The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the northeast and the semi-arid northwest.

The first British settlement in the area later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip.

[25] They had been sent from England in HMS Calcutta under the command of Captain Daniel Woodriff, principally out of fear that the French, who had been exploring the area, might establish their own settlement and thereby challenge British rights to the continent.

On 6 June 1835, just under two years before Melbourne was officially recognised as a settlement, John Batman, the leader of the Port Phillip Association presented Wurundjeri Elders with a land use agreement.

In 1857, reflecting the growing presence of Irish Catholic immigrants, John O'Shanassy became the colony's second Premier with the former Young Irelander, Charles Gavan Duffy as his deputy.

[35] In 1862 Duffy's Land Act attempted, but failed, through a system of extended pastoral licences, to break the land-holding monopoly of the so-called "squatter" class.

In 1893 widespread bank failures brought to an end a sustained period of prosperity and of increasingly wild speculation in land and construction.

Melbourne nonetheless retained, as the legacy of the gold rush, its status as Australia's primary financial centre and largest city.

This precise definition was not established until 1980, when a ruling by Justice Ninian Stephen of the High Court of Australia settled the question as to which state had jurisdiction in the unlawful death of a man on an island in the middle of the river.

[38][39] The border also rests at the southern end of the Great Dividing Range, which stretches along the east coast and terminates west of Ballarat.

Victoria's main land feature, the Great Dividing Range, produces a cooler, mountain climate in the centre of the state.

[47] Temperature extremes for the state are listed in the table below: Rainfall in Victoria increases from south to the northeast, with higher averages in areas of high altitude.

Victoria's founding Anglo-Celtic population has been supplemented by successive waves of migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia and, most recently, Africa and the Middle East.

[49] Urban centres outside Melbourne include Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Mildura, Warrnambool, Wodonga and the Latrobe Valley.

It is responsible for managing areas of government that are not exclusively vested in the Commonwealth, by the Australian Constitution, such as education, health and law enforcement.

Traditionally, Labor is strongest in Melbourne's working and middle class western, northern and inner-city suburbs, and the regional cities of Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong.

Material in the collection includes books, newspapers, magazines, journals, manuscripts, maps, pictures, objects, sound and video recordings and databases.

The state of Victoria is the second largest economy in Australia after New South Wales, accounting for a quarter of the nation's gross domestic product.

The scarcity of freight space and disruption to Chinese New Year purchases was particularly painful, with China being Australia's largest export market and a particularly large buyer of live seafood.

The post-World War II manufacturing boom was fuelled by international investment, attracted to the state by the availability of cheap land close to the city and inexpensive energy from the Latrobe Valley.

Prominent manufacturing plants in the state include the Portland and Point Henry aluminium smelters, owned by Alcoa; Geelong and Altona oil refineries; a major petrochemical facility at Laverton; and Victorian-based CSL, a global biotechnology company that produces vaccines and plasma products, among others.

The strong Australian dollar as a result of the 2000s mining boom, small population and isolation, high wage base and the general shift of manufacturing production towards developing countries have been cited as some of the reasons for this decline.

The Victorian mining industry is concentrated on energy producing minerals, with brown coal, petroleum and gas accounting for nearly 90% of local production.

The oil and gas industries are centred off the coast of Gippsland in the state's east, while brown coal mining and power generation is based in the Latrobe Valley.

[91] Brown coal is Victoria's leading mineral, with 66 million tonnes mined each year for electricity generation in the Latrobe Valley, Gippsland.

[93][94] Some major tourist destinations in Victoria are: Other popular tourism activities are gliding, hang-gliding, hot air ballooning and scuba diving.

The state government announced a plan in October 2013 to prohibit smoking on all Victorian railway station platforms and raised tram stops.

However, the interstate trunk routes, as well as a number of freight lines in the north and west of the state have been converted to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge.

This allows water to be moved around Victoria to where it is needed most and reduces the impact of localised droughts in an era thought to be influenced by climate change.

Victoria's Phillip Island is home of the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit which hosts the Australian motorcycle Grand Prix which features MotoGP (the world's premier motorcycling class), as well as the Australian round of the World Superbike Championship and the domestic V8 Supercar racing, which also visits Sandown Raceway and the rural Winton Motor Raceway circuit.