Timeline of Melbourne history

The Melbourne skyline and Yarra River.

This is a timeline of major events in the history of the city of Melbourne, Australia.

Pre-European settlement

• At least 30,000 years of settlement by various Aboriginal nations that were existing then

18th century

• 1797 – George Bass explores the south-east coast of Australia

19th century

A map dating to the 1880s shows the well-established suburbs of Melbourne.

• 1800 – James Grant explores the south-east of Australia
• 1801 – John Murray sails into Port Phillip in the Lady Nelson
• 1803 – Charles Robbins and Charles Grimes explore the entirety of Port Phillip and discover the Yarra River in the Cumberland
• 1803 – David Collins sent from Sydney to establish a settlement for the British Government. Unaware of previous discoveries, Collins settles near present-day Sullivan Bay on the Mornington Peninsula. This settlement is abandoned five months later.
• 1834 – The Henty family establish first long-term European settlement in Victoria at Portland
• 1835 – John Batman sails to the mouth of the Yarra from Tasmania in the Rebecca
• 1835 – John Batman 'buys' the 2,430 km² that Melbourne would be founded on from the local Aboriginal nation, the Wurundjeri. The Batman Deed is now widely recognised to be more of a treaty than a sale.
• 1835 – Melbourne is founded by John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner
• 1836 – William Lonsdale built the first government block, declaring Melbourne the capital of the Port Phillip district
• 1837 – 28 March -The Hoddle Grid of streets for the central business district is surveyed by Robert Hoddle
• 1837 – 1 June – First inner-city land sale
• 1838 – Melbourne is declared a legal port and administrative centre, opening the way for vastly increased immigration
• 1838 – Melbourne Cricket Club is founded
• 1838 – Second inner-city land sale
• 1839 – Third inner-city land sale. Quarrying of bluestone began out of the Melbourne Corporation Quarry at Clifton Hill.
• 1840 – First petition for the separation of Port Phillip District from New South Wales drafted by Henry Fyshe Gisborne and presented to Governor George Gipps.
• 1841 – First seaport and market are opened
• 1842 – Melbourne Municipal Corporation Act was passed in Sydney. Melbourne City Council is formed.
• 1845 – First Princes Bridge constructed connecting both sides of the Yarra
• 1846 - The Melbourne Botanic Gardens is founded
• 1847 – Melbourne declared a city by Queen Victoria on 25 June.
• 1847 – Melbourne Building Act was passed in 1847 based on Sydney act of 1833.
• 1848 – Melbourne Hospital founded (from 1935 the hospital is called The Royal Melbourne Hospital)
• 1851 – Beginning of the Victorian gold rush with discovery of gold at Buninyong
• 1851 – Victoria becomes a colony, separate from New South Wales
• 1851 – First state Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe inaugurated
• 1852 – City's first gas works is opened
• 1853 – The University of Melbourne is founded
• 1854 – The Melbourne Terminus (first Flinders Street station building) is completed
• 1854 – First steam railway journey in Australia from Melbourne Terminus (on the current site of Flinders Street station) to Sandridge (later Port Melbourne)
• 1854 – Melbourne Exhibition held in conjunction with Exposition Universelle (1855)
• 1854 – The State Library of Victoria is founded
• 1854 – First telegraph service, to Williamstown
• 1854 – The first Town Hall is completed
• 1855 – First state Governor Sir Charles Hotham inaugurated
• 1855 – The Melbourne Museum is founded
• 1856 – Stonemasons win the eight-hour day
• 1857 – First reservoir water supply (at Yan Yean Reservoir) tapped outside city limits
• 1857 – Queen Victoria Market is founded
• 1857 – Victoria's first country railway from Geelong to Melbourne is built
• 1857 – City streets first lit by gas lighting
• 1858 – 7 August – a game of football played between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College
• 1858 – First inter-city telegraph services, to Adelaide and Sydney
• 1859 – 14 May – Melbourne Football Club, Australia's oldest football club, is founded
• 1859 – Spencer Street Station (then Batman's Hill Station) and Princes Gate Station completed
• 1859 – Construction of the General Post Office begins
• 1859 – First Melbourne Trades Hall building opened.
• 1860 – The Burke and Wills expedition departed from Royal Park.
• 1861 – National Gallery of Victoria is founded
• 1861 – First Melbourne Cup
• 1861 – Victorian Exhibition held
• 1861 – Melbourne's population reaches 125,000
• 1862 – Melbourne Zoo founded
• 1863 – Batman's Hill levelled
• 1865 – Melbourne overtakes Sydney to become Australia's most populous city
• 1866 – Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia held
• 1867 – The current Town Hall begins construction
• 1869 – The Royal Mint is completed
• 1874 – The Supreme Court building is completed
• 1875 – Victorian Intercolonial Exhibition held
• 1877 – First Test cricket match, between Australia and the MCC, at the MCG. First season of the Victorian Football Association.
• 1878 – Xavier College, in Kew, is founded after the increased need of boarding space for the oldest Jesuit School in Melbourne, St. Pat's.
• 1878 – Ruyton Girls' School, also in Kew is founded by Charlotte Anderson. Its land includes the heritage listed Henty House, built by the seminal Hentys of Sussex.
• 1880 - Ned Kelly hanged in Melbourne Gaol
• 1880 – Royal Exhibition Building opened
• 1880 – Melbourne International Exhibition held
• 1883 – The historic Yarra-Yarra Falls (near Queens Bridge) removed using explosives
• 1884 – Victorian International Exhibition held
• 1885 – First cable tram line opens in the Melbourne cable tramway system
• 1885 – Victorians' Jubilee Exhibition
• 1887 – The current Town Hall is completed
• 1888 – Victorian Juvenile Industrial Exhibition and Centennial International Exhibition held
• 1890 – The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works is formed
• 1894 – City streets first lit by electric lighting
• 1897 – First season of the Victorian Football League
• 1897 – First part of the mains sewage system becomes operational

20th century

Chart of Melbourne's population growth since first settlement in 1851.

• 1900 – The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook narrow-gauge railway (now Puffing Billy Railway) opens
• 1900 – Construction of the current Flinders Street station building begins
• 1901 – The Commonwealth of Australia is formed. Melbourne becomes national capital
• 1902 – Sydney recovers title from Melbourne as Australia's most populous city
• 1903 – The City Baths are opened
• 1905 – First Australian Open championship
• 1905 – Melbourne Continuation School, Victoria's first state secondary school, is founded in Spring Street
• 1906 – First electric tram service commences
• 1907 – The General Post Office is completed
• 1910 – Current Flinders Street station building is completed
• 1913 – The Domed Reading Room of the State Library is opened
• 1916 – Strict height limit of 32 feet (40 metres) imposed on all buildings
• 1916 – Introduction of 6:00pm closing for all hotels (abolished in 1966)
• 1919 – Electric suburban train services commence on the Broadmeadows line
• 1923 – W-class Melbourne trams introduced.
• 1923 – 1923 Victorian Police strike
• 1924 – First radio station 3AR (now known as Radio National.)
• 1927 – Federal Parliament is moved to Canberra, the new national capital
• 1928 – Melbourne City Council installs the city's first set of traffic lights at Collins and Swanston streets
• 1940 – Last cable tram service ends operation
• 1943 – Russell Street Police Headquarters building is completed
• 1954 – April—Victorian Railways closes the Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook narrow-gauge railway (now Puffing Billy Railway)
• 1954 – First Moomba parade
• 1954 – Proposal to destroy much of East Melbourne and Jolimont to make way for an inner city ringroad.
• 1955 – City's first parking meters are installed
• 1955 – ICI building given special exception from CBD height limits
• 1956 – First television station HSV-7
• 1956 – The Olympic Games held in Melbourne
• 1957 – Plot ratio height limits introduced to CBD (dependent upon floor space and light angles), plazas and open space. By laws introduced for compulsory carspace for all new city buildings. 1.45 m setbacks for 'Little' streets introduced to widen footpaths.
• 1959 – Sidney Myer Music Bowl opened
• 1961 – Proposal to demolish Flinders Street station and replace it with office blocks.
• 1962 – The Puffing Billy Railway is re-opened as a tourist attraction
• 1966 – Abolition of 6:00pm closingof hotels (introduced in 1916)
• 1967 – first woman city councillor Clare Cascarret
• 1969 – Proposal to demolish the Regent Theatre for multi-storey development.
• 1970 – (15 October) 35 construction workers die when a span of the West Gate Bridge collapses
• 1974 – Underground Rail Loop begins construction
• 1975 – Z-class tram introduced
• 1975 – 1 March, Colour television introduced.
• 1982 – The City Loop subway is opened
• 1983 – (8 February) The Melbourne dust storm and (16 February) Ash Wednesday fires occur
• 1985 – Port Melbourne and St Kilda train lines are converted to light rail
• 1985 – B-class trams introduced
• 1986 – Car-bombing outside the Russell Street Police Headquarters kills one police officer
• 1986 – Rialto Towers completed and becomes the city's tallest building as well as the tallest in the southern hemisphere
• 1986 – Pablo Picasso's Weeping Woman is stolen from National Gallery of Victoria by activists. Returned a week later
• 1987 – Hoddle Street Massacre, killing 7 and injuring 19.
• 1987 – Queen Street Massacre, killing 8 and injuring 5.
• 1990 – Southbank promenade opens, paving the way for urban renewal in Southbank
• 1991 – Melbourne experiences a severe economic slump; City property markets crash and CBD vacancy rates reach all-time high.
• 1992 – Pedestrianisation of Swanston Street creates Swanston Street Walk
• 1992 – Postcode 3000 policy attracts residents to the city centre, warehouses and offices are converted into apartments and CBD vacancy rates drop.
• 1994 – Opening of the Melbourne Observation Deck in Rialto Towers
• 1994 – Tasty nightclub raid
• 1995 – Host City to the World Police and Fire Games
• 1996 – Development of the Docklands area begins
• 1996 – Construction of the CityLink freeways begins
• 1996 – Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre opens
• 1996 – Melbourne wins right to host Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Lake
• 1997 – The new site for Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex, Melbourne's first gambling centre opens.
• 1999 – Bolte Bridge open for traffic.

21st century

• 2000 – New Melbourne Museum officially opened.
• 2000 – The CityLink freeways open, including two new tunnels, a new cross-harbour bridge, and electronic tolling.
• 2000 – Docklands Stadium (later renamed Colonial Stadium, then Telstra dome, currently Etihad Stadium) completed.
• 2000 – 6 March—Bourke Street redevelopment.
• 2002 – Controversial Melbourne 2030 planning policy introduced. Aimed to increase population in designated 'activity centres' and curb urban sprawl. Promises to increase public transport usage to 20% of motorised trips by 2020.
• 2003 – 2003 Melbourne thunderstorm.
• 2004 – Melbourne Victory FC is formed.
• 2005 – 2005 Melbourne Thunderstorm.
• 2006 – Commonwealth Games held.
• 2007 – 2007 FINA Swimming World Championships are held.
• 2008 – New Eastlink freeway completed.
• 2008 – M1 upgrade begins
• 2009 – Victorian bushfires around Melbourne—worst fires in the history of the city
• 2009 – Melbourne Heart FC is formed.
• 2010 – Severe Thunderstorm 6 March, once in a century storm with 10 cm hail stones.
• 2010 – Melbourne Celebrates 175th Birthday
• 2011 – Queen Elizabeth II visits Melbourne
• 2015 - Melbourne Heart changes name to Melbourne City

See also

• History of Melbourne