Timeline of Melbourne history

This is a timeline of major events in the history of the city of Melbourne, Australia.

The Melbourne skyline and Yarra River.

Pre-European settlement
  • Aboriginal Australians had settled the area for at least 30,000 years.

19th century
Main article: Foundation of Melbourne
A map dating to the 1880s shows the well-established suburbs of Melbourne

20th century
Chart of Melbourne's population growth since first settlement in 1851.
  • 1900 – Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook narrow-gauge railway (now Puffing Billy Railway) opens
  • 1900 – Construction of the current Flinders Street station building begins
  • 1901 – Commonwealth of Australia is formed. Melbourne becomes national capital
  • 1902 – Sydney reclaims title from Melbourne as Australia's most populous city
  • 1903 – City Baths are opened
  • 1905 – First Australian Open championship
  • 1905 – Melbourne Continuation School, Victoria's first state secondary school, is founded in Spring Street
  • 1906 – First electric tram service commences
  • 1907 – General Post Office is completed
  • 1910 – Current Flinders Street station building is completed
  • 1913 – The Domed Reading Room of the State Library is opened
  • 1916 – Strict height limit of 132 feet (40 metres) imposed on all buildings
  • 1916 – Introduction of 6:00pm closing for all hotels (abolished in 1966)
  • 1919 – Electric suburban train services commence on the Broadmeadows line
  • 1923 – W-class trams introduced.
  • 1923 – 1923 Victorian Police strike
  • 1924 – First radio station 3AR (now known as Radio National.)
  • 1927 – Federal Parliament is moved to Canberra, the new national capital
  • 1928 – Melbourne City Council installs the city's first set of traffic lights at Collins & Swanston Streets
  • 1934 – Centenary of Melbourne
  • 1934 – Shrine of Remembrance completed and dedicated
  • 1940 – Last cable tram service ends operation
  • 1943 – Russell Street Police Headquarters building is completed
  • 1954 – April—Victorian Railways closes the Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook narrow-gauge railway (now Puffing Billy Railway)
  • 1954 – First Moomba parade
  • 1954 – Proposal to demolish much of East Melbourne and Jolimont Yard to make way for an inner city ringroad.
  • 1955 – City's first parking meters are installed
  • 1955 – ICI building given special exception from CBD height limits
  • 1956 – First television station HSV-7
  • 1956 – Olympic Games held in Melbourne
  • 1957 – Plot ratio height limits introduced to CBD (dependent upon floor space and light angles), plazas and open space. By laws introduced for compulsory carspace for all new city buildings. 1.45 m setbacks for 'Little' streets introduced to widen footpaths.
  • 1959 – Sidney Myer Music Bowl opened
  • 1961 – Proposal to demolish Flinders Street station and replace it with office blocks.
  • 1962 – Puffing Billy Railway is re-opened as a tourist attraction
  • 1966 – Abolition of 6:00pm closing of hotels (introduced in 1916)
  • 1967 – first woman city councillor Clare Cascarret
  • 1969 – Proposal to demolish the Regent Theatre for multi-storey development.
  • 1970 – Green Bans begin in Carlton, and are led by Norm Gallagher. Green Bans would later be applied to the City Baths, Flinders Street Station, Hotel Windsor, Newport Power Station, the Old Treasury Building, Princess Theatre, Queen Victoria Market, Regent Theatre, the Royal Botanical Gardens, Royal Parade and St Patrick's Cathedral, among many other locations.[4]
  • 1970 – (15 October) 35 construction workers die when a span of the West Gate Bridge collapses
  • 1974 – Underground City Loop construction begins
  • 1975 – Z-class tram introduced
  • 1975 – 1 March, Colour television introduced.
  • 1979 – Workers at the Union Carbide-owned Altona Petrochemical Plant take control of the workplace for 52 days in protest of their firing.[5]
  • 1982 – City Loop subway opened
  • 1983 – (8 February) Melbourne dust storm and (16 February) Ash Wednesday fires occur
  • 1983 – Melbourne Fringe Festival founded
  • 1985 – B-class trams introduced
  • 1986 – Car-bombing outside the Russell Street Police Headquarters kills one police officer
  • 1986 – Rialto Towers completed and becomes the city's tallest building as well as the tallest in the southern hemisphere
  • 1986 – Pablo Picasso's The Weeping Woman is stolen from National Gallery of Victoria by activists. Returned a week later.
  • 1986 – Melbourne International Arts Festival founded
  • 1987 – Hoddle Street Massacre, killing 7 and injuring 19.
  • 1987 – Queen Street Massacre, killing 8 and injuring 5.
  • 1987 – Port Melbourne and St Kilda train lines are converted to light rail
  • 1990 – Tram drivers across the city go on strike and attempt to implement workers control in the Tram network.[6]
  • 1990 – Southbank Promenade opens, paving the way for urban renewal in Southbank
  • 1991 – Melbourne experiences a severe economic slump; City property markets crash and CBD vacancy rates reach all-time high.
  • 1992 – Pedestrianisation of Swanston Street creates Swanston Street Walk
  • 1992 – Postcode 3000 policy attracts residents to the city centre, warehouses and offices are converted into apartments and CBD vacancy rates drop
  • 1994 – Opening of the Melbourne Observation Deck in Rialto Towers
  • 1994 – Tasty nightclub raid
  • 1995 – Host City to the World Police & Fire Games
  • 1996 – Development of the Docklands area begins
  • 1996 – Construction of the CityLink freeways begins
  • 1996 – Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre opens
  • 1996 – Melbourne hosts its first Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Circuit
  • 1997 – Crown Melbourne, Melbourne's first gambling centre opens
  • 1999 – Bolte Bridge opens for traffic

21st century
  • 2000 – New Melbourne Museum opened
  • 2000 – CityLink freeways open, including two new tunnels, a new cross-harbour bridge, and electronic tolling
  • 2000 – Docklands Stadium completed
  • 2002 – Federation Square opens
  • 2002 – Controversial Melbourne 2030 planning policy introduced, aimed to increase population in designated 'activity centres' and curb urban sprawl, promises to increase public transport usage to 20% of motorised trips by 2020
  • 2003 – 2003 Melbourne Thunderstorm
  • 2004 – Melbourne Victory FC is formed
  • 2005 – 2005 Melbourne Thunderstorm
  • 2006 – Southern Cross railway station redevelopment opens to passengers, renamed from Spencer Street station
  • 2006 – Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne
  • 2006 – Construction on Eureka Tower is completed, making it the tallest building in Melbourne and tallest observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere.
  • 2007 – 2007 FINA Swimming World Championships are held
  • 2008 – New Eastlink freeway completed
  • 2008 – M1 upgrade begins
  • 2009 – Black Saturday bushfires around Melbourne, the worst fires in the history of the city leave 180 people dead
  • 2009 – Melbourne Heart FC is formed
  • 2009 – Melbourne's population reaches 4 million people, expanding by an unprecedented 90,000 people a year[7]
  • 2010 – Severe Thunderstorm 6 March, once in a century storm with 10 cm hail stones
  • 2010 – Melbourne celebrates 175th birthday
  • 2011 – Say Yes demonstrations draw 10,000 people who support increased investment in renewable energy
  • 2015 – Construction commences on Australia 108 which, once complete, will be the tallest building in Melbourne
  • 2017 – Six people were killed and thirty wounded in the January 2017 Bourke St car attack, followed by the death of one person and the injury of seventeen in the December 2017 Flinders St car attack
  • 2018 – Major construction begins on the Metro Tunnel, a 9-km underground rail tunnel through the CBD and the biggest public transport project since the City Loop
  • 2018 – 170,000 people march through the city in response to unfair working conditions and low wages[8]
  • 2019 – 300 Anti-Fascists and 150 Neo-Nazis clash at St Kilda beach[9]

See also

References
  1. Lewis, Miles (1995). Melbourne the city's history and development, 2nd ed. City of Melbourne.
  2. New South Wales Government Gazette, 12 April 1837 (No.271), p. 303.
  3. Melbourne the city's history and development, 2nd ed pg 5, Miles Lewis, 1995
  4. Burgmann, Verity and Meredith (1998). Green Bans, Red Union: Environmental Activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation. pp. 50–51.
  5. Ness, Immanuel (2014). New Forms of Worker Organisation: The Syndicalist and Autonomist Restoration of Class Struggle Unionism.
  6. "Melbourne tram dispute and lockout 1990 - anarcho-syndicalism in practice". libcom.org. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  7. Lahey, Tim Colebatch and Kate (22 September 2009). "Melbourne's population hits 4 million". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  8. "170,000 Shut Down Melbourne's CBD To Demand Better Pay & Work Conditions". Pedestrian TV. 23 October 2018. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  9. "St Kilda beach racist protests: Far right clashes with anti-fascists". www.news.com.au. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
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