41 Facts You Never Knew About Melbourne

Melbourne is One of the most liveable cities on earth and is Australis’s best known landmark city, and also known for its glorious dining options fitting for all budgets, its cultural diversity, and the hip and vibrant dynamic metropolis.

We are listing out facts about Melbourne you probably did not know and trust me, they are some interesting facts you would want to check them out in person all over again!

1. the first ever traffic lights in Australia were installed in 1912, at the corner of Collins and Swanton Street.
2. Did you know that Fisherman’s Bend, Port Melbourne is the only place in the world that makes Vegemite?
3. In 1961, Toto’s Pizza House located in Little Italy, Lygon street opened its doors as the First Pizza restaurant in Melbourne, at its serving some great pizzas to date.
4. Have you heard of the train station mix up in Mumbai and Melbourne? Well, the story goes that when the Mumbai and Flinders Street stations were designed in the UK, the shipments were labelled wrong. So, Melbourne got Mumbai’s intended Rail station.
5. MacRobertsons Steam Confectionary Works were responsible for inventing delicious delights such as Crunchie in 1929, Cherry Ripe in 1924 and famous Freddo Frog in 1930. Best of all the company was based in Fitzroy Melbourne for over 100 years. It was later that Cadbury bought over the firm in 1967.
6. My Vivid Melbourne is the only place in Melbourne that converts its captures to beautiful Melbourne art pieces with unique styles to the world.
7. The modern-day city of Melbourne in Australia was briefly named 'Batmania' after John Batman, who claimed to have found the city in 1835. It has nothing to do with Bruce Wayne.
8. Melbournian James Freeland Lealock invented and built the first Ute in 1929.
9. The first compulsory seat belt law was put in place in 1970, by the State of Victoria, Australia
10. ACMI’s Gallery 1 was originally Princes Bridge railway station and acted as the terminal for the Epping and Hurstbridge Lines.
11. Melbourne is the fox capital of the world with a startling 6 – 23 foxes per square kilometre in central Melbourne as per RSPCA/
12. The world’s first feature film The Story of the Kelly Gang(1906) was filmed in Melbourne and has a real length of about 1,200 meters and a running time of over an hour. making it the longest narrative film yet seen in the world.
13. The world’s largest stained- glass ceiling at The National Gallery of Victoria’s Great Hall measuring 51 meters long and 15 meters wide is a masterpiece created by the Australian artist Leonard French.
14. In 1956, Melbourne was put on the map for becoming the first city outside North America or Europe to hold the Olympics.
15. Melbournian Dr. David Warren of the Aeronautical Research Centre invented the Black Box flight recorder in 1958 which is now used in aircrafts worldwide. The invention came after his father died in a plane crash in 1934.
16. Melbourne was Australia’s capital city between 1901 and 1927.
17. Melbourne is the sporting capital of the world, which isn’t surprising considering we host the Australian Open, the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, the AFL Grand Final, the MotoGP and the Spring Racing Carnival.
18. We hold the title as the only city in the world with five international standard sporting facilities on the fringes of the CBD: the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Docklands Stadium (Etihad), Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena and Olympic Park in Melbourne Park.
19. Joy 94.9, Australia’s first and only LGBT community radio station has been broadcasting since 1993 from Melbourne.
20. How many Australians know that in 1880s Melbourne wasthe richest city in the world? Definitely after the Victorian Gold Rush.
21. It was illegal for pubs in Melbourne to be open after 6pm until 1966, It was also known as the ‘six o'clock swill'.
22. Melbourne’s CBD has the highest ratio of street furniture (benches to rest your weary legs) to people in the world.
23. Parliament House has gun slits with a clear line of sight down Bourke Street to defend it from mobs during the Great Strikes of the 1890s.
24. ACMI's 87m-long Gallery One, which hosts major exhibitions, was originally one of Flinders Street Station's underground platforms.
25. A special private bathroom was created for Prince Charles and Lady Diana when the Hamer Hall opened in 1982.
26. Swanston Street has more pedestrians per day than Regent Street, London
27. The Royal Melbourne Hotel is home to the oldest pear tree in Victoria. The tree is estimated to be around 160 years old and It is onthe National Trust's Register of significant trees of Victoria.
28. Melbourne is home to the largest operating tram network in the whole world, 75 per cent of which is shared with general road traffic with 250km of double track. 200+ million trips completed annually. 5,000+ services daily.
29. Indigenous Australians have lived in the area of Melbourne for around 40,000 years.
30. The lowest recorded temperature in the city was -2.8 degrees on July 21, 1869 and the highest temperature happened on February 7, 2009 which was 46.4 degrees in the CBD.
31. Melbourne has more skyscrapers than any other city in Australia.
32. The NGV is the most visited museum in the southern hemisphere. it’s the 19th most visited museum in the world!
33. There are about 1,700 tram stops in Melbourne, but only around 420 of them are considered accessible.
34. Melbourne won the award for “most liveable city in the world” for seven years in a row (2011-2017)
35. Streets in Melbourne CBD have royal names
36. According to census, over a third of Melbournians were born outside of Australia.
37. Out population is made up of people from over 140 nations.
38. The oldest theme park in Australia is Luna Park in St Kilda.
39. You can find wild penguins in their natural habitat in Melbourne. What? Yes, you just read that right!
40. Over 22 million jars of Vegemite are every year, produced in Melbourne
41. Queen Victoria Market is the largest open-air market in the Southern Hemisphere

How many did you score from this list? Melbourne is fascinating and full of interesting facts; it is surely a city of dreams of the explorers.

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