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	Birrarung Marr Bridge Photographer: Gene Moule

Extraordinary Melbourne Facts

1. Thoroughly Liveable 
Melbourne is a safe, clean and friendly city. In 2000, Melbourne was the third major city in the world to be recognised as a safe community by the World Health Organisation. (Source: www.mcvb.com.au)

2. Pioneering Thought Leadership

Melbourne was the first city in the world to sign up to the United Nations Global Compact, a joint initiative between transnational businesses and the United Nations to support and encourage responsible business operations and universal values. By joining up, Melbourne established a precedent called the ‘Melbourne Model™’. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan praised Melbourne’s efforts as a “pioneering approach to engaging the Global Compact” and was “confident that this will set an example for others to follow”. It has, with the cities of Bath, UK; Bogota, Colombia; Jamshedpur, India; Nuremburg, Germany; Plock, Poland; Porto Alegre, Brazil; and San Francisco, USA, joined the Melbourne-developed UN Global Compact Cities Program. (Source: http://www.melbourne.org.au)

3. Built for Business
The majority of ASX-listed companies are in Melbourne and a significant number of organisations have their headquarters in the city. These include: BHP Billiton, National Australia Bank, Amcor, PaperlinX, Mayne Group Limited, and Orica. (Source: www.asx.com.au)

4. The Region's Education Centre
Melbourne's higher educational institutions are of an extremely high quality and attract a high number of international students. In 2004 more than 13,000 international students, the majority from China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia, studied at Melbourne's universities. (Source: www.research.idp.com) Melbourne University Law School is ranked as the best law school outside North America, ahead of the University of Cambridge (34) University College London (40) and the University of Oxford (105). (Source: www.law.unimelb.edu.au/) Melbourne also has a higher-than-the-national-average proportion of people with university qualifications. (Source: www.abs.gov.au)

5. Australia's Culinary Engine Room

London chef Gordon Ramsay described Melbourne’s 3000 restaurants as Australia’s “culinary engine room”. More than 7 million domestic food and wine visitors come to Victoria each year and winery tourism brings in around $390 million a year into the state. (Source: Tourism Victoria)

6. The Sporting Capital
The Melbourne Cup Carnival has played a principal role in establishing the Victorian Spring Racing Carnival as Australia's major annual sporting event. In 2003, the Spring Racing Carnival generated an estimated $A467.4m in revenue in the state of Victoria, with over $A15.7m being spent on fashion alone. The $5.1m Melbourne Cup is more than just a horse race - it is a 145- year old social and cultural tradition that literally brings Australia to a standstill.  The race draws competitors from all over the world with the annual invasion of northern hemisphere-trained stayers making it a truly international event. The Melbourne Cup attracts a worldwide television audience of around 700 million people in 120 countries and territories while millions more either view or listen to the event via the internet. (www.vrc.net.au)

7. Global Biotech Hub
Melbourne is Australia’s biotechnology centre with the largest concentration of listed healthcare and biotech companies - over 50% of all ASX healthcare and biotech companies are headquartered in Melbourne. Melbourne has the highest concentration of medical research facilities of any Australian City: over 60% of Australia’s public and private research capability. The city has the largest amount of venture capital funds including Australia’s largest biotechnology. VC fund GBS Ventures’ 4th fund of A$150million. Melbourne has the country’s largest Public Biotechnology company: CSL Ltd with market capitalisation of A$6.4 bill as at 30 June 05. (Source: http://www.biomelbourne.org)

8. Environmentally Conscious
Melbourne’s City Council designs programs to improve the municipality’s environmental performance, particularly by reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, reducing water consumption, and improving water quality and waste management. (Source: www.melbourne.vic.gov.au) Council House 2 (CH2) is a visionary new building with the potential to change forever the way Australia – indeed the world – approaches ecologically sustainable design. The Green Building Council of Australia awarded Council House 2 six Green Stars which represents world leadership in office building design. CH2 has sustainable technologies incorporated into every conceivable part of its 10 storeys.  (Source: www.melbourne.vic.gov.au)

9. Arts & Culture Capital
Melburnians are passionately devoted to arts and culture. The city is home to arts and cultural heritage institutions, cutting-edge design and internationally recognised visual artists and performing arts companies. Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is internationally acclaimed for its performances of both classical masterpieces and more contemporary music, and performs most of its 50 annual concerts at Hamer Hall. The State Orchestra of Victoria accompanies the Australian Ballet and Opera Australia. (Source: www3.visitvictoria.com)

10. Eventful
Melbourne is Australia’s festival capital. The city's flagship Melbourne International Festival of the Arts occurs in October, a few weeks after the alternative Melbourne Fringe, and just before the Spring Racing Carnival. The huge Melbourne Comedy Festival draws massive crowds in mid-autumn each year, while film buffs flock to the Film Festival in late July. Community festivals are always very popular: Melbourne's Greeks celebrate the Antipodes Festival along Lonsdale Street (March), Italians get down at the annual Lygon Street Fiesta (October), and the Spanish Festival along Johnston Street, Fitzroy, happens in November. Not to mention the Fashion Festival, the Writers' Festival, the Next Wave new arts festival, the Midsumma gay and lesbian festival, and so many more. (Source: www.melbourne.citysearch.com.au)

11. Thriving
Victoria's economy grew 18 per cent in the past five years, faster than the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Performance (OECD) average. Growth was particularly strong in the finance sector (including banking and funds management), construction activity (including dwellings and infrastructure development), retail trade, health services, business services and education. (Source: www.business.vic.gov.au) Victoria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is above the national average. Employment rose 12 percent, or 260,000 jobs, in the past five years reducing the unemployment rate to around five percent. (Source: www.business.vic.gov.au)

12. Industrially Diverse
Melbourne is Australia’s centre for manufacturing and research and development. Victoria's manufacturing sector is the largest in Australia, providing: 31% of total manufacturing capacity; 32% of aerospace; 35% of metal fabrication; 41% of electronics; 45% of precision engineering, and 46% of scientific equipment manufacturing capacity. (Source: www.business.vic.gov.au)

13. Advanced in Infrastructure

Melbourne has Australia’s only 24-hour curfew-free International Airport – currently rated among the world’s top five. (Source: www.businessmelbourne.com.au) The Airport receives over 200 direct international flights per week, from major international destinations, with over 21 international carriers flying to Melbourne direct. (Source: www.mcvb.com.au) Melbourne Airport passenger numbers hit a record high in 2005, with the airport recording more than 20 milllion passengers in a single financial year for the first time ever.  (Source: www.melbourneairport.com.au)

14. Cosmopolitan
Melbourne is Australia’s most cosmopolitan city. It is the home, workplace and leisure centre of 3.6 million people and is one of the world's most harmonious and culturally diverse communities. Melbourne has Australia’s second highest proportion of people (26.0%) who reported speaking a language other than English at home in the 1996 Census. (Source: www.abs.gov.au)

15. Philanthropically-Minded
Melbourne’s tradition of philanthropic business leaders started with people like Sidney Myer and continues today through the business-led movement in social innovation, Melbourne Cares. Melbourne Cares is the first major corporate and government collaboration to address social disadvantage in Australia. It is an organisation which facilitates collaborative action by companies to tackle real social and economic disadvantage by providing a range of flexible volunteering opportunities for employee volunteers. (Source: www.melbourne.org.au)

16. Popular
For the second year running, Melbourne was voted number two in the favourite overseas city category of the 2003 Guardian and Observer Travel Awards in the UK. Based on ratings by readers, Melbourne was given an overall score of 95.1%. (Source: www.mcvb.com.au)

17. Naturally Enticing
In under a day’s drive from Melbourne, visitors can experience natural attractions such as mountains, temperate rainforests, rugged coastal scenery, volcanic plains, vineyards, lakes, magnificent rivers, wildflowers in spring and snow in winter. Across Victoria’s 13 regions are more than 30 national parks, regarded as some of the best in the world, protecting the state’s valuable natural assets. Victoria’s fascinating native wildlife includes kangaroos, koalas, wombats, platypus, echidnas and lovable little penguins, which parade nightly along an island beach. Its extensive coastline also provides plentiful opportunities to get up close to dolphins, seals and whales. What’s more, the state’s lush forests and parklands are havens for stunning varieties of native birds – the extraordinary mallee fowl, the elusive lyrebird, emus and reed warblers, to name a few. (Source: www3.visitvictoria.com)

18. Developing
Redevelopment in Melbourne’s city centre and inner suburbs such as Docklands and Southbank have contributed to an increase in population in these areas, and reversed the population decline in the inner city areas. Population growth in the local government areas of Melbourne and Port Phillip represented 12% of Melbourne's overall growth between 1996 and 2001. As with all capital cities in Australia part of this inner city growth is associated with an increase in medium or high density housing. (Source: www.abs.gov.au)

19. Game On
Melbourne’s Crown entertainment complex is the largest gaming venue in the southern hemisphere, and one of the world’s largest entertainment complexes of its kind. The complex, covering 510,000 square metres attracts an average of 12 million visitors each year (360,000 visitors every week) and is the largest single site employer in Victoria employing around 7,500 staff. Crown Casino has more table games, pokies machines and largest jackpots than any other casino in Australia and it also has the first Las-Vegas-style Poker Room in the Southern Hemisphere. (Source: Crown Ltd) 

20. Historically Rich
Melbourne is home to Australia’s first World Heritage-listed building: the Royal Exhibition Building and Gardens. Melbourne’s eclectic architecture reflects the fascinating diversity of Australia's rich past. Government House is in the style known as Italianate and is one of the finest examples of this type of architecture in Australia. Completed in 1890, Labassa is a French Renaissance mansion significant for the relative completeness of its richly decorated and finely executed interiors. Three houses at Coventry Street are among the few 19th century prefabricated iron buildings remaining in the world. Rippon Lea is the last of Australia's great privately owned 19th century suburban estates. Designed and built 1868 in the Romanesque style, the mansion is surrounded by a beautifully maintained original Victorian pleasure garden which is of international significance. (Source: www.nattrust.com.au)