[2] Bourke Street runs roughly from east to west and bisects the city centre along its long axis.

There are two primary stretches of Bourke Street, split by Southern Cross station: the historic city centre and the modern Docklands precinct.

The newer Docklands end continues on the other side of the station (which is only accessible to pedestrians) and finishes at its intersection with Collins Street further west.

Having been laid out as part of the Hoddle Grid in 1837, Bourke Street was considered "out of town" until the 1840s when the western end saw the opening of St Patrick's Hall, the first synagogue and the first public hospital.

[1] Cheap restaurants appeared from the 1870s, when Parer's Hotel and Crystal Tea Rooms[4] became a Melbourne institution, while the Café de Paris was a favourite literary and artistic meeting place.

[1] The late 20th century onwards has resulted in office block developments, residential skyscrapers, the introduction of several shopping arcades and the Bourke Street Mall.

The mall is Bourke Street's most famous feature and contains retail hubs like Melbourne's GPO, H&M, Zara, Cotton On and the flagship stores of Myer and David Jones.

Concepts for a Bourke Street Mall were drawn up as early as 1964 by Robin Boyd and Frederick Romberg[6] however the ambitious multi-platform design which separated cars from pedestrians was never realised.

In the January 2017 Melbourne car attack, a mentally ill person driving a sedan being pursued by the police deliberately drove the vehicle onto the footpath and ran over innocent bystanders at Bourke Street Mall.

[9] In September 2023, Zain Khan drove through a tram stop, running over multiple bystanders before crashing into two cars at the Bourke/Russell Street Intersection.

A 76-year-old Brunswick man, identified in media reports as the philanthropist John Haasz, was killed and five other people were injured in the alleged rampage.

Southern Cross station bisects Bourke Street at the city centre's west end and is a major transport hub for train and bus services throughout Victoria.