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Victoria is a state located in the south-eastern corner of Australia. It is the smallest mainland state in area but the most densely populated and urbanised. Victoria began in the 1830s as a farming community. The discovery of gold in 1851 transformed it into a leading industrial and commercial centre. Victoria is the second most populous Australian state, after New South Wales, with an estimated population of 5,037,700 as at September 2005. Melbourne is Victoria's capital and largest city, with more than 70% of all Victorians living there. History After the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788, the continent was divided into an eastern half - named New South Wales, and a western half, named New Holland, but under the administration of the colonial government in Sydney. Victoria's first settlement was at Portland, on the west coast of what is now Victoria. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman. From settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, and this gained some administrative status prior to separation from New South Wales and declaration as the Colony of Victoria in 1851. In 1851 gold was discovered near Anderson's Creek in Warrandyte near Melbourne, at Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at many sites across Victoria. This triggered one of the largest gold rushes the world has ever seen. Victoria grew rapidly in both population and economic power. In 1901 Victoria became a state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Melbourne was the first capital of Australia until a permanent site was chosen. The national capital was moved to Canberra in 1927. Government Victoria has a parliamentary form of government based on the Westminster System. Legislative power resides in the Parliament consisting of the Governor (the representative of the Queen), the executive (the Government), and two legislative chambers. While Queen Elizabeth II is Victoria's head of state, it is in practice a ceremonial role. The Parliament of Victoria consists of the lower house Legislative Assembly, the upper house Legislative Council and the Queen of Australia. Eighty-eight members of the Legislative Assembly are elected to four-year terms from single-member electorates. The Legislative Council consists of 44 members elected to eight-year terms from 22 two-member electorates. In November 2006 The Victorian Legislative Council elections will be held under a new multi-proportional representation system. The State of Victoria will be divided into eight electorates with each electorate repesented by five representatives elected by STV proportional representation. The total number of upper house members being 40 with their term of office being the same as the lower house members. Elections for the Victorian Parliament are fixed and occur in November every four years. The Premier of Victoria is the leader of the political party or coalition with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Premier is the public face of government and, with Cabinet, sets the legislative and political agenda. Cabinet consists of representatives elected to either house of parliament. It is responsible for managing areas of government that are not exclusively the Commonwealth's, by the Australian Constitution, such as education, health and law enforcement. The Governor of Victoria has a ceremonial role representing Queen Elizabeth II. The post is usually filled by a retired prominent Victorian. The governor acts on the advice of the Premier and Cabinet. Victoria has a written constitution. Enacted in 1975, but based on the 1855 colonial constitution, it establishes the parliament as the state's supreme law-making body. The Victorian Constitution can be amended by the parliament with a statutory majority. Under new provisions to be enacted, changes to the Victorian Constitution will be subjected to a plebisite of votes, voting in a referendum. Politics The centre-left Australian Labor Party (the ALP), centre-right Liberal Party of Australia and rural-based National Party of Australia are Victoria's major political parties. Traditionally, Labor is strongest in Melbourne's inner, working class and western and northern suburbs, Morwell, Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. The Liberals' main support lies in Melbourne's more affluent eastern and outer suburbs, and some rural and regional centres. The Nationals are strongest in Victoria's North Western and Eastern rural regional areas. The ALP government of Premier Steve Bracks has been in office in Victoria since 1999 and was re-elected in 2002. The next State election is scheduled for 25 November 2006. Federal government Victorian voters elect 49 representatives to the Parliament of Australia, including 37 members of the House of Representatives and 12 members of the Senate. Since 2004, the ALP has held 19 Victorian house seats, the Liberals 16 and the Nationals two. The Liberals hold six senate seats, the ALP four and the Australian Democrats and Family First Party one each. Local government Victoria is incorporated into 79 municipalities for the purposes of local government, including 39 shires, 32 cities, seven rural cities and one borough. Shire and city councils are responsible for functions delegated by the Victorian parliament, such as city planning, road infrastructure and waste management. Council revenue comes mostly from property taxes and government grants. People The 2001 Australian census reported that Victoria had 4,644,950 people, an increase of 6.2% on the 1996 figure. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that by September 2005 the state's population had reached 5,087,000. Victoria's founding Anglo-Celtic population has been supplemented by successive waves of migrants from southern and eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and, most recently, the Horn of Africa and Middle East. Victoria's population is aging rapidly. The government predicts that nearly a quarter of Victorians will be aged over 60 by 2021. More than 70% of Victorians live in Melbourne, located in the state's south. The sprawling Melbourne metropolitan area is home to an estimated 3.7 million people. Other important urban centres include Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Mildura, Warrnambool and the Latrobe Valley. Victoria is Australia's most urbanised state, with nearly 90% of residents living in cities and towns. Since 1871, more than half of all Victorians have lived in urban areas. Today, just over 12% of Victorians live in rural areas. The drift of people into Melbourne continues despite government efforts to encourage Victorians to settle in regional areas. About 72% of Victorians are Australian-born. This figure falls to around 66% in Melbourne, but rises to higher than 95% in some rural areas in the north-west of the state. Around two-thirds of Victorians claim Australian, English or Irish ancestry. Less than 1% of Victorians identify themselves as Aboriginal. The largest groups of people born outside Australia came from the United Kingdom, Italy, Vietnam, Greece and New Zealand. Religion About 65 out of every 100 Victorians describe themselves as Christian. Roman Catholics form the single largest religious group in the state, followed by Anglicans and members of the Uniting Church. Catholics and Protestants in Victoria each form around 30% of the population. Buddhism, the state's largest non-Christian religion, is also the fastest growing. Victoria is also home to around 93,000 Muslims and 5,8201 Jews. Around 17% of Victorians claim no religion. Primary and secondary
Tertiary Victoria has nine universities. The oldest, the University of Melbourne, enrolled its first student in 1855. The largest, Monash University, has an enrolment of nearly 56,000 students - more than any other Australian university. The number of students enrolled in Victorian universities was 241,755 at 2004, an increase of 2% on the previous year. International students made up 30% of enrolments. The largest number of enrolments were recorded in the fields of business, administration and economics, with nearly a third of all students, followed by arts, humanities, and social science, with 20% of enrolments. Victoria also has 19 technical or TAFE institutes. More than 1,000 adult education organisations are registered to provide recognised TAFE programs. In 2004, there were about 480,700 students enrolled in vocational education programs in the state. Economy The Victorian economy is the second largest in Australia, accounting for a quarter of the nation's gross domestic product. The total gross state product at current prices for Victoria was at just over $A222 billion, with a GSP per capita of $A44,443. The economy grew by 3.4% in 2004, less than the Australian average of 5.2%. Finance, insurance and property services form Victoria's largest income producing sector, while the community, social and personal services sector is the state's biggest employer. Despite the shift towards service industries, manufacturing remains Victoria's single largest employer and income producer. Agriculture During 2003-04, the gross value of Victorian agricultural production increased by 17% to $8.7 billion. This represented 24% of national agricultural production total gross value. As of 2004, an estimated 32,463 farms occupied around 136,000 km² of Victorian land. This comprises more than 60% of the state's total land surface. Victorian farms range from small horticultural outfits to largescale livestock and grain productions. A quarter of farmland is used to grow consumable crops. More than 26000 km² of Victorian farmland is sown for grain, mostly in the state's west. More than 50% of this area is sown for wheat, 33% for barley and 7% for oats. A further 6,000 km² is sown for hay. In 2003-04, Victorian farmers produced more than 3 million tonnes of wheat and 2 million tonnes of barley. The state also grows about half of Australia's tobacco. Victorian farms produce nearly 90% of Australian pears and third of apples. It is also a leader in stone fruit production. The main vegetable crops include asparagus, broccoli, carrots, potatoes and tomatoes. Last year, 121,200 tonnes of pears and 270,000 tonnes of tomatoes were produced. More than 14 million sheep and 5 million lambs graze over 10% of Victorian farms, mostly in the state's north and west. In 2004, nearly 10 million lambs and sheep were slaughtered for local consumption and export. Victoria also exports live sheep to the Middle East for meat and to the rest of the world for breeding. More than 108,000 tonnes of wool clip was also produced - one-fifth of the Australian total. Victoria is the centre of dairy farming in Australia. It is home to 60% of Australia's 3 million dairy cattle and produces nearly two-thirds of the nation's milk, almost 6.4 million litres. The state also has 2.4 million beef cattle, with more than 2.2 million cattle and calves slaughtered each year. In 2003-04, Victorian commercial fishing crews and aquaculture industry produced 11,634 tonnes of seafood valued at nearly $A109 million. Blacklipped abalone is the mainstay of the catch, bringing in $A46 million, followed by southern rock lobster worth $A13.7 million. Most abalone and rock lobster is exported to Asia. Manufacturing More than 15 out of every 100 Victorian workers are employed in manufacturing industries. Victoria has 318,000 manufacturing workers. The state is marginally behind New South Wales in the value of manufacturing output. Machinery and equipment manufacturing is the state's most valuable activity, followed by food and beverage manufacturing and petroleum, coal and chemical manufacturing. Melbourne is the centre of manufacturing in Victoria. Geelong is the second manufacturing city. Energy production has aided industrial growth in the Latrobe Valley. Mining Mining in Victoria contributes around $A3 billion to the gross state product, but employs less than 1% of workers. The Victorian industry is concentrated on energy producing minerals. Brown coal, petroleum and gas account for nearly 90% of local production. Oil and gas industries are centred off the coast of Gippsland in the state's east. Crude oil worth more than $A2 billion and natural gas worth nearly $A700 million were the state's most valuable minerals. In 2003-04, offshore gas production increased, while crude oil production continued to decline as reserves dry out. An average 120,000 barrels of oil are produced each day, down from a peak of 450,000 in the mid-1980s. But Victoria still produces nearly a third of Australia's crude oil. Brown coal is Victoria's leading mineral, with 66 million tonnes mined each year for electricity generation in the Latrobe Valley, also in Gippsland. The region is home to world's largest known reserves of brown coal. Despite being the historic centre of Australia's gold rush, Victoria today contributes just 1% of national gold production. Victoria also produces some gypsum and kaolin. Services The service industries sector is the fastest growing component of the Victorian economy. It includes the wide range of activities generally classified as community, social and personal services; finances, insurance and property services, government services, transportation and communication, and wholesale and retail trade. Most service industries are located in Melbourne and the state's larger regional centres. As of 2004-05, service industries employed nearly three-quarters of Victorian workers and generated three-quarters of the state's GSP. Finance, insurance and property services, as a group, provide a larger share of GSP than any other economic activity in Victoria. More than a quarter of Victorian workers are employed by the community, social and personal services sector. Geology and geography
Climate → see also Victoria has a varied climate despite its small size. It ranges from semi-arid and hot in the north-west, to temperate and cool along the coast. Victoria's main land feature, the Great Dividing Range, produces a cooler, mountain climate in the centre of the state. Victoria's southernmost position on the Australian continent means it is cooler and wetter than other mainland states and territories. The coastal plain south of the Great Dividing Range has Victoria's mildest climate. Air from the Southern Ocean helps reduce the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Melbourne and other large cities are located in this temperate region. The Mallee and upper Wimmera are Victoria's warmest regions due to hot winds blowing from nearby deserts. Average temperatures top 30 °C during summer and 15 °C in winter. Victoria's highest maximum temperature of 47.2 °C was recorded in Mildura on 10 January 1939. The Victorian Alps in the north-east are the coldest part of Victoria. The Alps are part of the Great Diving Range mountain system extending east-west through the centre of Victoria. Average temperatures are less than 9 °C in winter and below 0 °C in the highest parts of the ranges. The state's lowest minimum temperature of -12.8 °C (9.0 °F) was recorded at Mount Hotham on 13 August 1947. Rainfall
Tourism
Culture and sport Victoria as a state has an amicable embracement of sport, be it at country roots level, or at a more elite level. Australian rules football Victoria is the home of Aussie Rules, with 10 of the 16 clubs of the major league (see Australian Football League) based in Victoria, and the traditional Grand Final held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the last Saturday in September. Surfing Each Easter, Bells Beach hosts the Rip Curl Pro World Championship. See also | |||||||||||||||
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