type	city
name	Melbourne
state	vic
pop	4,077,036
pop footnotes	(Metropolitan area)
poprank	2nd
density	1566
density footnotes	(Urban area; 2006)
elevation	31
coordinates
force national map	yes
area	8806
area footnotes	(LGAs total)
est	30 August 1835
county	Grant, Bourke, Mornington
lga	31 Municipalities across Greater Melbourne
stategov	54 electoral districts and regions
fedgov	23 Divisions
timezone	AEST
utc	+10
timezone-dst	AEDT
utc-dst	+11
location1	Canberra
dist1	665
location2	Sydney
dist2	876
maxtemp	19.8
mintemp	10.2
rainfall	646.9 }}

Melbourne (, rhotically ) is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre (also known as the "Central Business District" or "CBD") is the hub of the greater geographical area (or "metropolitan area") and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater geographical area had an approximate population of four million. Inhabitants of Melbourne are called Melburnians.

The metropolis is located on the large natural bay known as Port Phillip, with the city centre positioned at the estuary of the Yarra River (at the northern-most point of the bay). The metropolitan area then extends south from the city centre, along the eastern and western shorelines of Port Phillip, and expands into the hinterland. The city centre is situated in the municipality known as the City of Melbourne, and the metropolitan area consists of a further 30 municipalities.

Melbourne was founded in 1835 (47 years after the European settlement of Australia) by settlers from Van Diemen's Land. It was named by governor Richard Bourke in 1837, in honour of William Lamb—the 2nd Viscount Melbourne. Melbourne was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847. In 1851, it became the capital city of the newly created colony of Victoria. During the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the world's largest and wealthiest cities. After the federation of Australia in 1901, it then served as the interim seat of government of the newly created nation of Australia until 1927.

Today, it is a centre for the arts, commerce, industry, education, entertainment, sport and tourism. It is the birthplace of cultural institutions such as Australian film (as well as the world's first feature film), Australian television, Australian rules football, the Australian impressionist art movement (known as the Heidelberg School) and Australian dance styles (such as New Vogue and the Melbourne Shuffle). It is also a major centre for contemporary and traditional Australian music. It is often referred to as the "cultural capital of Australia". Melbourne was ranked as the world's most liveable city in the World's Most Livable Cities ratings by the Economist Group's Intelligence Unit in August, 2011. It was also ranked in the top 10 Global University Cities by RMIT's Global University Cities Index (since 2006) and the top 20 Global Innovation Cities by the 2thinknow Global Innovation Agency (since 2007). The metropolis is also home to the world's largest tram network. The main airport serving Melbourne is Melbourne Airport.

History

Early history and foundation

thumb|260px|Melbourne Landing, 1840; watercolour by W. Liardet (1840)Before the arrival of European settlers, the area was occupied for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years by under 20,000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous regional tribes: the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance, as well as a vital source of food and water. The first European settlement in Victoria was established in 1803 on Sullivan Bay, near present-day Sorrento, but this settlement was abandoned due to a perceived lack of resources. It would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. In May and June 1835, the area that is now central and northern Melbourne was explored by John Batman, a leading member of the Tasmanian Port Phillip Association, who negotiated a purchase of with eight Wurundjeri elders. Batman selected a site on the northern bank of the Yarra River, declaring that "this will be the place for a village", and returned to Launceston in Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land). By the time a settlement party from the Association arrived to set up the new village, a separate group organised and financed by John Pascoe Fawkner had already arrived (on 30 August 1835) aboard his ship the ''Enterprize'' and established a settlement at the same location. The two groups ultimately agreed to share the settlement.

Batman's Treaty with the Aborigines was annulled by the New South Wales government (which at the time governed all of eastern mainland Australia), which compensated the Association. Although this meant the settlers were now trespassing on Crown land, the government reluctantly accepted the settlers' ''fait accompli'' and allowed the town (known at first by various names, including "Batmania" and "Dutergalla") to remain. In 1836, Governor Bourke declared the city the administrative capital of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, and commissioned the first plan for the city, the Hoddle Grid, in 1837. Later that year the settlement was named Melbourne after the then British Prime Minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who resided in the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire. The General Post Office opened under that name on 13 April 1837. Melbourne was declared a city by letters patent of Queen Victoria, issued on 25 June 1847. The Port Phillip District became the separate Colony of Victoria in 1851, with Melbourne as its capital.

Victorian gold rush

thumb|"Canvas Town", South Melbourne in the 1850s. Temporary accommodation for the thousands who poured into Melbourne each week during the gold rush. thumb|Lithograph of the Royal Exhibition Building (now a World Heritage site) built to host the World's Fair of 1880 thumb|The Federal Coffee Palace; one of many temperance hotels erected in the late 19th centuryThe discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851 led to the Victorian gold rush, and Melbourne, which served as the major port and provided most services for the region, experienced rapid growth. Within months, the city's population had increased by nearly three-quarters, from 25,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. Thereafter, growth was exponential and by 1865, Melbourne had overtaken Sydney as Australia's most populous city.

An influx of interstate and overseas migrants, particularly Irish, German and Chinese, saw the development of slums including a temporary "tent city" established on the southern banks of the Yarra. Chinese migrants founded a Chinatown in 1851, which remains the longest continuous Chinese settlement in the Western World. In the aftermath of the Eureka Rebellion, mass public support for the plight of the miners in Melbourne resulted in major political changes to the colony. The various nationalities involved in the Eureka Stockade revolt and Burke and Wills expedition give some indication of migration flows in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The population growth and flow of gold into the city helped stimulate a program of grand civic building beginning with the design and construction of many of Melbourne's surviving institutional buildings including Parliament House, the Treasury Building and Treasury Reserve, the Old Melbourne Gaol, Victoria Barracks, the State Library, Supreme Court, University, General Post Office, Government House, Customs House the Melbourne Town Hall, St Paul's, St Patrick's cathedrals and several major markets including the surviving Queen Victoria Market. The city's inner suburbs were planned, to be linked by boulevards and gardens. Melbourne had become a major finance centre, home to several banks, the Royal Mint to Australia's first stock exchange in 1861. Before the arrival of white settlers, the indigenous population in the district was estimated at 15,000, but following settlement the number had fallen to less than 800, and continued to decline with an estimated 80% decrease by 1863, due primarily to introduced diseases, particularly smallpox.

Land boom and bust

The economic boom of the Victorian gold rush peaked during the 1880s, by which time Melbourne had become the richest city in the world, and the largest after London in the British Empire. Melbourne hosted two international exhibitions at the large purpose-built Exhibition Building between 1880 and 1890, spurring the construction of several prestigious hotels including the Menzies, Federal and the Grand (Windsor).

During a visit in 1885 English journalist George Augustus Henry Sala coined the phrase "Marvellous Melbourne", which stuck long into the twentieth century and is still used today by Melburnians. Growing building activity culminated in a "land boom" which, in 1888, reached a peak of speculative development fuelled by consumer confidence and escalating land value. As a result of the boom, large commercial buildings, coffee palaces, terrace housing and palatial mansions proliferated in the city. The establishment of a hydraulic facility in 1887 allowed for the local manufacture of elevators, resulting in the first construction of high-rise buildings; most notably 1889's APA (The Australian) Building, the world's tallest office building upon completion and Melbourne's tallest for over half a century. This period also saw the expansion of a major radial rail-based transport network.

A brash boosterism that had typified Melbourne during this time ended in 1891 with a severe depression of the city's economy, sending the local finance and property industries into a period of chaos during which 16 small banks and building societies collapsed and 133 limited companies went into liquidation. The Melbourne financial crisis was a contributing factor in the Australian economic depression of the 1890s and the Australian banking crisis of 1893. The effects of the depression on the city were profound, although it recovered enough to grow slowly during the early twentieth century.

Federation of Australia

At the time of Australia's federation on 1 January 1901, Melbourne became the seat of government of the federation. The first federal parliament was convened on 9 May 1901 in the Royal Exhibition Building, where it was located until 1927, when it was moved to Canberra. The Governor-General of Australia resided at Government House in Melbourne until 1930 and many major national institutions remained in Melbourne well into the twentieth century. Flinders Street Station was the world's busiest passenger station in 1927 and Melbourne's tram network overtook Sydney's to become the world's largest in the 1940s. During World War II, Melbourne industries thrived on wartime production and the city became Australia's leading manufacturing centre.

Post-war period

In the immediate years after World War II, Melbourne expanded rapidly, its growth boosted by Post war immigration to Australia, primarily from Southern Europe and the Mediterranean. While the "Paris End" of Collins Street began Melbourne's boutique shopping and open air cafe cultures, the city centre was seen by many as stale, the dreary domain of office workers, something expressed by John Brack in his famous painting ''Collins St., 5 pm'' (1955). Height limits in the Melbourne CBD were lifted after the construction ICI House, transforming the city's skyline with the introduction of skyscrapers. The eyes of the world were on the city when it hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics. Suburban expansion then intensified, serviced by new indoor malls beginning with Chadstone Shopping Centre. The post-war period also saw a major renewal of the CBD and St Kilda Road which significantly modernised the city. New fire regulations and redevelopment saw most of the taller pre-war CBD buildings either demolished or partially retained through a policy of facadism. Many of the larger suburban mansions from the boom era were also either demolished or subdivided.

thumb|240px|Melbourne features an extensive juxtaposition of modern and Victoria era buildings. To counter the trend towards low-density suburban residential growth, the government began a series of controversial public housing projects in the inner city by the Housing Commission of Victoria, which resulted in demolition of many neighbourhoods and a proliferation of high-rise towers. In later years, with the rapid rise of motor vehicle ownership, the investment in freeway and highway developments greatly accelerated the outward suburban sprawl and declining inner city population. The Bolte government sought to rapidly accelerate the modernisation of Melbourne. Major road projects including the remodelling of St Kilda Junction, the widening of Hoddle Street and then the extensive 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan changed the face of the city into a car-dominated environment. Australia's financial and mining booms between 1969 and 1970 resulted in establishment of the headquarters of many major companies (BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, among others) in the city. Nauru's then booming economy resulted in several ambitious investments in Melbourne, such as Nauru House. Melbourne remained Australia's main business and financial centre until the late 1970s, when it began to lose this primacy to Sydney.

As the centre of Australia's "rust belt", Melbourne experienced an economic downturn between 1989 to 1992, following the collapse of several local financial institutions. In 1992 the newly elected Kennett government began a campaign to revive the economy with an aggressive development campaign of public works coupled with the promotion of the city as a tourist destination with a focus on major events and sports tourism. During this period the Australian Grand Prix moved to Melbourne from Adelaide. Major projects included the construction of a new facility for the Melbourne Museum, Federation Square, the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, Crown Casino and the CityLink tollway. Other strategies included the privatisation of some of Melbourne's services, including power and public transport, and a reduction in funding to public services such as health, education and public transport infrastructure.

Contemporary Melbourne

Since the mid-1990s, Melbourne has maintained significant population and employment growth. There has been substantial international investment in the city's industries and property market. Major inner-city urban renewal has occurred in areas such as Southbank, Port Melbourne, Melbourne Docklands and more recently, South Wharf. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Melbourne sustained the highest population increase and economic growth rate of any Australian capital city in the three years ended June 2004. These factors have led to population growth and further suburban expansion through the 2000s.

From 2006, the growth of the city extended into "green wedges" and beyond the city's urban growth boundary. Predictions of the city's population reaching 5 million people pushed the state government to review the growth boundary in 2008 as part of its Melbourne @ Five Million strategy. Melbourne survived the financial crisis of 2007–2010 better than any other Australian city. In 2009, more new jobs were created in Melbourne than any other Australian capital—almost as many as the next two fastest growing cities, Brisbane and Perth, combined. and Melbourne's property market remained strong, resulting in historically high property prices and widespread rent increases.

Geography

Topography

Melbourne is located in the south-eastern part of mainland Australia, within the state of Victoria. Geologically, it is built on the confluence of Quaternary lava flows to the west, Silurian mudstones to the east, and Holocene sand accumulation to the southeast along Port Phillip. The southeastern suburbs are situated on the Selwyn fault which transects Mount Martha and Cranbourne.

Melbourne extends along the Yarra River towards the Yarra Valley and the Dandenong Ranges to the east. It extends northward through the undulating bushland valleys of the Yarra's tributaries—Moonee Ponds Creek (toward Tullamarine Airport), Merri Creek, Darebin Creek and Plenty River—to the outer suburban growth corridors of Craigieburn and Whittlesea.

The city sprawls south-east through Dandenong to the growth corridor of Pakenham towards West Gippsland, and southward through the Dandenong Creek valley, the Mornington Peninsula and the city of Frankston taking in the peaks of Olivers Hill, Mount Martha and Arthurs Seat, extending along the shores of Port Phillip as a single conurbation to reach the exclusive suburb of Portsea and Point Nepean. In the west, it extends along the Maribyrnong River and its tributaries north towards Sunbury and the foothills of the Macedon Ranges, and along the flat volcanic plain country towards Melton in the west, Werribee at the foothills of the You Yangs granite ridge and Geelong as part of the greater metropolitan area to the south-west.

Melbourne's major bayside beaches are located in the south-eastern suburbs along the shores of Port Phillip Bay, in areas like Port Melbourne, Albert Park, St Kilda, Elwood, Brighton, Sandringham, Mentone and Frankston although there are beaches in the western suburbs of Altona and Williamstown. The nearest surf beaches are located south-east of the Melbourne CBD in the back-beaches of Rye, Sorrento and Portsea.

Climate

Melbourne has a moderate oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification ''Cfb'') and is well known for its changeable weather conditions. This is mainly due to Melbourne's location situated on the boundary of the very hot inland areas and the cold southern ocean. This temperature differential is most pronounced in the spring and summer months and can cause very strong cold fronts to form. These cold fronts can be responsible for all sorts of severe weather from gales to severe thunderstorms and hail, large temperature drops, and heavy rain.

Port Phillip is often warmer than the surrounding oceans and/or the land mass, particularly in spring and autumn; this can set up a "bay effect" similar to the "lake effect" seen in the United States where showers are intensified leeward of the bay. Relatively narrow streams of heavy showers can often affect the same places (usually the eastern suburbs) for an extended period of time, whilst the rest of Melbourne and surrounds stays dry.

Melbourne is also prone to isolated convective showers forming when a cold pool crosses the state, especially if there is considerable daytime heating. These showers are often heavy and can contain hail and squalls and significant drops in temperature, but they pass through very quickly at times with a rapid clearing trend to sunny and relatively calm weather and the temperature rising back to what it was before the shower. This occurs often in the space of minutes and can be repeated many times in a day, giving Melbourne a reputation for having "four seasons in one day", a phrase that is part of local popular culture and familiar to many visitors to the city.

Melbourne is colder than other mainland Australian state capital cities in the winter. The lowest temperature on record is , on 4 July 1901. However, snowfalls are rare: the most recent occurrence of sleet in the CBD was on 25 July 1986 and the most recent snowfalls in the outer eastern suburbs and Mount Dandenong were on 10 August 2005. More commonly, Melbourne experiences frosts and fog in winter. Melbourne summers are notable for occasional days of extreme heat. The highest temperature recorded was , on 7 February 2009.

Urban structure

The centre of Melbourne's central business district is formed by the Hoddle Grid (dimensions of ). The grid's southern edge fronts onto the Yarra River. Office, commercial and public developments in the adjoining districts of Southbank and Docklands have made these redeveloped areas into extensions of the CBD in all but name. The city centre is well known for its historic and attractive lanes and arcades (the most notable of which are Block Place and Royal Arcade) which contain a variety of shops and cafés and are a byproduct of the city's layout.

thumb|240px|Melbourne is known for the "laneway culture" of its extensive network of lively city [[List of lanes and arcades in Melbourne city centre|lanes which include Centre Place (pictured).]] thumb|240px|Melbourne's urban structure features large parks and gardens and wide avenues.Melbourne's CBD, compared with other Australian cities, has comparatively unrestricted height limits and as a result of waves of post-war development contains five of the six tallest buildings in Australia, the tallest of which is the Eureka Tower, situated in Southbank. It has an observation deck near the top from where you can see above all of Melbourne's structures. The Rialto tower, the city's second tallest, remains the tallest building in the old CBD; its observation deck for visitors has recently closed.

The CBD and surrounds also contain many significant historic buildings such as the Royal Exhibition Building, the Melbourne Town Hall and Parliament House. Although the area is described as the ''centre'', it is not actually the demographic centre of Melbourne at all, due to an urban sprawl to the south east, the demographic centre being located at Glen Iris.

Melbourne is typical of Australian capital cities in that after the turn of the 20th century, it expanded with the underlying notion of a 'quarter acre home and garden' for every family, often referred to locally as the ''Australian Dream''. This, coupled with the popularity of the private automobile after 1945, led to the auto-centric urban structure now present today in the middle and outer suburbs. Much of metropolitan Melbourne is accordingly characterised by low density sprawl, whilst its inner city areas feature predominantly medium-density, transit-oriented urban forms. The city centre, Docklands, St. Kilda Road and Southbank areas feature high-density forms.

Melbourne is often referred to as Australia's garden city, and the state of Victoria was once known as ''the garden state''. There is an abundance of parks and gardens in Melbourne, many close to the CBD with a variety of common and rare plant species amid landscaped vistas, pedestrian pathways and tree-lined avenues. There are also many parks in the surrounding suburbs of Melbourne, such as in the municipalities of Stonnington, Boroondara and Port Phillip, south east of the central business district. The extensive area covered by urban Melbourne is formally divided into hundreds of suburbs (for addressing and postal purposes), and administered as local government areas 31 of which are located within the metropolitan area.

Housing

Housing in Melbourne is characterised by high rates of private housing ownership, minimal and lack of public housing and high demand for, and largely unaffordable, rental housing. Public housing is usually provided by the Housing Commission of Victoria and operates within the framework of the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, by which funding for public housing is provided by both federal and state governments. Public housing can be difficult to obtain with many residents forced to wait on waiting lists.

At present, Melbourne is experiencing high population growth, generating high demand for housing. This has created a housing boom, pushing housing prices up and having an effect on rental prices as well as availability of all types of housing. Subdivision regularly occurs in the far outer areas of Melbourne with Display homes from numerous developers offering house and land packages. A recent international housing affordability survey by Demographia International ranked Melbourne in position number 321 out of 325 cities surveyed, making it one of the most expensive places in the world to buy a home.

Environment

Like many urban environments, Melbourne faces some significant environmental issues, many of them relating to the city's large urban footprint and urban sprawl and the demand for infrastructure and services. One such issue is water usage, drought and low rainfall. Drought in Victoria, low rainfalls and high temperatures deplete Melbourne water supplies and climate change may have a long-term impact on the water supplies of Melbourne. Melbourne has been in a drought since 1997. In response to low water supplies and low rainfall due to drought, the government implemented water restrictions and a range of other options including: water recycling schemes for the city, incentives for household water tanks, greywater systems, water consumption awareness initiatives, and other water saving and reuse initiatives; also, in June 2007, the Bracks Government announced that a $3.1 billion Wonthaggi desalination plant would be built on Victoria's south-east coast, capable of treating 150 billion litres of water per year, as well as a pipeline from the Goulburn area in Victoria's north to Melbourne and a new water pipeline linking Melbourne and Geelong. Both projects are being conducted under controversial Public-Private Partnerships and a multitude of independent reports have found that neither project is required to supply water to the city and that Sustainable Water Management is the best solution. In the meantime, the drought must be weathered.

In response to Attribution of recent climate change, the City of Melbourne, in 2002, set a target to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2020 and Moreland City Council established the Zero Moreland program, however not all metropolitan municipalities have followed, with the City of Glen Eira notably deciding in 2009 not to become carbon neutral. Melbourne has one of the largest urban footprints in the world due to its low density housing, resulting in a vast suburban sprawl, with a high level of car dependence and minimal public transport outside of inner areas. Much of the vegetation within the city are non-native species, most of European origin, and in many cases plays host to invasive species and noxious weeds. Significant introduced urban pests include the Common Myna, Feral Pigeon, Brown Rat, European Wasp, Common Starling and Red Fox. Many outlying suburbs, particularly towards the Yarra Valley and the hills to the north-east and east, have gone for extended periods without regenerative fires leading to a lack of saplings and undergrowth in urbanised native bushland. The Department of Sustainability and Environment partially addresses this problem by regularly burning off. Several national parks have been designated around the urban area of Melbourne, including the Mornington Peninsula National Park, Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park and Point Nepean National Park in the south east, Organ Pipes National Park to the north and Dandenong Ranges National Park to the east. There are also a number of significant state parks just outside Melbourne. Responsibility for regulating pollution falls under the jurisdiction of the EPA Victoria and several local councils. Air pollution, by world standards, is classified as being good. Summer and autumn are the worst times of year for atmospheric haze in the urban area.

Another recent environmental issue in Melbourne was the Victorian government project of channel deepening Melbourne Ports by dredging Port Phillip Bay—the Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project. It was subject to controversy and strict regulations among fears that beaches and marine wildlife could be affected by the disturbance of heavy metals and other industrial sediments. Other major pollution problems in Melbourne include levels of bacteria including E. coli in the Yarra River and its tributaries caused by septic systems, as well as litter. Up to 350,000 cigarette butts enter the storm water runoff every day. Several programs are being implemented to minimise beach and river pollution. In February 2010, ''The Transition Decade'', an initiative to transition human society, economics and environment towards sustainability, was launched in Melbourne.

Culture

Melbourne is an international cultural centre, with cultural endeavours spanning major events and festivals, drama, musicals, comedy, music, art, architecture, literature, film and television. It was the second city after Edinburgh to be named a UNESCO City of Literature and has thrice shared top position in a survey by ''The Economist'' of the world's most liveable cities on the basis of a number of attributes which include its broad cultural offerings.

The city celebrates a wide variety of annual cultural events and festivals of all types, including the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Melbourne Fringe Festival. The Australian Ballet is based in Melbourne, as is the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Melbourne is the second home of Opera Australia after it merged with "Victoria State Opera" in 1996. The Victorian Opera had its inaugural season in 2006 and operates out of various venues in Melbourne.

Notable theatres and performance venues include: The Victorian Arts Centre (which includes the State Theatre, Hamer Hall, the Playhouse and the fairfax Studio), Melbourne Recital Centre, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Princess Theatre, Regent Theatre, Forum Theatre, Palace Theatre, Comedy Theatre, Athenaeum Theatre, Her Majesty's Theatre, Capitol Theatre, Palais Theatre and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. There are more than 100 galleries in Melbourne. Most notably it is home to Australia’s oldest and largest art gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria.

Melbourne is the birthplace of television in Australia, Australian rules football, Australian impressionist art movement known as the Heidelberg School, and Australian contemporary dance (including the Melbourne Shuffle and New Vogue styles). The city has an extensive cinematic history. Indeed, the world's first feature films were produced in Melbourne and its outer suburbs. Limelight Department's 1900 ''Soldiers of the Cross'', the world's first religious epic, anticipated the early 1900s golden age of Melbourne film production—an era marked by the exploration of local history and Australia's emerging identity. The 1854 civil insurrection of Ballarat was brought to life on the screen in ''Eureka Stockade'', and ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'' (the world's first feature length narrative film and precedent of the "Bushranging drama") followed the escapades of Ned Kelly and his gang of outlaws. Melbourne filmmakers continued to produce bushranger and convict films, such as 1907's ''Robbery Under Arms'' and 1908's ''For the Term of His Natural Life'', up until 1912, when Victorian politicians banned the screening of bushranger films for what they perceived as the promotion of crime.

Melbourne's and Australia's film industries declined soon after and came to a virtual stop in the 1960s. A notable film shot and set in Melbourne during this lull is 1959's ''On the Beach''. The 1970s saw a major renaissance of Australian film, giving rise to the Australian New Wave, as well as the Ocker and Ozploitation genres, instigated by Melbourne-based productions ''Stork'' and ''Alvin Purple'' respectively. Other 70s Melbourne films, such as ''Picnic at Hanging Rock'' and ''Mad Max'', would achieve worldwide acclaim. 2004 saw the construction of Melbourne's largest film and television studio complex, Docklands Studios Melbourne, which has hosted many domestic films and television shows, as well as international features ''Ghost Rider'', ''Knowing'', ''Charlotte's Web'', ''Nightmares and Dreamscapes'' and ''Where the Wild Things Are'', among others. Melbourne is also home to the headquarters of Village Roadshow Pictures, Australia's largest film production company. Famous modern day actors from Melbourne include Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Rachel Griffiths, Guy Pearce and Eric Bana. Artist Banksy, from the United Kingdom, hailed street art in Melbourne as "[Australia]'s most significant contribution to the arts since the Aborigines' pencils were stolen". The city is often placed alongside New York and Berlin as one of the world's great street art meccas, and its extensive street art-laden laneways, alleys and arcades were voted by ''Lonely Planet'' readers as Australia's top cultural attraction. The city is also admired for its exciting mix of vigorous modern architecture which intersects with an impressive range of nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings.

Sport

Melbourne is a notable sporting location as the host city for the 1956 Summer Olympics games (the first Olympic Games ever held in the southern hemisphere), along with the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The city is home to three major annual international sporting events: the Australian Open (one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments), the Melbourne Cup (horse racing), and the Australian Grand Prix (Formula One). In recent years, the city has claimed the SportsBusiness title "World's Ultimate Sports City". The city is home to the National Sports Museum, which until 2003 was located outside the members pavilion at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and reopened in 2008 in the Olympic Stand.

Australian rules football and cricket are the most popular sports in Melbourne and also the spiritual home of these two sports in Australia and both are mostly played in the same stadia in the city and its suburbs. The first ever official cricket Test match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877 and the Melbourne Cricket Ground is the largest cricket ground in the world . The first Australian rules football matches were played in Melbourne in 1859 and the Australian Football League is headquartered at Docklands Stadium. Nine of its teams are based in the Melbourne metropolitan area and the five Melbourne AFL matches per week attract an average 40,000 people per game. Additionally, the city annually hosts the AFL Grand Final.

The city is also home to several professional franchises in national competitions including Football (Soccer) clubs Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart who play in the A-league competition, the rugby league club Melbourne Storm who play in the NRL competition, the rugby union club Melbourne Rebels who play in the Super Rugby competition, the netball club Melbourne Vixens who play in the trans-Tasman trophy ANZ Championship, and the basketball club Melbourne Tigers who play in the NBL competition and the Bulleen Boomers and Dandenong Rangers who play in the WNBLand the baseball club Melbourne Aces who play in the Australian Baseball League. A second Melbourne-based NBL team may be established for the 2011–2012 season. In November 2008, it was announced that the Victorian Major Events Company had informed the Australian Olympic Committee that Melbourne was considering making bids for either the 2024 or 2028 Summer Olympics.

Economy

Melbourne has a highly diversified economy with particular strengths in finance, manufacturing, research, IT, education, logistics and transportation, conventions and tourism. Melbourne is headquarters for many of Australia's largest corporations, including five of the ten largest in the country (based on revenue), and five of the largest six in the country (based on market capitalisation) (ANZ, BHP Billiton (the world's largest mining company), the National Australia Bank, Rio Tinto and Telstra); as well as such representative bodies and thinktanks as the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The city is home to Australia's largest and busiest seaport which handles more than $75 billion in trade every year and 39% of the nation's container trade. Melbourne Airport provides an entry point for national and international visitors, and is Australia's second busiest airport.

Melbourne is also an important financial centre. Two of the big four banks, NAB and ANZ, are headquartered in Melbourne. The city has carved out a niche as Australia’s leading centre for superannuation (pension) funds, with 40% of the total, and 65% of industry super-funds including the $40 billion-dollar Federal Government Future Fund. The city was rated 34th within the top 50 financial cities as surveyed by the Mastercard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index (2007), between Barcelona and Geneva, and second only to Sydney (14th) in Australia.

Melbourne is Australia's industrial centre. It is the centre of Australia's automotive industry, which includes Ford and Toyota manufacturing facilities, and the engine manufacturing facility of Holden and parts suppliers. It has the Australian automotive headquarters and design centres. It is also home to a very wide variety of other manufacturers, ranging from petrochemicals, aircraft parts and pharmaceuticals to fashion garments, paper manufacturing and food processing.

It is a major international centre for biotechnology, and is the base of such companies as CSL and Biota. Melbourne has an important ICT industry that employs over 60,000 people (one third of Australia's ICT workforce), with a turnover of $19.8 billion and export revenues of $615 million. In addition, tourism also plays an important role in Melbourne's economy, with approximately 7.6 million domestic visitors and 1.88 million international visitors in 2004 In 2008, Melbourne overtook Sydney with the amount of money that domestic tourists spent in the city. accounting for around $15.8 billion annually Melbourne has been attracting an increasing share of domestic and international conference markets. Construction began in February 2006 of a $1 billion 5000-seat international convention centre, Hilton Hotel and commercial precinct adjacent to the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre to link development along the Yarra River with the Southbank precinct and multi-billion dollar Docklands redevelopment.

Demographics

Melbourne is a diverse and multicultural city. In 2006, 35.8% of its population was born overseas, exceeding the national average of 23.1%. In concordance with national data, Britain is the most commonly reported overseas place of birth, with 4.7%, followed by Italy (2.1%), Vietnam (1.6%), China (1.5%), and New Zealand (1.5%). Melbourne has the world's third largest Greek-speaking population after Athens and Thessaloniki (Melbourne's Greek sister city), and the Vietnamese surname Nguyen is the second most common in Melbourne's phone book. The city also features substantial Indian, Sri Lankan, and Malaysian-born communities, in addition to recent South African and Sudanese influxes. The cultural diversity is reflected in the city's restaurants serving various international cuisines.

Over two-thirds of Melburnians speak only English at home (68.1%). Chinese (mainly Cantonese and Mandarin) is the second-most-common language spoken at home (3.6%), with Greek third, Italian fourth and Vietnamese fifth, each with more than 100,000 speakers. Although Victoria's net interstate migration has fluctuated, the Melbourne statistical division has grown by approximately 50,000 people a year since 2003. Melbourne has now attracted the largest proportion of international overseas immigrants (48,000) finding it outpacing Sydney's international migrant intake, along with having strong interstate migration from Sydney and other capitals due to more affordable housing and cost of living, which have been two recent key factors driving Melbourne's growth.

In recent years, Melton, Wyndham and Casey, part of the Melbourne statistical division, have recorded the highest growth rate of all local government areas in Australia. Despite a demographic study stating that Melbourne could overtake Sydney in population by 2028, the ABS has projected in two scenarios that Sydney will remain larger than Melbourne beyond 2056, albeit by a margin of less than 3% compared to a margin of 12% today. However, the first scenario projects that Melbourne's population overtakes Sydney in 2039, primarily due to larger levels of internal migration losses assumed for Sydney.

After a trend of declining population density since World War II, the city has seen increased density in the inner and western suburbs aided in part by Victorian Government planning blueprints, such as Postcode 3000 and Melbourne 2030 which have aimed to curtail the urban sprawl.

Education

Melbourne was ranked the world's fourth top university city in 2008 after London, Boston and Tokyo in a poll commissioned by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Melbourne is the home of the University of Melbourne, as well as Monash University, the largest university in Australia. The University of Melbourne is the second oldest university in Australia. It was ranked first among Australian universities in the 2010 THES international rankings.

''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' ranked the University of Melbourne as the 36th best university in the world—ahead of ANU at 43rd and University of Sydney at 71st. Monash University was ranked the 178th best university in the world. Both universities are members of the Group of Eight.

Other universities located in Melbourne include La Trobe University, RMIT University, Swinburne University of Technology, based in the inner city Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn, Victoria University, which has nine campuses across Melbourne's western region, including three in the heart of Melbourne's Central Business District (CBD) and another four within ten kilometres of the CBD, and the St Patrick's campus of the Australian Catholic University. Deakin University maintains two major campuses in Melbourne and Geelong, and is the third largest university in Victoria. In recent years, the number of international students at Melbourne's universities has risen rapidly, a result of an increasing number of places being made available to full fee paying students. Melbourne is also home to many state run and independent schools.

Media

Three daily newspapers serve Melbourne: the ''Herald Sun'' (tabloid), ''The Age'' (broadsheet) and ''The Australian'' (national broadsheet). The free ''mX'' is also distributed weekday afternoon at railway stations and on the streets of central Melbourne. Five television networks and a community television station serve Melbourne: HSV-7, which broadcasts from the Melbourne Docklands precinct; GTV-9, which broadcasts from their new Docklands studios; and ATV-10, which broadcasts from the Como Complex in South Yarra. National stations that broadcast into Melbourne include ABV-2 (branded ABC1) from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The ABC has two studios, one at Ripponlea and another at Southbank. SBS One from the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), broadcasts from their studios at Federation Square in central Melbourne.

New digital-only channels available in addition to ABC1, HSV-7 (Seven), GTV-9 (Nine), ATV-10 (Ten) and SBS One include One HD, Eleven, ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBS Two, 7Two, 7mate, GEM HD and GO!. C31 Melbourne is the only local community television station in Melbourne, and its broadcast range also branches out to regional centre Geelong. Melbourne also receives Pay TV, largely through cable and satellite services. Foxtel and Optus are the main Pay TV providers. Various television programs are produced in Melbourne, notably ''Neighbours'', ''Kath & Kim'', ''Hey Hey It's Saturday'', ''Blue Heelers'', ''Rush'' and ''Underbelly''.

A long list of AM and FM radio stations broadcast to greater Melbourne. These include "public" (i.e. state owned ABC & SBS) and community stations. Many commercial stations are networked-owned: DMG has Nova 100 and Classic Rock; ARN controls Gold and Mix; and Austereo runs both Fox and Triple M. Stations from towns in regional Victoria may also be heard (e.g. 93.9 Bay FM, Geelong ). Youth alternatives include ABC Triple J and youth run SYN. Triple J, and similarly PBS and Triple R, strive to play under represented music. JOY caters for gay and lesbian audiences. For fans of classical music there are 3MBS and ABC Classic FM. Light FM is a contemporary Christian station. AM stations include ABC: 774, Radio National, and News Radio; also Fairfax affiliates 3AW (talk) and Magic (easy listening); and also MTR (talk). For sport fans and enthusiasts there is SEN 1116. Melbourne has many community run stations that serve alternative interests, such as 3CR and 3KND (Indigenous). Many suburbs have low powered community run stations serving local audiences.

Religion

Melbourne is home to a wide range of religious faiths, the most widely held faith of which is Christian (58.9%) with a large Catholic population (28.3%). The large Christian population is signified by the city's two large cathedrals—St Patrick's (Roman Catholic), and St Paul's (Anglican). Both were built in the Victorian era and are of considerable heritage significance as major landmarks of the city.

Other categories include no religion (20.0%), Anglican (12.1%), Eastern Orthodox (5.9%) and the Uniting Church (4.0%). Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs collectively account for 9.2% of the population.

Melbourne has the largest Jewish population in Australia, the community currently numbering approximately 60,000. The city is also home to the largest number of Holocaust survivors of any Australian city, indeed the highest per capita concentration outside Israel itself. Reflecting this vibrant and growing community, Melbourne has a plethora of Jewish cultural, religious and educational institutions, including over 40 synagogues and 7 full-time parochial day schools, along with a local Jewish newspaper.

Governance

The governance of Melbourne is split between the government of Victoria and the 26 cities and five shires which comprise the metropolitan area. There is no ceremonial or political head of Melbourne; however, the Lord Mayor of the City of Melbourne often fulfils such a role as a first amongst equals, particularly when interstate or overseas.

The local councils are responsible for providing the functions set out in the ''Local Government Act'' 1989 such as urban planning and waste management. Most other government services are provided or regulated by the Victorian state government, which governs from Parliament House in Spring Street. These include services which are associated with local government in other countries and include public transport, main roads, traffic control, policing, education above preschool level, health and planning of major infrastructure projects. The state government retains the right to override certain local government decisions, including urban planning, and Melburnian issues often feature prominently in state election.

Infrastructure

Health

The Government of Victoria's Department of Health oversees approximately 30 public hospitals in the Melbourne metropolitan region, and 13 health services organisations.

There are many major medical, neuroscience and biotechnology research institutions located in Melbourne: St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research, Australian Stem Cell Centre, the Burnet Institute, Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Victorian Institute of Chemical Sciences, Brain Research Institute, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre.

Other institutions include the Howard Florey Institute, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and the Australian Synchrotron. Many of these institutions are associated with and are located near universities.

Among Australian capital cities, Melbourne ties equal 1st with Canberra for the highest male life expectancy (80.0 years) and ranks second behind Perth in female life expectancy (84.1 years).

Transport

Melbourne has a very high dependency on the automobile for transport particularly in the outer suburban areas where the largest number of cars are bought with a total of 3.6 million private vehicles using of road, and one of the highest lengths of road per capita in the world. The early 20th century saw an increase in popularity of the automobiles, resulting in large scale suburban expansion and today it has an extensive network of freeways and arterial roadways used by private vehicles including freight as well as public transport systems including bus and taxis. Major highways feeding into the city include the Eastern Freeway, Monash Freeway and West Gate Freeway (which spans the large Westgate Bridge), whilst other freeways circumnavigate the city or lead to other major cities, including CityLink (which spans the large Bolte Bridge), Eastlink, the Western Ring Road, Calder Freeway, Tullamarine Freeway (main airport link) and the Hume Freeway which links Melbourne and Sydney.

Melbourne has an integrated public transport system based around extensive train, tram, bus and taxi systems. In the 1940s 25% of travellers used public transport but by 2003 it had declined to just 7.6%. The public transport system was privatised in 1999, symbolising the peak of the decline. Despite privatisation and successive governments persisting with auto-centric urban development into the 21st century, there has since been large increases in public transport patronage with the mode share for commuters increasing to 14.8% and 8.4% of all trips. A target of 20% public transport mode share for Melbourne by 2020 was set by the state government in 2006. Since 2006 public transport patronage has grown by over 20%.

Rail

The Melbourne rail network has its origins in privately built lines from the 1850s gold rush era and today the suburban network consists of 200 suburban stations on 16 lines which radiate from the City Loop, a partially underground metro section of the network beneath the Central Business District (Hoddle Grid). Flinders Street Station is Melbourne's busiest railway station, and was the world's busiest passenger station in 1926. It remains a prominent Melbourne landmark and meeting place. The city has rail connections with regional Victorian cities, as well as direct interstate rail services to Sydney and Adelaide and beyond which depart from Melbourne's other major rail terminus, Southern Cross Station in Spencer Street. In the 2008–2009 financial year, the Melbourne rail network recorded 213.9 million passenger trips, the highest in its history. Many rail lines, along with dedicated lines and rail yards are also used for freight.

Melbourne Metro

Melbourne Metro Project, would be 2 Metro lines installed in Stages.

Stage 1 connects from Arden Metro (Dynon Rd) to Parkville Metro, to CBD North Metro (Carlton) to CBD South, to Domain (St Kilda)

Stage 2 connects from Domain to Caulfield.

Trams & Buses

Melbourne has the largest tram network in the world which had its origins in the city's 1880s land boom. Approximately 178 million passenger trips were made by tram in 2009. Melbourne's is Australia's only tram network to comprise more than a single line and consists of 15 lines running 29 routes. Sections of the tram network are on roads, while others are separated or are light rail routes. Melbourne's trams are recognised as iconic cultural assets and a tourist attraction. Heritage trams operate on the free City Circle route, intended for visitors to Melbourne, and heritage restaurant trams travel through the city during the evening. Melbourne's bus network consists of almost 300 routes which mainly service the outer suburbs fill the gaps in the network between rail and light rail services. 86.7 million passenger trips were recorded on Melbourne’s buses in 2007.

Port

Ship transport is an important component of Melbourne's transport system. The Port of Melbourne is Australia's largest container and general cargo port and also its busiest. The port handled two million shipping containers in a 12 month period during 2007, making it one of the top five ports in the Southern Hemisphere. Station Pier on Port Phillip Bay is the main passenger ship terminal with cruise ships and the Spirit of Tasmania ferries which cross Bass Strait to Tasmania docking there. Ferries and water taxis run from berths along the Yarra River as far upstream as South Yarra and across Port Phillip Bay.

Air

Melbourne has four airports. Melbourne Airport, at Tullamarine, is the city's main international and domestic gateway and second busiest in Australia. The airport is home base for passenger airlines Jetstar Airways and Tiger Airways Australia and cargo airlines Australian air Express and Toll Priority; and is a major hub for Qantas and Virgin Australia. Avalon Airport, located between Melbourne and Geelong, is a secondary hub of Jetstar. It is also used as a freight and maintenance facility. Buses and taxis are the only forms of public transport currently available to and from the city's main airports. Air Ambulance facilities are available for domestic and international transportation of patients. Melbourne also has a significant general aviation airport, Moorabbin Airport in the city's south east as well as handling a limited number of passenger flights. Essendon Airport, which was once the city's main airport also handles passenger flights, general aviation and some cargo flights.

Cycling

Melbourne has a bicycle sharing system established in 2010 utilising an extensive network of marked road lanes and segregated cycle facilities.

Utilities

Water storage and supply for Melbourne is managed by Melbourne Water, which is owned by the Victorian Government. The organisation is also responsible for management of sewerage and the major water catchments in the region and will be responsible for the Wonthaggi desalination plant and North–South Pipeline. Water is stored in a series of reservoirs located within and outside the Greater Melbourne area. The largest dam, the Thomson River Dam, located in the Victorian Alps, is capable of holding around 60% of Melbourne's water capacity, while smaller dams such as the Upper Yarra Dam and the Cardinia Reservoir carry secondary supplies.

Gas is provided state wide by SP Ausnet. Electricity is provided by 5 distribution companies:

Citipower which provides power to Melbourne's CBD, and some inner suburbs

Powercor which provides power to the outer western suburbs as well as all of western Victoria _{(Citipower and Powercor are owned by the same entity)}

Jemena which provides power to the northern and inner western suburbs

United Energy which provides power to the inner eastern, south-eastern suburbs and the Mornington Peninsula

SP Ausnet which provides power to the outer eastern suburbs and all of the north and east of Victoria.

Victoria is said to have the most reliable power supply in Australia.

Numerous telecommunications companies provide Melbourne with terrestrial and mobile telecommunications services and wireless internet services.

See also

Population Projections for Melbourne

Crime in Melbourne

Education in Victoria

Melway – the native street directory and general information source in Melbourne.

Hook turn – driving manoeuvre that is common in the inner city area.

Lists:

List of people from Melbourne

List of Melbourne suburbs

List of songs about Melbourne

List of heritage listed buildings in Melbourne

Local government in Victoria

List of Australian capital cities

References

Further reading

{| | style="vertical-align:top; font-size:90%;"|

Collins, Jock; Letizia Mondello; John Breheney; Tim Childs (1990), ''Cosmopolitan Melbourne. Explore the world in one city'', Big Box Publishing, Rhodes, New South Wales. ISBN 0-9579624-0-1

Davidson, Jim (ed.)(1986), ''The Sydney-Melbourne Book'', Allen and Unwin, North Sydney, New South Wales. ISBN 0-86861-819-5

O'Hanlon, Seamus and Tanja Luckins (eds)(2005), ''Go! Melbourne. Melbourne in the Sixties'', Melbourne Publishing Group, Beaconsfield, Victoria. ISBN 0-9757802-0-4

|}

External links

Encyclopedia of Melbourne official website

City of Melbourne official website

Official tourist board site of Melbourne

Victorian Division of the United Nations Association of Australia

Population Projections for Melbourne

Category:Australian capital cities Category:Coastal cities in Australia Category:Host cities of the Commonwealth Games Category:Host cities of the Summer Olympic Games Category:Metropolitan areas of Australia Category:Port cities in Australia Category:Populated places established in 1835 Category:Populated places established in the 19th century Category:Former national capitals Category:IOC Session Host Cities

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{{infobox rugby league club | clubname

Melbourne Storm | image | fullname Melbourne Storm Rugby League Club | nickname Storm | colours ''Primary:'' Purple Navy''Secondary:'' White Gold | founded 1997 (first season 1998) | ground AAMI Park (30,050) | coach Craig Bellamy | captain Cameron Smith | url http://www.melbournestorm.com.au | league National Rugby League | season 2011 season | position 1st | cap 262 | mostcap Matt Geyer | points 1154 | mostpoints Cameron Smith | premierships 1 | premiershipyears 1999, 2007*, 2009* | minorpremierships | minorpremiershipyears | runnerups 2 | runnerupyears 2006, 2008 | cup1years 2009 | cup1 Toyota Cup | cup1titles 1 | spoons 1 | spoonyears 2010 | cup2years 2009 | cup2 Club Champs | cup2titles 1 | homejersey Melbourne Storm home jersey 2010.svg | awayjersey Melbourne Storm away jersey 2010.svg }}

The Melbourne Storm is an Australian professional rugby league club based in the city of Melbourne. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the Australian rules football-dominated state of Victoria, they were ranked the most popular sports team in Melbourne by a national Roy Morgan Poll in October 2009.

The Storm won the minor premiership three times in a row, from 2006–2008, and contested each grand final from 2006 to 2009, winning in 2007 and 2009. The club was later stripped of these honours after breaching the NRL salary cap. They were named the NRL Team of the Decade for the 2000s. Their coach, Craig Bellamy, was the New South Wales State of Origin coach until his dismissal in 2010.

From their inception and until the end of 2009, the Storm played the majority of home games at Olympic Park Stadium. From 2010 they moved into their new home at AAMI Park, the first game at the new venue was against the Brisbane Broncos.

Originally a Super League initiative and one of six NRL teams which are privately owned, the Melbourne club is currently 100% owned and operated by News Limited.

History

1990 - 1999

By 1994, due to the high attendances at recent State of Origin matches (including a then Australian rugby league record crowd of 87,161 in 1994 at the MCG) the Australian Rugby League (ARL) had planned to establish a Melbourne-based team to the premiership by 1998. However, the disruption caused by the Super League war caused great change to the game in Australia. By May 1997, Super League boss John Ribot pushed for a Melbourne based club for his competition, which was the rival against the ARL. Former Brisbane Broncos centre Chris Johns became the CEO of the club and Ribot stepped down from the head of Super League to set up the club. In September 1997, Melbourne announced that Chris Anderson would be their foundation coach, and then Super League announced that the new team would be named the Melbourne Storm.

The Melbourne club then went forward with signing players, mainly from former Super League clubs Perth Reds and Hunter Mariners. Some of these players included Robbie Ross, Glenn Lazarus, Brett Kimmorley and Scott Hill. With the Super League and ARL joining into one competition for the 1998 season, the Melbourne team became part of the National Rugby League (NRL). The Melbourne Storm club was unveiled at a function in the Hyatt in February, 1998. In their first ever game, they defeated Illawarra, with Glenn Lazarus as their inaugural captain. Melbourne, in a complete shock to the rest of the competition, won their first four games, before losing to Auckland. They went on to make the finals, but were defeated by the eventual premiers, the Brisbane Broncos.

In January 1999, CEO John Ribot negotiated a deal that saw Melbourne Storm games televised in China every weekend. The club won eight of their first eleven games of the 1999 NRL season, and went on to make the finals in third position on the premiership ladder. The team was beaten convincingly 34–10 in the quarter final by St. George Illawarra. After narrow victories against the Canterbury Bulldogs and the Parramatta Eels however Melbourne once more faced St. George Illawarra, this time winning 20–18 and securing their first premiership.

2000 - 2009

Season 2000 saw Melbourne consistently win after initially losing their first four games of the season. They made the finals (finishing 6th), but were eventually knocked out by Newcastle in the quarter-finals. Between 2001 and 2002, the Melbourne club performed poorly. Cracks were starting to appear between Johns, Ribot and Anderson throughout the period, with Anderson quitting as coach after round 7, 2001. He was replaced by Mark Murray. The Melbourne club failed to make the finals in 2001. Johns left the club as CEO at the end of 2002 and coach Murray was sacked due to Melbourne's poor form, with the club missing the finals for the second year in a row. Wayne Bennett's assistant coach at the Brisbane Broncos, Craig Bellamy was announced as the new coach of Melbourne for 2003. In addition to a new captain in Kiwi international skipper Stephen Kearney, the strict coaching of Craig "Bellyache" Bellamy would see the Melbourne Storm get back on track from the previous lean years. Between 2003 and 2005, Melbourne consistently made the finals, but lost games in the semi finals that prevented them from reaching the grand final. On 17 July 2004, during round 19 of the 2004 NRL season, Danny Williams king-hit Wests Tigers' player Mark O'Neill. 250px|thumb|260px|Storm players celebrating their premiership win in 2007.Williams defended the incident, using four medical experts to argue on his behalf that he was suffering post-traumatic amnesia when the incident occurred, which he claims was the result of a high tackle by O'Neill just prior to the incident. Despite Williams' claim, he was suspended for 18 weeks by the NRL judiciary. After the decision, Williams stated that he was "obviously disappointed with the outcome". It was the longest suspension in Australian rugby league since Steve Linnane was suspended for twenty weeks for eye-gouging in 1987.

In 2005, Storm coach Craig Bellamy, in his third season as an NRL coach, gained representative honours when he was selected to start coaching the Country Origin.

Season 2006 saw a new-look Storm, with the retirement of captain Robbie Kearns, the emergence of talented rookie halfback Cooper Cronk taking the reins from longtime number 7 Matt Orford, and the recruitment of hard-man Michael Crocker. Contrary to expectation, 2006 was a standout year for the Melbourne team, winning their first minor premiership following a resoundingly dominant Home and Away Season, including a club record 11 game streak. Melbourne only lost four games in the season, making them outright leaders by four wins. They went on to win their two finals matches, and were subsequently favourites in the 2006 NRL Grand Final. The Storm however lost 15–8 the to the Brisbane Broncos, in a match where controversial refereeing decisions against Melbourne caused much media coverage. Melbourne's television audience for the Storm's NRL grand final appearance was greater than Sydney's was for the Swans AFL grand final appearance'.

In 2007 the Storm avenged for their heartbreaking end to the 2006 campaign by playing as they did in 2006: once again dominating the competition, and finishing on top after 25 rounds. In the first week of the NRL finals, Melbourne played Brisbane, in which Melbourne won 40–0, securing a spot in a preliminary final. In the preliminary final, Melbourne played Parramatta in a game that was tied 10–10 at half time, before a superb second half by Melbourne resulted in the final score of 26–10. The win was particularly satisfying for Melbourne fans, coming soon after Parramatta CEO Denis Fitzgerald said that rugby league should not be promoted in Melbourne. This game drew a larger crowd than chief rival Manly's preliminary final. Melbourne comprehensively defeated Manly 34–8 in the 2007 NRL Grand Final with Greg Inglis winning the coveted Clive Churchill Medal.

In Season 2008, Melbourne won their third minor premiership after the 26 rounds of regular competition. Despite becoming the first minor premiers since the McIntyre Final Eight System was introduced to lose their opening finals game 15–18 to the New Zealand Warriors, they then defeated the Brisbane Broncos 16–14, scoring in the last minute of their semi final. Bellamy was fined $50,000 for making scathing remarks regarding the NRL's decision to suspend Cameron Smith over a controversial "grapple tackle" on Brisbane's Sam Thaiday. Bellamy wrongly claimed that the administration was corrupt and that bookkeepers already knew that Smith would be denied the opportunity to play for the rest of the season. Along with Melbourne's CEO, Bellamy questioned the NRL's integrity in their opting to sideline Smith and not others who were guilty of committing similar tackles. In their qualifying final, Melbourne convincingly beat the Cronulla Sharks 28–0. But in their second successive grand final appearance against the Manly Sea Eagles, Manly demolished Melbourne 40–0.

At the Dally M Awards for season 2008, Melbourne picked up 6 awards, with 3 to Greg Inglis, and 1 for each of Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Israel Folau. Billy Slater and Cameron Smith finished 2 points behind Manly's Matt Orford for the Dally M Medal with 22 points each. Billy Slater was awarded the international player of the year Golden Boot award for 2008, following on from Cameron Smith in 2007.

Following the 40–0 defeat, season 2009 was generally an average year on the field by the Storm's lofty standards, Melbourne finished 4th on the ladder after the home and away season, entering the finals clear underdogs. In Week One of the finals, the Storm romped 2008 Premiers Manly 40–12 in the qualifying final, ending their hopes of back-to-back premierships, and laying to bed some of the demons of the 2008 Grand Final. This was followed a fortnight later by a 40–10 thrashing of fierce rivals and 2006 Premiers Brisbane in the preliminary final, ensuring the Storm qualified for their fourth straight grand final (the first since Parramatta from 1981–1984). The Preliminary Final was also a monumental game for the Storm as it saw favourite son Billy Slater score his 100th career try and Cameron Smith became Storm's highest ever point scorer, surpassing Matt Orford's record of 877. The Melbourne Storm then capped off a truly brilliant late-season resurgence to end a rampaging Parramatta side in front of a parochial strong crowd at ANZ Stadium. Parramatta, coming off 10 wins from 11 games, led by the in-form young superstar Jarryd Hayne proved to be no match for the Storm's typical gameplan of grinding football, ensuring a defeat of the razzle-dazzle offload fuelled football of Parramatta. Despite the Storm leading Parramatta at one stage by 16 points, the Eels fought back in a late charge to bring the margin back to 7, with the Storm sealing a 23–16 win with a late Greg Inglis field goal. For his fantastic efforts, Fullback Billy Slater was awarded the 2009 Clive Churchill Medal for Man of the Match. Following the victory in 2009, the Melbourne Storm have been earned the title the NRL Team of the Decade for the 2000s.

However, due to poor negotiation of NRL TV broadcast rights, Channel 9 does not show regular Storm games at prime time in Melbourne.

In the late 2000s the Melbourne Storm were still running at a loss of up to $6M per season.

2010 - present

On 11 January 2010, it was announced that Brian Waldron resigned his position as CEO to take up the same position at the Melbourne Rebels Super 15 team. He was replaced by Matt Hanson who was the Chief Operating Officer, however following the Salary cap revelations Matt Hanson was then stood down and Ron Gauci appointed.

The Storm's first match of the season was the 2010 World Club Challenge against equally dominant English side, the Leeds Rhinos, in very cold and wet conditions the Storm prevailed 18 – 10. For the 2010 NRL season, they played their first three home games at Etihad Stadium before unveilling their new purpose built permanent home ground, AAMI Park.

On 22 April 2010 the club admitted that it had committed serious and systematic breaches of the salary cap Melbourne Storm salary cap breach for the last five years by running a well-organized dual contract and bookkeeping system which left the NRL ignorant of $3.17 million in payments made to players outside of the salary cap, including $550,000 in 2007, $965,000 in 2009 and $1.03 million in 2010. As a result, NRL Chief Executive David Gallop stripped the Melbourne Storm of their 2007 and 2009 premierships and their 2006, 2007 and 2008 minor premierships (which have been withheld), fined them an Australian sporting record $1,689,000, deducted all eight premiership points they had already received in the 2010 season, and barred them from receiving premiership points for the rest of the season.

In the 2011 season, the Storm played 9 of its first 13 games at home, beginning their season against arch-rivals the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. The Storm's 2011 season has seen a very successful return to the top of the NRL table, considering the massive player turnover from the past 12 months. There have also been a number of notable milestones throughout the season including:

Billy Slater becoming the Storms highest try scorer with two trys against the Gold Coast Titans at AAMI Park. He finished this game with a career total of 114 one more than Matt Geyer on 113.

Cameron Smith played his 200th NRL Game against Cronulla Sharks.

The Storm held the Canberra Raiders scoreless at Canberra Stadium for the first time in the Raiders history.

Cameron Smith notched up his 500th goal during their match against the Brisbane Broncos.

The Storm broke the NRL all time record for most consecutive away wins in Round 23 against Gold Coast Titans. This was ended in Round 25.

The Storm broke their most consecutive wins record in Round 24 against St. George Illawarra. This set the new record winning streak at 12, but this was ended the following round by bitter rivals the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in a controversial and spiteful match.

Season summaries

17 (1) rowspan="3">Chris Anderson (rugby league) 24 (4) 26 (1) 26 24 24 (2) rowspan="9">Craig Bellamy (rugby league) 24 (2) 24 (2) 24 (3) 24 (3) 24 (4) 24 (3) 24 22

+ P=Premier, R=Runner-Up, M=Minor Premier, F=Finals Appearance, W=Wooden Spoon, S=Stripped of title <

(Brackets represent Finals games)

Competition !! GamesPlayed !! GamesWon !! GamesDrawn !! GamesLost !! LadderPosition !! style="width:2%;"

P !! style="width:2%;"|R !! style="width:2%;"|M !! style="width:2%;"|F !! style="width:2%;"|W !! Coach !! Captain!! Details

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Glenn Lazarus

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Rodney Howe

Melbourne Storm 2002

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Emblem and colours

Originally, the club favoured the name Melbourne Mavericks with a gunslinger logo holding a fistful of dollars. The club officials were all set to go with this until News Limited's Lachlan Murdoch told them to go with something else because the Mavericks sounded too American. Trams and Flying Foxes were also some ideas that came up. However co-CEOs Chris Johns and John Ribot decided to go with the themes lightning, power and storm. The club then became known as the Melbourne Storm.

The Storm was always going to go with the colours of their state, Victoria. These were navy blue with a white 'V'. But club consultant Peter McWhirter, from JAG fashion house, suggested that they should also have purple and gold to make their merchandise more attractive. These colours appear in the logo, however, on the home jersey they have varied. Between 1998 and 2004 these four colours also appeared but between 2005 and 2009, gold was completely removed and silver introduced. For the 2010 season, gold returned and silver was omitted, also purple became the dominant colour in the jersey for the first time. This jersey has also been retained for 2011.

Between 1998-2001, Melbourne was the only club to display player names on the back of jerseys. This was because there was no major sponsor for the Storm to display on the chest or back at the time. In 2001, Melbourne gained its first major sponsor in Adecco, and was displayed on the jersey chest, while maintaining the players names on the back until the end of 2001. In 2002, the Storm removed the player's names and displayed Adecco's logo on the back.

Manufacturers:

1998: Nike

1999–2002: Fila

2003–04: Canterbury

2005–08: Reebok

2009–present: Kooga

Chest Sponsors:

1998–2000: None

2001–05: Adecco

2006–08: Medibank Private

2009–mid 2010: ME Bank

Mid 2010–End 2010: Jayco

2011–present: Crown Casino

Back Sponsors:

1998–2001: Player Names

2002–2005: Adecco

2006–mid 2010: Host Plus

Mid 2010–End 2010: Jayco/Suzuki

2011–present: None

Sleeve Sponsors:

1998-late 1998: None

late 1998–2003: Honda

2004: None

2005: Medibank Private

Early 2006: None

Mid 2006–2007: Mortgage House

2008–present: Suzuki

Shorts Sponsors

2001-2002: Accapac

2003-2004: Accapac (front) and Crazy Johns (back)

2005-late 2006: None

late 2006- 2010: Jayco

2010–present: Makita (front) and Jayco (back)

Rivalries

St George Illawarra Dragons: The Storm narrowly beat them in their first grand final in 1999, with a late penalty try putting the Storm in front. The following year Anthony Mundine declared that the Storm were not "worthy premiers" in the run up to their round 5 rematch. The Storm responded by beating the Dragons 70-10. In Round 18 the Dragons added to the rivalry by defeating the Storm 50-4. In 2006 the Storm defeated St. George Illawarra in the Preliminary Final. On 21 July 2008, Storm won a match at Olympic Park 26-0, that was highlighted by several ugly brawls. In 2009, the Storm beat them in the Round 1 home game 17-16 with a field goal in Golden Point (the second time the two teams were drawn at fulltime).

Brisbane Broncos. The Melbourne Storm has a strong rivalry with Brisbane, built in large part on the large number of finals games played between the teams, including one final in each year from 2004 to 2009. The move of Brisbane assistant coach Craig Bellamy to Melbourne has also been attributed to fueling the rivalry.

Every year since Brisbane's victory over Melbourne in the 2006 Grand Final, Melbourne have ended the Broncos' season by knocking them out of the finals. Melbourne captain Cameron Smith commented on the rivalry prior to their 2009 Preliminary Final at Etihad Stadium.

The Brisbane Broncos defeated the Storm 15–8, under controversial circumstances, in the 2006 NRL Grand Final. The Storm sought revenge through a 40–0 thrashing in the 2007 Qualifying Final at Olympic Park Stadium. The 2008 Semi-Final at Suncorp Stadium ended with Melbourne dramatically winning 16–14 with a try on the final play of the game. In 2009 Brisbane were again beaten by eventual premiers Melbourne, this time 40–10 at Etihad Stadium, catapulting the Storm to their 4th consecutive Grand Final Appearance.

Manly Sea Eagles. The Storm defeated Manly 34–8 in the 2007 Grand Final but lost to in the 2008 re-match in a history-making 0–40 loss. To add the rivalry, Melbourne beat Manly 40–12 in the opening final of the 2009 finals series, ending their bid to be back-to-back premiers.

New Zealand Warriors: More of a traditional rivalry due to the large amount of Kiwi internationals Melbourne has fielded in their history. In the last eleven meetings (since Rd 1 2006), seven of the clashes have been decided by 8 points or less, with the Storm faring better slightly (Storm 6-Warriors 4 & 1 draw). The overall head to head are slightly in Melbourne's favour (26 clashes, Storm 13-Warriors 11 & 2 draws). These two sides have also played an annual ANZAC Day clash each year since 2009.

Stadium and attendances

Melbourne have played the vast majority of their home matches at the city's Olympic Park Stadium, affectionately coined "The Graveyard" by fans due to the incredible 77.2% winning percentage there. It was here that the club played their inaugural home match in the fourth round of the 1998 season on 3 April 1998, having come off the back of three successive away victories. In front of what remains the club's record Olympic Park attendance of 20,522, the team recorded a 26–16 victory over the North Sydney Bears.

The team remained at the ground until the end of the 2000 season. In the 2000 season they attracted an average home attendance of 14,622, which remained their largest average attendance ever until the 2010 season which drew an average on 14,670. They played at Melbourne Cricket Ground for two games in 2000, and they won both times including the 70–10 thrashing of St George Illawarra Dragons in the Grand Final rematch from the previous year. Following steady attendance increases over the three years, it was decided to move home games to the much larger Docklands Stadium for the following year However, with the team ending up missing the finals, crowd numbers declined and it was decided to move the team back to Olympic Park. Attendances bottomed out to an average of 8,886 per home game in 2004, but they have steadily risen each year back to an average of 14,670 per home game for the 2010 season, their highest yearly average ever. A home attendance record of 33,427 was set in 2007 for the Preliminary Final against Parramatta, at the Docklands Stadium. Their highest regular season attendance of 25,480 was set in 2010 against St George-Illawarra also at Docklands.

The Storm played their last game at Olympic Park in round 25, 29 August 2009, with a 36–4 thrashing of the Sydney Roosters. For the 2010 NRL Premiership season, the Storm's first three home games (rounds four, six and seven) were played at Docklands Stadium, before moving into their new home ground, AAMI Park in round nine (9 May 2010) against the Brisbane Broncos. The club had anticipated playing its first game at the new ground in round four against the St George Illawarra Dragons, however, a delay in construction required the opening to be pushed back several weeks.

Stadium records

Home Grounds used by the Storm

From !! To !! Stadium
1998	2000	Olympic Park Stadium
2001	2001
2002	2009
2010

Top 5 Home Attendances

Parramatta EelsDocklands StadiumDocklands StadiumAAMI ParkDocklands Stadium

Crowd !! Stadium !! Opponent !! Game Status !! Date
33,427	Docklands Stadium	|	Preliminary final	23/09/2007
27,687	|	Brisbane Broncos	Preliminary final	26/09/2009
25,480	|	St George-Illawarra Dragons	Regular Season – 1st home game following premiership (Good Friday)	02/04/2010
24,081	|	St George-Illawarra Dragons	Regular Season – Round 24	19/08/2011
23,906	|	New Zealand Warriors	Regular Season – Anzac Day also 1st game following Salary Cap revelations	25/04/2010

Statistics and records summary

''Statistics and Records current as of 29th August 2011''

Club honours

National Rugby League Premierships: 1

1999, 2007*, 2009*

National Rugby League runners up: 2

2006, 2008

National Youth Competition premierships: 1

2009

World Club Challenge wins: 2

2000, 2010

Greatest winning margin: 64 points

* Vs Wests Tigers, on 5 July 2001, Final score 64 – 0.

Worst defeat: 46 points

* Vs Bulldogs (50–4 on 10 August 2003)

Vs St. George Illawarra (50–4 on 4 June 2000)

Most consecutive wins: 12

*29 May 2011 (Round 12) - 19 August 2011 (Round 24)

All time head to head record

* Since 1998, The Melbourne Storm have the following Win-Loss record.

Their wins percentage is currently the second best in the league only second to the Broncos.

5

Games !! Wins !! Drawn !! Loss !! Points for !! Points against !! Win %
366	230	|	131	8883	6503	63.59%

Individual honours

Top 3 Highest point scorers:

*Cameron Smith 1158 points (31 tries, 517 goals)

*Matt Orford 877 points (52 tries, 333 goals, 3 field goals)

*Matt Geyer 662 points (113 tries, 105 goals)

Top 5 Try scorers:

*Billy Slater 124 tries (201 games)

*Matt Geyer 113 (262)

*Greg Inglis 78 (117)

*Marcus Bai 70 (144)

*Steven Bell 63 (107)

Most points scored in a season: 242

Matt Geyer, 20 tries and 81 goals in the 1999 premiership season.

Most tries in a season: 21

*Israel Folau 2007 season.

Dally M medalists: 1

*2006 – Cameron Smith

Golden Boot Award (World's best player) winners: 3

*2007 – Cameron Smith

*2008 – Billy Slater

*2009 – Greg Inglis

Coaches and captains

Coaches

1998-R7 2001: Chris Anderson

R8 2001–2002: Mark Murray

2003–present: Craig Bellamy

Captains

1998–1999: Glenn Lazarus

2000: Robbie Kearns

2001: Robbie Kearns, Rodney Howe

2002: Rodney Howe

2003–2004: Stephen Kearney

2005: Robbie Kearns

2006: Cameron Smith, David Kidwell, Scott Hill, Matt Geyer, Michael Crocker

2007 R1-R17: Cameron Smith, Matt Geyer, Cooper Cronk, Matt King, Dallas Johnson

2007 R18-present: Cameron Smith

The rotating captaincy policy was in place from 2006 until Cameron Smith was made sole captain after the State of Origin series (Round 17) in 2007.

Players

Representative players

2011 squad

Although other players may play for the Melbourne Storm during the year, all NRL clubs are required to select a top 25 First Grade squad at the beginning of the season.

Team of the decade

As part of their 10 year celebrations in 2007, Melbourne Storm released a team of the decade. The 17 man team was selected by former assistant coach Greg Brentnall, foundation CEO John Ribot, Daily Telegraph journalist Steve Mascord and board member Frank Stanton.

Supporters

The Melbourne Storm's supporter base grew from almost 500,000 in 2004 to almost 800,000 in 2009, making them the fourth most popular rugby team. The club's supporter group, the "Graveyard Crew", make an Aussie-rules-style banner for the team to run through in important matches.

See also

Rugby league in Victoria

Sport in Australia

Sport in Victoria

References

External links

Official sites

Melbourne Storm official website

News sites Storm at foxsports.com.au/league Statistics and information sites

Melbourne Sttorm statistics tables

RL1908 Melbourne Storm history

Category:Australian rugby league clubs Category:Sports clubs established in 1998 Category:National Rugby League clubs Category:Sporting clubs in Melbourne Category:Rugby league teams in Victoria (Australia)

de:Melbourne Storm fr:Melbourne Storm it:Melbourne Storm uk:Мельбурн Сторм

name	Sam Newman
fullname	John Noel William Newman
birth date	December 22, 1945
birth place	Geelong, Victoria, Australia
originalteam	Geelong Grammar School
heightweight	190 cm / 96 kg
position	Ruckman
years	1964–1980
clubs	Geelong
games(goals)	300 (110)
statsend	1980
careerhighlights	AFL All-Australian Team 1969 AFL Hall of Fame Geelong Club Champion 1968, 1975 Geelong Team of the Century (Ruckman) Representative honours Victorian Representative 8 times }}

John Noel William "Sam" Newman (born 22 December 1945) is a retired Australian rules football player and current television personality. He is a featured presenter on the AFL version of ''The Footy Show''.

VFL career

Recruited straight from school, Newman made his debut for Geelong in 1964 and was fortunate to have Graham "Polly" Farmer in the side as a role model. During the first semi-final against Collingwood in 1967, Newman suffered a serious injury which forced surgeons to remove part of his kidney, but he bounced back to win his club's "best and fairest" award in 1968 and 1975. He was also selected as an All-Australian player in 1969 and played for the Victorian State team eight times. Newman retired in 1980, having polled 100 Brownlow Medal votes throughout his career. In 2002, he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Coaching career

In December 2005, Newman was appointed as ruck coach for the Melbourne Football Club to mentor players such as Jeff White, Mark Jamar and Paul Johnson.

Football comeback

On 6 July 2010, Newman made a comeback playing for Victoria in the annual EJ Whitten Legends Game. Newman kicked four goals from four kicks and three marks to be named best on ground, despite his team losing to the All Stars by seven points.

Media career

Newman joined radio station 3AW as a football commentator in 1981 and appeared on World of Sport on Channel 7 for seven years.

Newman has been a regular on the AFL version of ''The Footy Show'' since it first aired in 1994 on the Australian Nine Network. He acts as sidekick and resident clown. He regularly hosts "Street Talk", a ''vox populi'' segment in which he interviews people on the streets, usually in Melbourne, as well as Sam's Mailbag where he reads out random correspondence, shows funny footage and the occasional humorous lookalike of Garry Lyon (co-host).

His other media appearances have included the Sunday sports show ''Any Given Sunday'' in 2005, ''World of Sport'', ''The Sunday Footy Show'' and also co-hosting the short lived ''Sam and The Fatman'' with Paul "Fatty" Vautin. On radio station Triple M, Newman previews Friday night and Saturday afternoon matches. He formerly provided special comments during AFL games on Triple M, as well as 3AW previously.

He is currently on the ''Melbourne Talk Radio'' radio station, providing special comments and talkback to the general public.

Personal life

Newman attended Geelong Grammar. His father's aim for him was to become a barrister. His mother and two older sisters prefer to call him by his birth name of John.

He has been married three times and has three sons, aged 11, 26 and 30.

Newman currently lives in an apartment in Melbourne's Docklands where he also berths a luxury yacht. He also owns four vintage cars and a warehouse.

Motor sport

Newman took up motor racing in the GT Production Car class in the late 1990s and subsequently competed in the Australian Nations Cup Championship in Lamborghinis and Ferraris. He also competed in the Mini Challenge series at the 2010 Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park. This was a one off drive in the series.

Controversy

Newman has been involved in several incidents of public controversy. Reports indicate that Newman is deliberately controversial, and that his on-air persona is nothing like his true self. Particular incidents include:

1997 – Newman's 25 year old girlfriend, Leonie Jones, drove his own car into him outside his house, breaking his leg and an ankle. 1999 – On ''The Footy Show'' Newman blacked up his face to impersonate indigenous footballer Nicky Winmar, at a time when racial vilification charges were being levelled at certain AFL players. 2005 – A female fan broke a window whilst trying to break in to his Brighton house. 2008 – Mocking television personality and The Age writer Caroline Wilson regarding how she was dressed on Footy Classified three days earlier by bringing a mannequin model onto stage and stapling a cardboard cut-out of Wilson on the face of the model and 'experimenting' with different outfits. Newman then recklessly moved the model about. Wilson brought the issue up on Footy Classified the following Monday, telling of her disappointment to Newman's co-star Garry Lyon. 2009 – The Nine Network and Newman were sued for defamation by a female board member of the Western Bulldogs football team after he said on air that she was a "liar" and "hypocrite". They settled for $220,000 plus costs. 2009 – 17 September. During the Footy Show broadcast Newman likened a Malaysian man to a monkey, being "not long out of the forest". The Australian Communications and Media Authority ruled Newman was likely to have "provoked severe ridicule on the basis of the man's colour and race." Newman's employer channel Nine has offered to donate $200,000 to charity in the event of any future code breach and had "agreed to a number of other provisions in the enforceable undertaking, including significant senior management overview of the materials to be used by Mr Newman and a broad-ranging reporting regime and training obligation". 2010 - 30 June. Newman was criticized for disrespect to Aboriginal beliefs when he revealed on a radio show that he had hit a golf ball off the summit of Uluru.

Cancer diagnosis

On 5 March 2008 it was revealed that Newman was in hospital, undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. On 6 March he underwent a procedure at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne to have the cancerous prostate removed. Newman asked that television cameras from Channel Nine's program 60 Minutes have full access to the procedure, as he believed it could help raise awareness of the issue amongst the greater public. Channel Nine personality and close friend Eddie McGuire covered the story for the program.

The program went to air on 9 March 2008. It contained footage filmed earlier that day in which Newman's urologist, Laurence Harewood, told him that the operation had been a success and that he had been cleared of the cancer. Newman had since made a full recovery.

References

External links

Player profile on the official AFL website of the Geelong Football Club

Player bio at Full Points Footy

AFL statistics

''The Footy Show'' AFL official website

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Australian rules footballers from Victoria Category:Geelong Football Club players Category:Geelong Football Club captains Category:Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Category:All-Australians Category:Carji Greeves Medal winners Category:Australian rules football commentators Category:Australian television personalities Category:Australian television presenters Category:Triple M presenters Category:People educated at Geelong Grammar School Category:People from Geelong Category:Sportspeople from Melbourne Category:Australian racecar drivers

Name	Will Chambers
Fullname	William Chambers
Position
Birth date	May 26, 1988
Birth place	Gove, Northern Territory, Australia
Height
Weight
Club1	Melbourne Storm
Year1start	2007
Year1end	2009
Appearances1	42
Tries1	16
Goals1	0
Fieldgoals1	0
Points1	64
Ru position	Wing
Ru club1	Queensland Reds
Ru year1start	2010
Ru year1end	present
Ru apperances1	23
Ru tries1	5
Ru goals1	0
Ru fieldgoals1	0
Ru points1	25
Source	RLP }}

Will Chambers (born 26 May 1988 in Gove, Northern Territory) is an Australian rugby football player. He is currently playing in the Super 15 for the Queensland Reds.

Rugby league career

He began his senior career for the Melbourne Storm of the NRL. His usual position is as a centre or wing. Chambers also played for Brisbane Norths in the Queensland Cup. When Matt King departed the Melbourne Storm after their 2007 premiership, he nominated rookie Melbourne Storm centre Will Chambers as the man to take his place.

He played in the 2009 premiership against Parramatta.

Rugby union career

He returned to rugby union, the game he grew up playing, from 2010 after signing a 2-year deal with the Queensland Reds to play in the Super 14.

References

External links

RLeague.com profile

Category:1988 births Category:Sportspeople from the Northern Territory Category:Australian rugby league players Category:Indigenous Australian rugby league footballers Category:Norths Devils players Category:Melbourne Storm players Category:Living people Category:Indigenous Australian rugby union players

Name	Sam Kekovich
Fullname	Sam Kekovich
Nickname	Slammin' Sam
Birth date	March 11, 1950
Birth place	Western Australia
Originalteam	Myrtleford
Height
Weight
Position	Midfielder/Forward
Club1
Year1start	1968
Year1end	1976
Appearances1	124
Goals1	228
Club2
Year2start	1977
Appearances2	4
Goals2	4
Teama	Victoria
Yearastart	1969
Goalsa	}}

"Slammin' " Sam Kekovich (born 11 March 1950) is an Australian media personality, sports commentator and former Australian rules football player.

He is well known for his controversial behaviour, both on and off the field, and most recently for his series of satirical advertisements as the spokesman for Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) to promote the lamb industry.

The Kekovich brothers

His older brother is the former VFL full-forward Brian Kekovich, who played two seasons of senior VFL football with Carlton, including kicking four goals in Carlton's 1968 Grand Final victory.

Brian's career ended immediately after the Grand Final, due to a serious back injury he had sustained earlier in the 1968 season .

His younger brother, Michael, recruited from Trinity Grammar, who was showing great promise at North Melbourne at the age of 16, played for the North Melbourne First XVIII on Thursday, 10 September 1970 against Footscray, in the first round of the 1970 VFL night premiership. North Melbourne lost 6.7 (43) to 14.13 (97).

Michael also played in the North Melbourne Second XVIII team that lost the 1970 preliminary final to Melbourne, and he kicked one goal in a losing team.

Michael was killed, aged 17, when he was hit by a motor-car whilst on a training run in High Street Doncaster (near Curnola Avenue) on Saturday evening 26 June 1971.

Football career

Kekovich started his senior football career with Victorian Football League (VFL) club North Melbourne (Kangaroos) in 1968. The following year he won the club's best and fairest award and was the top goalkicker with 56 goals. He played a key role in the club's first premiership win in 1975 by assisting ruckman Mick Nolan by contesting boundary throw-ins, in which he won most of the hit outs against Hawthorn's top ruckman Don Scott.

After playing 124 VFL games for the Kangaroos, between 1968 and 1976, he moved to Collingwood in 1977, but only played four games, retiring from the VFL that season. His football career did not end, as he switched to play in the Victorian Football Association for the Prahran Football Club and played in the 1978 VFA Premiership side against Preston at the Junction Oval.

He was included in the North Melbourne Team of the Century, on the interchange bench.

Media career

He has carried on his flamboyant style into the media sector, being most notable for his 'rants' on the ABC show ''The Fat'', a breakfast show on Melbourne radio station 3AK, as a radio presenter on Melbourne Sports Radio Station SEN 1116, in pre-match AFL coverage on Triple M, and on PTI Australia on ESPN. Kekovich is a columnist for sports website ''The Serve''.

Kekovich's direct-to-camera TV monologues are done deadpan and use wide-ranging cultural references. Created by the writers of ''the Fat'' the monologue's were first piloted with AFL player John Platten and boxer Spike Cheney before the ABC asked Kekovich to perform. The 'rants' normally place in contrast many disparate or incongruous verbal images and ideas, ending with the trademark, "You know it makes sense. I'm Sam Kekovich." The ABC released a spoken word album 'You Know it Makes Sense' which was nominated in the 'Best Comedy' category of the ARIA awards.

Kekovich has performed these 'rants' on commercials for North Melbourne Football Club membership drives, Dan Murphy bottle shops, and, perhaps most famously, encouraging people to act less 'unAustralian' on Australia Day by eating lamb.

Controversy

In the lead-up to Australia Day 2005, Kekovich headed an advertising campaign encouraging people to eat more Australian lamb. In this particular ad campaign, he labeled vegetarians as being "un-Australian", provoking outrage from groups such as animal rights activists. The Australian Advertising Standards Bureau allowed the ads to remain on the air, as they were considered satirical, despite viewers' complaints.

Kekovich did a similar ad in 2006, and although he did not target vegetarians, he did claim that many of the tragedies befalling Australians in 2005, such as the 2005 Cronulla riots and a scandal at the 2005 Ashes series, may have panned out differently if Australians had more lamb. The 2008 series of the ads includes a 90 second address to the nation, and calls for the replacement of Australia Day with an "Australia Week"; after claiming that New Zealand former Prime Minister Helen Clark does "a passable impression of a man" he also suggests that "tree-huggers" head to the "refugee processing centre" Nauru; the mock stock ticker below his desk features "National Australia Shank" (NAB) and "ABN Lambro" (ABN Amro); the last slogan used is "Yes we can" (per Barack Obama's campaign.). In 2010 Kekovich was featured in a TV advertisement created to promote cooking lamb for mothers on mothers day. This ad featured a 'young' Sam Kekovich and ends with the phrase; "You know it makes sense, I'm Sam Kekovich's Nephew".

References

External links

View the Kekovich Lamb Ad and more at the Meat and Livestock Australia website

Vote Lamb Website

Meat and Livestock Australia

Category:Australian rules footballers from Victoria Category:North Melbourne Football Club players Category:Syd Barker Medal winners Category:Australian rules football commentators Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Collingwood Football Club players Category:Prahran Football Club players Category:Myrtleford Football Club players Category:Australian people of Serbian descent