeys up over Collins St, and now stands on the lawn in the University of Melbourne.

1959: Brittania Hotel on Bourke & Queen demolished

1959: Fawkner line to Upfield and the Reservoir line to Lalor were both electrified

1960: work on a new modern Spencer Street train station begins

1960: the 113yr old Eastern Market at Exhibition & Bourke St demolished to make way for the 16 storey Southern Cross Hotel which was demolished in ~2000. The Eastern Market flourished in the 1880's having been run by E.W.Cole who went on to found Cole's Book Arcade which spanned the area from Bourke to Collins St where David Jones store now stands.

1960: British company Hammerson Property and Investments Trust purchased the 1848 Royal Mail Hotel for 455,000 pounds and demolished it later that year to build ofice and retail building SW cnr Swanston & Bourke St

1961: Royal Insurance Company purchases the 1860 Scott's Hotel to demolish it and build an office block in 1962.

1962: the Upper Ferntree Gully to Belgrave section of the Gembrook narrow gauge line was converted to broad gauge and electrified. Puffing Billy Preservation Society restores steam train services from Belgrave to Menzies Creek, then to Emerald in 1965.

1962: the Southern Cross Hotel opens, ushering Melbourne into a new era of international jet travel. Built, designed & run by American hotel chain, Intercontinental in partnership with local stockbrokers Potter Partners, primarily to cater for Americans travelling down under. With its vivid interior tiling decor, 17 second room service response time, shops and Melbourne's 1st tenpin bowling alley, it became the place to be in the 1960's, famously hosting the Beatles in 1964. In 1977, Pan Am sold it's interests and by the 1990's the hotel had become passe. It was sold to Republic of Nauru in 1994 and closed in 1995 with the intent to do extensive remodelling but it's owners failed to finance this and it was eventually resold and then completely demolished in 2003.

1964: the 1853 Yarra Family Hotel (which was on land originally purchased by John Batman in 1837) on Flinders and Williams St is demolished

Sept 1965: conscription for Vietnam war starts.

1965: Melbourne was the first capital to herald the end of post WWII baby boom after it had been the 1st capital to herald it's start in 1946.

1967: PM Harold Holt disappears whilst surfing off Portsea; postcode system for mail introduced;

1968: KFC arrives;

1968: Cliveden Mansions was sold for $444,000 to Dillingham Constructions P/L to make way for the Hilton Hotel

1969: 23 killed and 230 homes lost in 230 bushfires break out, many on the urban fringe including the Lara fire which killed 18 people who left their cars on the Princes Highway trying to out-run the fire front.

1969: natural gas piped to residential homes following discoveries in Bass Strait and becomes the dominant fuel in Victorian homes replacing town gas (a byproduct of coal), wood, briquettes and brown coal

1969: the 1867 Menzies Hotel on cnr Collins and Williams is demolished to make way for the corporate headquarters of BHP.

1969: the 28 storey AMP Square building in Bourke St becomes Melbourne's tallest building at 113m height

1971: 72% of Victorian population live in Melbourne;

1971: the 32 storey Mariand House in Bourke St becomes Melbourne's tallest building at 121m height

1972: the 41 storey building at 140 William St becomes Melbourne's tallest building at 152m height

1972: Champion's Hotel NW cnr Swanston and Flinders Lane which had become a branch of the State Savings Bank of Victoria is demolished and replaced by

1973: Bourke St closed to traffic to become a mall;

1973: the Federal Hotel SW cnr of Collins and King St is demolished to make way for “555 Collins St” office block. Proceeds from the sale and the sale of the Savoy allow building Wrest Point Casino in Hobart.

1975: Puffing Billy steam train services extended to Lakeside.

1976: Maldon train services close after 92 years of service

1977: the 52 storey building at 80 Collins St becomes Melbourne's tallest building at 182m height

1978: Westgate Bridge opens after 13yrs construction;

1978: Daylesford train line closes after 98 years service

1980: the 50 storey ANZ Bank Tower at Collins Place becomes Melbourne's tallest building at 185m

1981: one of the best snow seasons ever in Victoria

1982: Melbourne's Art Centre & Concert Hall opens;

1987: the St Kilda and Port Melbourne train line services are converted to light rail services (tram)

1990: Melbourne loses its bid for 1996 Olympic Games;

the early 1990's was a period of real estate and economic recession and recovery from the poor fiscal position that the previous Labor state government had left the state in.

Kennett slashed the public service workforces esp. in health and education and went ahead with industrial reform which together created social unrest and hardship for many, and continued the privatisation of public utilities (electricity supply, Port of Portland, prisons, public transport systems) which had commenced in the 1980's

1994: Werribee Mercy Hospital opens;

1995: 6th World Police & Fire Games held at MCG - the largest sporting event in Melbourne since 1956 Olympic Games.

despite having the enviable prospect of a large State fiscal surplus, little infrastructure has been added, but instead, some of the excessive service and job cuts of the Kennett era have been reversed to improve services on the back of the efficiency levels achieved under Kennett.

introduced the 30yr plan to restrict further outward growth of residential Melbourne amidst a real estate property boom from 1996-2003

redeveloped Austin Hospital with a budget blowout to some $350m

introduced 50kph residential speed limits and 40kph school zone limits

created driver paranoia by introducing a multitude of speed cameras which appear to be more a revenue raising tactic rather than the stated objective of reducing road trauma. Forced to repay millions of dollars in fines as fixed speed cameras found to be faulty while the contracted company that runs them goes into liquidation.

other than that, it seems to have bumbled its way through its terms trying to please everyone without much to show for it, while at the same time apparently wasting its surplus.

Dec 2015

commencement of removal of most level train crossings

2016: Melbourne leads Australia in terms of multiculturalism and has the 10th largest immigrant population among world metropolitan areas, and the first Australian city in which the largest ethnic community are migrants born in India (3.6%), followed by those born in China (3.5%), and then England (3%) and Vietnam (1.8%), with only 62% speaking only English at home (4.1% speak Mandarin and 2.4% speak Greekm 2.3% speak Italian), although 28% claim English ancestries and 26% “Australian” ancestries while 0.5% identify as Australian indigenous (24,000 people)²⁾

Sept 2016 - Bulldogs win a surprise AFL premiership

Feb 2017 AFLW women's football league hits the big time

Sept 2017 - Tigers win AFL premiership