A short-lived penal settlement was built in 1803 at Port Phillip, then part of the British colony of New South Wales. Of the five peoples of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land encompassing Melbourne are the Boonwurrung, Wathaurong and the Wurundjeri peoples.

The area of Melbourne has been home to Aboriginal Victorians for over 40,000 years and serves as an important meeting place for local Kulin nation clans. Melbourne has a population over 5 million (19% of the population of Australia, as of the 2021 census), mostly residing to the east of the city centre, and its inhabitants are commonly referred to as 'Melburnians'. The metropolis occupies much of the northern and eastern coastlines of Port Phillip Bay and spreads into the Mornington Peninsula, part of West Gippsland, as well as the hinterlands towards the Yarra Valley, the Dandenong Ranges, and the Macedon Ranges. Its name generally refers to a 9,993 km 2 (3,858 sq mi) metropolitan area known as Greater Melbourne, comprising an urban agglomeration of 31 local municipalities, although the name is also used specifically for the local municipality of City of Melbourne based around its central business area. Melbourne ( / ˈ m ɛ l b ər n/ ⓘ MEL-bərn Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: Narrm or Naarm ) is the capital of the Australian state of Victoria and the second-most populous city in Australia, after Sydney (although the most populous by contiguous urban area).

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