7 Barely-Known

Curious and Colorful Places in India

1. Melbourne has been capital city of Australia

for 26 years (between 1901 and 1927)

I remember when I was working in the tourist entertainment industry, I used to have a funny killer for the guests participating in my night quizzes: “What is the capital city of Australia?”.

Surprising as it sounds, on average about 80% of people answer this easy question incorrectly, by saying either “Sydney” or “Melbourne”.

The topic of Australia’s capital is historically quite messy actually, and changes in history create quite some confusion in people around the world.

Australia became a nation under the British Commonwealth in 1901, and at that time the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne (two almost same-sized cities) was at its highest point.

Both cities were promoting themselves as being the “natural choice to be the capital of Australia”.

To avoid resentment in one of the two largest Australian cities (which together just form more than 40% of the whole Australian population!) and seize the dispute, the British government conducted a ballot to choose a site to build a brand new capital city. 

The site eventually was found in the Canberra Valley, at almost the same distance between Sydney and Melbourne, and in around 20 years, a new capital city was designed and built from scratch (if you check the geography of Canberra city center on Google Maps, you can notice a wildly strange symmetry, not typical of any old city!).

The parliament sat in Canberra for the first time in 1927, formally taking away the title of capital from Melbourne.

Last fun fact: despite being the largest country in Australia, Sydney has never been the capital, unlike Melbourne!

2. Melbournians drink more than

600 Million Cups of Coffee a Year!

Melbourne is the city with the estimated highest number of cafes per number of people in the world, and on average, it imports 30 tonnes of coffee beans each day, enough to make 3 million cups daily.

Coffee here is just a way of life, and as an Italian, that’s something that made me feel at home when traveling through Melbourne.

Of course, here coffees were quite different from what I am used to in Italy (here I speak about All Types of Italian Coffees), with iced coffee variations being amongst the most popular from what I could see, but still you can find something fitting all tastes.

As a digital nomad, I was also surprised by the vast amount of internet cafès you can find in Melbourne, truly digital hubs where to work, meet up, and build a network of like-minded people! Thumbs up for coffee! 😀

Fun fact: also 99% of accommodation in Melbourne have some kind of coffee machine for guests to use! If you plan to visit Melbourne, personally, I can recommend you to check out Corporate keys furnished apartments,  well-priced classy rooms in the middle of Melbourne, great views, easy check-in/check-out and good coffee machines too! ;D

3. Melbourne was almost named “Batmania”

after founder John Batman!

Curious as it sounds, in 1830 Melbourne was originally nicknamed “Batmania”, well over a century DC Comics released the first Batman comic book in 1935.

As you can imagine, the original name was not inspired by the -at that time yet unborn- bat superhero that we all know, but by a true person, that in our case was “John Batman”, a man who claimed to have found the city in 1835 and which played a key role in the initial settlement of the area.

Other proposed names for the city were Bearbrass, Bareport, Bareheep, and Bareberp and Glenelg.

UK Governor Sir Richard Bourke though, overruled all these names and on his visit in March 1837 decided on “Melbourne” — after the then British Prime Minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who resided in the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire in the English Midlands – and the named stayed “Melbourne” ever since 🙂

4. More than 38% of Melbourne’s population,

was born abroad!

Australia is a multi-cultural country considered one of the most world’s immigration nations in history, along with US and Canada.

As of 2024, it is estimated that 28% of people currently living in Australia was born abroad, and this number skyrockets to a whopping 38% in Melbourne.

Among this large chunk of internationals, around 25% are English, 9% Chinese, 7% Italians (over 60.000, making it the largest Italian community outside of Italy!), Greeks, 6% Indians, 3% Vietnamese, 3% Germans and so on!

More than 15% of Melbourne’s population declares of not speaking English at home, and around the city different quartiers are famous to host different minorities (here you can find a complete Wikipedia list!) 🙂

5. Melbourne is the 2nd most visited city in Australia,

by international tourists (and catching up!)

With over 3,5M international tourists in 2023 (and 11 Million domestic tourists!), Melbourne is slowly but increasingly catching up with its rival city of Sydney (4 million internationals, 12 million domestics).

Most tourists come to Melbourne drawn by its slow pace of life and to visit its most famous marvels such as the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, take a tour on the classic City Tram, visit the crowdy Queen Victoria Market, witness the wonderful glass-stained ceiling of the National Gallery of Victoria and of course relax the local wine from the Yarra Valley nearby.

In recent years, the accommodation industry has also accompanied the ever-growing tourism, with new hotels, guest houses, and new long-stay apartments in Melbourne popping up every day!

6. Melbourne has consistently ranked

as one of the World’s Most Livable City

According to the Economists’ Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index, a report that values the liveability of cities in the world, Melbourne has scored the first 8 times in the past 20 years.

The index attempts to measure parameters such as work/life balance, healthcare, safety, wealth, social care, education, environment, employment, recreational possibilities, social belonging, and in general the perception of quality of life. 

Of course, no index is perfect, but sure it can grant a great perception of the high quality of Melbourne’s life and why it attracts so many curious tourists.

Fun fact: in the last years Melbourne lost the top spot (although just by a mere 0,7%) in favor of Vienna, Austria.

7. Melbourne has the largest Tram system

in the World outside of Europe!

Melbourne, with an area of approximately 9,990 square kilometers (3,857 sq mi), boasts the world’s largest urban tram network, covering more than 250 kilometers.

With its extensive network, the city places in front of most European large cities such as St. Petersburg (205km), Berlin (193km), Moscow (182km), Milan (182km), and Vienna (177km).

The iconic Melbourne tram network spans 24 routes, with 250 kilometers of double track.

The whole network is run by over 500 trams, and it counts over 1600 stops. Here you can find a full map of Melbourne Tram Network to get an idea 🙂

Conclusion

And here we come at the end of this article 🙂

In this article we’ve seen 7 curious fun facts about Melbourne and had a peak inside its coffee culture, demography history, name , touristic inflows and tram network! 🙂

Before going, I would like to ask you:

• What do you think about the article?
• Have you had the chance to travel to Melbourne?
• How was your experience?

Let us know in the comments below! 😀

Hereafter I will leave you a few articles that you might also be interested in checking out:

•  Blog: Travel Curiosities, Fun Facts and Travel Tips
• Destinations of the World: Discover More Cool Destinations!
• Travel Italy: All you Need to Discover the Bel Paese!

Thank you for reading, and see you in the next article!