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Location of Victoria in Australia
The flag of Victoria

Victoria, commonly abbreviated as VIC, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of 227,444 square kilometres (87,817 sq mi); the second-most-populous state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; and the most densely populated state in Australia (31.1 per km2). Victoria's economy is the second-largest among Australian states and is highly diversified, with service sectors predominating.

Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north and South Australia to the west and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south (with the exception of a small land border with Tasmania located along Boundary Islet), the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea (a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean) to the southeast. 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.

Named in honour of Queen Victoria, Victoria was separated from New South Wales and established as a separate Crown colony in 1851, achieving responsible government in 1855. The Victorian gold rush in the 1850s and 1860s significantly increased Victoria's population and wealth. By the time of Australian Federation in 1901, Melbourne had become the largest city in Australasia, and was the seat of Federal government until Canberra became the national capital in 1927. The state continued to grow strongly through various periods of the 20th and 21st centuries due to high levels of international and interstate migration. Melbourne hosts a number of museums, art galleries, and theatres; in 2016 a sports marketing company named it the world's sporting capital. (Full article...)

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Maude Street Mall, Shepparton.
Maude Street Mall, Shepparton.
Credit: Mattinbgn

Shepparton (/ˈʃɛpərtən/) (Yortayorta: Kanny-goopna) is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately 181 kilometres (112 mi) north-northeast of Melbourne. As of June 2018 the estimated population of Shepparton, including the adjacent town of Mooroopna, was 51,631.

It began as a sheep station and river crossing in the mid-19th century, before undergoing a major transformation as a railway town. Today it is an agricultural and manufacturing centre, and the centre of the Goulburn Valley irrigation system, one of the largest centres of irrigation in Australia. It is also a major regional service city and the seat of local government and civic administration for the City of Greater Shepparton, which includes the surrounding towns of Tatura, Merrigum, Mooroopna, Murchison, Dookie, Toolamba and Grahamvale.

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28 May 2026 – Terrorism in Australia
The Melbourne Magistrates' Court in Victoria, Australia, charges 34-year-old Islamic State bride Rayann El Houli, who recently returned from Syria, for being a member of a terrorist organization after joining the Islamic State after traveling there in the early 2010s. (ABC Australia) (AFP via France 24)
16 April 2026 –
A fire at the major Viva oil refinery near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, halts its gasoline production. (Bloomberg)

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