Melbourne

Melbourne (/ˈmɛlbərn/, AU ⁱ/ˈmɛlbən/) is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The name "Melbourne" refers to the area of urban agglomeration (as well as a census statistical division) spanning 9,900 km² (3,800 sq mi) which comprises the broader metropolitan area, as well as being the common name for its city centre. The metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. Melbourne consists of 31 municipalities. It has a population of 4,347,955 as of 2013, and its inhabitants are called Melburnians.

Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemen's Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales, it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837. It was named "Melbourne" by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847, after which it became the capital of the newly founded colony of Victoria in 1851. 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 served as the nation's interim seat of government until 1927.

Chapel Street, Melbourne

Chapel Street is a shopping, dining and entertainment precinct in Melbourne, Australia. It has myriad shops ranging from exclusive upmarket fashion designers at the South Yarra end to old fashion pawnbrokers towards Windsor.

Geography

Chapel Street is essentially straight and runs for over 4.13 kilometres along an approximate north-south alignment from the Yarra River in the north to Brighton Road in the south, traversing the south east suburbs of South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor, St Kilda and St Kilda East. Major street crossings are Alexandra Avenue, Toorak Road, Commercial Road, High Street, Dandenong Road, Alma Road, Inkerman Street and Carlisle Street. To the north of Dandenong Road, Chapel Street is one of Melbourne’s premier shopping and entertainment strips with over 980 shops, street cafés, restaurants, bars, pubs and nightclubs. It has a reputation as Melbourne’s fashion and style capital. South of Dandenong Road is predominantly a residential area.

Tram route 78 travels along the entire length of Chapel Street, between Richmond and St Kilda. Tram routes 3, 5, 6, 8, 64 and 72 all intersect Chapel Street. The Sandringham line railway stations of South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor and Balaclava are all within 300 metres of Chapel Street.

Chapel

A chapel is a religious place of fellowship, prayer and worship that is attached to a larger, often nonreligious institution or that is considered an extension of a primary religious institution. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a college, hospital, palace, prison, funeral home, church, synagogue or mosque, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building, sometimes with its own grounds. Many military installations have chapels for the use of military personnel, normally under the leadership of a military chaplain.

Until the Protestant Reformation, a chapel denoted a place of worship that was either at a secondary location that was not the main responsibility of the local parish priest, or that belonged to a person or institution. Most larger churches had one or more secondary altars, which if they occupied a distinct space, would often be called a chapel. Although chapels frequently refer to Christian places of worship, they are also commonly found in Jewish synagogues and do not necessarily connote a specific denomination. In England, where the Church of England is established by law, nondenominational or inter-faith chapels in such institutions may nonetheless be consecrated by the local Anglican bishop.

South Yarra, Victoria

South Yarra is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east from Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government areas are the Cities of Melbourne and Stonnington. At the 2011 Census, South Yarra had a population of 19,134.

The area east of Punt Road is in the City of Stonnington and the area to the west is in the City of Melbourne.

The main shopping region of South Yarra runs along Toorak Road and Chapel Street. Trade along these two arteries are focused on trendy and upmarket shopping, restaurants, nightclubs and cafe culture. The area of South Yarra centred along Commercial Road is one of Melbourne's gay villages.

South Yarra is also home to some of Melbourne's most prestigious residential addresses. Residential land price records (per square metre) have been set by properties in Domain Road, Walsh Street and Fairlie Court.

History

South Yarra was originally inhabited by the Wurundjeri tribe of the Kulin aboriginal nation.

The area was settled by European settlers in the 1830s, around the time of the establishment of Melbourne. During the 1840s, it became popular with wealthy citizens of Melbourne as a suburban retreat from the town. Several large houses were built and, together with neighbouring Toorak, it maintained its upper-class reputation into the post-Second World War period. South Yarra Post Office was open briefly in 1854, then reopened on 21 June 1858.