Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) is the book publishing arm of the University of Melbourne (Australia).

MUP was founded in 1922 as Melbourne University Press to sell text books and stationery to students, and soon began publishing books itself. Over the years scholarly works published under the MUP imprint have won numerous awards and prizes. The name Melbourne University Publishing was adopted for the business in 2003 following a restructure by the University, but books continue to be published under the Melbourne University Press imprint.

The Miegunyah Press is an imprint of MUP, established in 1967 under a bequest from businessman and philanthropist Russell Grimwade, with the intention of subsidising the publication of illustrated scholarly works that would otherwise be uneconomic to publish. Grimwade's great-grandnephew Andrew Grimwade is the present patron. Miegunyah is from an Aboriginal language, meaning "my house".

The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria. The main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb just north of the Melbourne CBD. The university also has several other campuses located across Victoria. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" lobby group, the Universitas 21 and Association of Pacific Rim Universities networks. It is colloquially known as a sandstone university and has one of the largest financial endowments of any Australian university, standing at $1.173 billion as of 2010.

The University of Melbourne consistently ranks among the best universities in Australia and the world. The university has been placed top in Australia, 37th in the world by the Times Higher Education 2011-2012 rankings of the world’s top 400 universities, and 31st in the world by QS 2011-2012 ranking. In Australia, the University of Melbourne is the second largest research organisation after the CSIRO. In 2010, it spent $767.5m on research and has consistently ranked first or second on the major national research indicators which are used by the Australian Government to allocate public funds for research and training infrastructure.

Melbourne ([ˈmelbən, -bn̩, ˈmæl-],rhotically  /ˈmɛlbərn/) is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2010, the greater geographical area had an approximate population of four million. Inhabitants of Melbourne are called Melburnians or Melbournians.

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 northernmost 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 Launceston in Van Diemen's Land. It was named by governor Richard Bourke in 1837, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, 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.