I love putting together lists of fun facts about places I’ve been to, so of course I had to do one about my home town Melbourne, Australia. Check out my 16 fun facts about Melbourne and discover new reasons to plan a visit in the future.
A bucket list destination for many travellers, Melbourne is chock full of fascinating and entertaining attractions for everyone. This cosmopolitan city is well-renowned for its multicultural lifestyle, sporting culture, thriving nightlife, street art and of course it’s an absolute haven for foodies and coffee connoisseurs. These fun facts about Melbourne will provide you with a little more insight into this fabulous city as well as some inspiration to visit.
Weird and Wonderful Things To Know
1. Melbourne was the first city in the world to make wearing seat belts law in 1970, for front seats.
2. Melbourne has the largest working tram network in the world, which has 250 kilometres of tracks. Furthermore, it is powered by solar energy, helping to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
3. Over 100 languages are spoken in Melbourne, a testimony to the multiculturalism of the city. The most widely spoken languages other than English are Italian, Greek, Mandarin and Indian languages of Hindi, Bengali & Gujarati, to name a few.
4. Melbourne has the most skyscrapers in Australia, i.e. more than 150 metres high. Furthermore, the tallest skyscaper in the Southern Hemisphere will be built in Melbourne called the Green Spine at Southbank.
5. There are more foxes in Melbourne than anywhere in the world, even though you don’t see many wandering around.
Melbourne Cup Day, the annual Horse Racing Carnival – photo credit
Royal Exhibition Building
6. Melbourne has a UNESCO world heritage site – the Royal Exhibition Building, together with the Melbourne Museum and surrounding gardens in Carlton.
7. Melbourne Football Club, one of the AFL teams (Australian Football League), is the oldest professional football club in the world, since 1859.
8. Melbourne’s popular Queen Victoria Market is built over the old Melbourne cemetery. The market is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere, at 7 hectares in size.
Melbourne sporting precinct and the Yarra River
9. The world’s oldest privately owned amusement park is Luna Park, in St Kilda, since 1912.
10. This is one of the most impressive fun facts about Melbourne – it is consistently ranked one of the top most liveable cities in the world for the last 8 years, with accolades of world class food, art, transport and living conditions.
Melbourne’s Southbank
11. At the Melbourne Olympic Games, the format of Olympic ceremonies was changed when athletes walked in together for the first time in 1956.
12. Melbourne’s Food and Wine Festival is the biggest one in the world, with over 200 different events over 11 days, commencing March 25th. More than 300,000 people attend yearly and local and international chefs partake.
Longest Lunch with 1,600 guests, part of the annual Melbourne Food & Wine Festival – photo credit
Melbourne’s cafe scene – photo credit
13. Melbourne was originally called Batmania, after one of the founding forefathers.
14. The most expensive cocktail in the world was made in Melbourne for almost $13,000, and the guy who ordered it only had a couple of sips. It was made with Croizet Cognac and was called the Winston.
15. Melbourne has more restaurants and cafes per capita than any other city in the world, as of prior to the pandemic.
16. Finally, Melbourne is a UNESCO city of Literature, for the number of bookshops and publishing houses here, and for having one of the first free libraries in the world.
That’s it for my 16 fun facts about Melbourne. Have you learnt something new?
Have you been to Melbourne? Or do you plan to visit soon?
Please leave a comment below if you wish.
Be sure to have a look at some of my other Melbourne blog posts for ideas on places to go and things to do in and around the city.
Thank you.
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This is awesome! I’m from Melbourne and I didn’t know quite a few of these facts!!
Wow, some very interesting facts! Who knew they were the first to make seat belt the law, oldest amusement park, largest tram network. Sounds like a dynamic city! I would love, love, love to take part in the food and wine festival along with the other 1,599 people! That would be incredible. Have you done that yet?
No, I haven’t done the longest lunch yet.
Even though I lived in Melbourne for sometime, I was not aware of these facts. Thank you for sharing this post. Now I know some awesome facts about the city ?.
Oh, I love Melbourne! Last visited in 2005 – I’m sure it’s changed loads since then!
This is amazing, thank you for sharing