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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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Warwick Windridge Armstrong (22 May 1879 – 13 July 1947) was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921, and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two. Armstrong was captain of the 1920–21 Australian team which defeated the touring English 5–0: one of only three teams to win an Ashes series in a whitewash. In a Test career interrupted by the First World War, he scored 2,863 runs at an average of 38.68, including six centuries, and took 87 wickets. He was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2000.
Armstrong was a large man (6 foot 3 inches – 1.9 m tall and 21 stone – 133 kg or 294 lb) and was known as the "Big Ship". He was not a stylish batsman but his strokeplay was effective, with a sound defence and temperament. He bowled leg spin with a gentle action and while not a big turner of the ball, he relied on accuracy to dismiss opponents. He made his Test debut in 1902 against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and was selected to tour England later that year where he was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. That was the first of four tours of England. He was involved in several altercations with cricket administrators and was one of the "Big Six" who boycotted the 1912 Triangular Tournament in England after a dispute with the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket. (Full article...)
Ian William Geddes Johnson, CBE (8 December 1917 – 9 October 1998) was an Australian cricketer who played 45 Test matches as a slow off-break bowler between 1946 and 1956. Johnson captured 109 Test wickets at an average of 29.19 runs per wicket and as a capable lower order batsman made 1,000 runs at an average of 18.51 runs per dismissal. He captained the Australian team in 17 Tests, winning seven and losing five, with a further five drawn. Despite this record, he is better known as the captain who lost consecutive Ashes series against England. Urbane, well-spoken and popular with his opponents and the public, he was seen by his teammates as a disciplinarian and his natural optimism was often seen as naive.
Aged 17, Johnson made his first-class cricket debut for Victoria in the 1935–36 season but did not establish a permanent place in the team until 1939–40. His career was interrupted by the Second World War; he served with the Royal Australian Air Force as a pilot and later as a flight instructor. He returned to cricket after his discharge and was selected to tour New Zealand with the Australian team, making his Test debut. Johnson was part of Don Bradman's Invincibles team; undefeated on tour in England in 1948. He was a regular member of the national team until poor form saw him left out of the Australian squad for the 1953 tour of England. (Full article...)
Robert Neil Harvey (born 8 October 1928) is an Australian former cricketer who was a member of the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement. An attacking left-handed batsman, sharp fielder and occasional off-spin bowler, Harvey was the senior batsman in the Australian team for much of the 1950s and was regarded by Wisden as the finest fielder of his era. Upon his retirement, Harvey was the second-most prolific Test run-scorer and century-maker for Australia.
One of six cricketing brothers, four of whom represented Victoria, Harvey followed his elder brother Merv into Test cricket and made his debut in January 1948, aged 19 and three months. In his second match, he became the youngest Australian to score a Test century, a record that still stands. Harvey was the youngest member of the 1948 Invincibles of Don Bradman to tour England, regarded as one of the finest teams in history. After initially struggling in English conditions, he made a century on his Ashes debut. Harvey started his career strongly, with six centuries in his first thirteen Test innings at an average over 100, including four in 1949–50 against South Africa, including a match-winning 151 not out on a sticky wicket. As Bradman's team broke up in the 1950s due to retirements, Harvey became Australia's senior batsman, and was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1954, in recognition of his feat in scoring more than 2,000 runs during the 1953 tour of England. (Full article...)
Kew Lunatic Asylum is a decommissioned heritage-listed psychiatric hospital located between Princess Street and Yarra Boulevard in Kew, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Operational from 1871 to 1988, Kew Asylum was one of the largest asylums ever built in Australia. Later known as Willsmere, the complex of buildings were constructed between 1864 and 1872 to the design of architects G.W. Vivian and Frederick Kawerau of the Victorian Public Works Office to house the growing number of "lunatics", "inebriates", and "idiots" in the Colony of Victoria.
The first purpose-built asylum in the Colony of Victoria, Kew was also larger and more expensive than its sister asylums at Ararat and Beechworth. The asylum's buildings are typical examples of the Italianate architecture style which was popular in Victorian Melbourne. Designed to be elegant, beautiful, yet substantial, and to be viewed as "a magnificent asylum for the insane" with the aim of portraying Melbourne as a civilised and benevolent city whilst avoiding the jail-like appearance of other asylums. These aims were furthered by the use of low ha-ha walls and extensively landscaped grounds. Long considered of cultural and historic significance to Melbourne, Kew Asylum and its complex of buildings were registered on the Register of the National Estate in March 1978. (Full article...)
Lowe Kong Meng (born 1830 or 1831; died 22 October 1888) was a Chinese-Australian businessman. Born into a trading family in Penang, Kong Meng learned English and French at an early age and worked as an importing merchant around the Indian Ocean. In 1853 he moved to Melbourne where he started a business importing goods for Chinese miners during the Victorian gold rush. After 1860, as the Chinese population in Melbourne peaked, he diversified into other lines of business, including investing in the Commercial Bank of Australia. Kong Meng was a prominent and well-regarded member of Melbourne's elite, and for a time was one of the city's wealthiest men. He was a leading defender of Chinese Australians at a time when their status was politically controversial and they were subjected to targeted taxation, discrimination and violence. (Full article...)
Sir Wilfrid Selwyn "Bill" Kent Hughes (12 June 1895 – 31 July 1970) was an Australian army officer and politician who had a long career in both state and federal politics, most notably as a minister in the Menzies government. He also had a longstanding involvement with the Olympic movement, as both an athlete and organiser.
Kent Hughes was born in Melbourne to an upper middle-class family. He won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1914, but postponed his studies to join the Australian Imperial Force. He entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1919, and combined his studies with his sporting career, representing Australia in hurdling at the 1920 Summer Olympics. Kent Hughes returned home in 1923 and began working at his father's publishing company. He was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1927, representing the Nationalist Party. He joined the new United Australia Party in 1931, and the following year was made a minister in the government of Stanley Argyle. He served as the party's deputy leader from 1935 to 1939. (Full article...)
Amanda Carter (born 16 July 1964) is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair basketball player. Diagnosed with transverse myelitis at the age of 24, she began playing wheelchair basketball in 1991 and participated in the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, the Gliders, at three Paralympics from 1992 to 2000. An injury in 2000 forced her to withdraw from the sport, but she came back to the national team in 2009, and was a member of the team that represented Australia and won silver at the 2012 London Paralympics.
Due to her 2000 injury, Carter lost considerable mobility in her right arm, and required an elbow reconstruction. She spent 11 weeks on a continuous passive motion machine, and nine operations were required to treat the elbow. After her comeback in 2008, she played for the Dandenong Rangers in the Australian Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL), the team she had played for before her injury. That year she received a player award from the Dandenong Rangers and was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in her 1-point disability classification in the WNWBL and was named to the league's All Star Five. The Rangers won back-to-back WNWBL titles in 2011 and 2012, and she was again named the WNWBL MVP 1 Pointer and to the league's All Star Five in 2012. (Full article...)
Keith Ross Miller AM MBE (28 November 1919 – 11 October 2004) was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. His ability, irreverent manner and good looks made him a crowd favourite. Journalist Ian Wooldridge called Miller "the golden boy" of cricket, leading to him being nicknamed "Nugget".
A member of the record-breaking Invincibles, at the time of his retirement from Test cricket in 1956, Miller had the best statistics of any all-rounder in cricket history. He often batted high in the order, sometimes as high as number three. He was a powerful striker of the ball, and one straight six that he hit at the Sydney Cricket Ground was still rising when it hit the upper deck of the grandstand. Miller was famous for varying his bowling to bemuse batsmen: he made sparing use of slower deliveries and would often adjust his run-up, surprisingly bowling his fastest deliveries from a short run. He was also a fine fielder and an especially acrobatic catcher in the slips. (Full article...)
The smooth toadfish (Tetractenos glaber) is a species of fish in the pufferfish family Tetraodontidae. It is native to shallow coastal and estuarine waters of southeastern Australia, where it is widespread and abundant. French naturalist Christophe-Paulin de La Poix de Fréminville described the species in 1813, though early records confused it with its close relative, the common toadfish (T. hamiltonii). The two are the only members of the genus Tetractenos after going through several taxonomic changes since discovery.
Up to 16 cm (6+1⁄4 in) long with distinctive leopard-like dark markings on its dorsal side, the smooth toadfish has a rounded front and tapers to a narrow tail at the back. Unlike most of its relatives, it does not have prominent spines on its body. Like other pufferfish, it can inflate itself with water or air. It forages for its preferred foods—molluscs and crustaceans—in sand and mud of the bottom sediment. Often an unwanted catch by anglers, the smooth toadfish contains high levels of tetrodotoxin, and eating it may result in death. (Full article...)
Peter Stuart Isaacson, AM, DFC, AFC, DFM (31 July 1920 – 7 April 2017) was an Australian publisher and decorated military pilot. He was the owner of Peter Isaacson Publications, publisher of various trade journals and suburban newspapers including the Southern Cross and the Sunday Observer in Melbourne. During World War II, he served in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as a pilot with RAF Bomber Command and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Force Cross and the Distinguished Flying Medal.
Isaacson grew up in Melbourne and started working for a newspaper when he was sixteen. He joined the RAAF in 1940. Following his stint in Bomber Command, he became well known in Australia for his tours in the Avro Lancaster Q-for-Queenie to promote the sale of war loans and, in particular, for flying his plane under the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1943. He transferred to the RAAF Reserve after the war, retiring as a wing commander in 1969. From 1956 he served as a Trustee, Chairman, and finally Life Governor of the Victorian Shrine of Remembrance. In 1991 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his publishing and community work. (Full article...)
The 2018 season was the Geelong Football Club's 119th in the Australian Football League (AFL). It was the club's eighth season under senior coach Chris Scott, with Joel Selwood appointed as club captain for a seventh successive year. Geelong (known as the Cats) participated in both the inaugural AFLX competition and the 2018 JLT Community Series as part of their pre-season schedule, and the club's regular season began on 25 March against Melbourne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The Cats finished the home-and-away season with a 13–9 win–loss record and placed eighth on the league's ladder, qualifying for the 2018 finals series as a result. Geelong were defeated in an elimination final against Melbourne by 29 points, and therefore did not progress past the first finals week.
Mark Blicavs was named Geelong's best and fairest player, polling 234 votes for the Carji Greeves Medal ahead of joint runners-ups Patrick Dangerfield and Tim Kelly on 233.5 votes each. It was Blicavs' second Carji Greeves Medal, having previously won the award for the 2015 season. Tom Hawkins was the club's leading goalkicker for the seventh successive season, scoring 60 goals. Dangerfield and Tom Stewart were selected in the 2018 All-Australian team, with Stewart also receiving the AFL Coaches Association's Best Young Player award. The Cats also fielded a reserves team in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and a women's team in the VFL Women's (VFLW) competition. The women's team finished runners-up after they were defeated in the VFLW Grand Final by Hawthorn. (Full article...)
Banksia integrifolia, commonly known as the coast banksia, is a species of tree that grows along the east coast of Australia. One of the most widely distributed Banksia species, it occurs between Victoria and Central Queensland in a broad range of habitats, from coastal dunes to mountains. It is highly variable in form, but is most often encountered as a tree up to 25 metres (82 ft) in height. Its leaves have dark green upper surfaces and white undersides, a contrast that can be striking on windy days.
It is one of the four original Banksia species collected by Sir Joseph Banks in 1770, and one of four species published in 1782 as part of Carolus Linnaeus the Younger's original description of the genus. It has had a complicated taxonomic history, with numerous species and varieties ascribed to it, only to be rejected or promoted to separate species. Modern taxonomy recognises three subspecies: B. integrifolia subsp. integrifolia, B. integrifolia subsp. compar and B. integrifolia subsp. monticola. (Full article...)
William Maldon Woodfull OBE (22 August 1897 – 11 August 1965) was an Australian cricketer of the 1920s and 1930s. He captained both Victoria and Australia, and was best known for his dignified and moral conduct during the tumultuous bodyline series in 1932–33. Trained as a schoolteacher, Woodfull was known for his benevolent attitude towards his players, and his patience and defensive technique as an opening batsman. His opening pairing with fellow Victorian Bill Ponsford for both his state and Australia remains one of the most successful in history. While not known for his tactical skills, Woodfull was widely admired by his players and observers for his sportsmanship and ability to mould a successful and loyal team through the strength of his character.
Woodfull started playing cricket from a young age. He made his professional debut in Melbourne's district competition staying until the age of 19. He made his first-class debut for Victoria at the age of 24 late in 1921–22. After scoring a century in his second match, Woodfull was promoted to open the following season, and he opened for the rest of his career. After scoring three centuries, including a 236, in 1925–26, he was selected for the 1926 tour of England. Woodfull made eight centuries during the tour and topped the Australian averages and was named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. (Full article...)- The Melbourne Storm are an Australian rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blue jersey with gold and white trim.
The first fully professional rugby league team in the state, the club was founded in 1997, playing its first season in the newly reunified NRL competition in 1998. They have won four premierships since their inception, in 1999, 2012, 2017 and 2020, and have contested several more grand finals. They also won the 2007 and 2009 grand finals, but were stripped of those premierships following salary cap breaches. (Full article...) - Caulfield Grammar School is a private, co-educational, Anglican, International Baccalaureate, day and boarding school, located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1881 as a boys' school, Caulfield Grammar began admitting girls exactly one hundred years later. The school amalgamated with Malvern Memorial Grammar School (MMGS) in 1961, with the MMGS campus becoming Malvern Campus.
Caulfield Grammar has three-day campuses in Victoria, Caulfield (Years 7–12), Wheelers Hill (K–Year 12), and Malvern House (K–Year 6). It has an outdoor education campus at Yarra Junction, and a student centre in Nanjing, China where the Year 9 internationalism programme is conducted. Caulfield Grammar is the second largest school in Victoria, currently catering for 3,315 students. (Full article...)
Hugh Trumble (19 May 1867 – 14 August 1938) was an Australian cricketer who played 32 Test matches as a bowling all-rounder between 1890 and 1904. He captained the Australian team in two Tests, winning both. Trumble took 141 wickets in Test cricket—a world record at the time of his retirement—at an average of 21.78 runs per wicket. He is one of only four bowlers to twice take a hat-trick in Test cricket. Observers in Trumble's day, including the authoritative Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, regarded him as ranking among the great Australian bowlers of the Golden Age of cricket. He was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1897 and the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, established in 1996, inducted him in 2004.
A tall and thin off spinner, Trumble delivered the ball at a quicker pace than most spin bowlers, using his height and uncommonly long fingers to his greatest advantage. He was at his best on the softer pitches of England, but his accuracy and variations in pace enabled him to take wickets on the harder pitches of Australia as well. He was a dependable lower order batsman and a fine fielder in the slips. He was recognised as a shrewd thinker about the game and was popular with team-mates and opponents, with a penchant for practical jokes. (Full article...)
Epacris impressa, also known as common heath, is a species of plant in the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to south-eastern Australia (the states of Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and New South Wales). French botanist Jacques Labillardière collected the species in 1793 and described it in 1805. Four forms have been identified, but no subspecies are recognised. Growing in heathland, shrubland or open forest, it is generally a small shrub around 0.5 to 1 m (1 ft 8 in to 3 ft 3 in) tall, with small stiff leaves. The red, pink or white tube-like flowers appear from late autumn to early spring. Honeyeater birds, particularly the eastern spinebill, feed upon the nectar of the flowers. It regenerates after bushfire by seed or by resprouting.
A highly regarded garden plant, the common heath was first cultivated in England in 1825; over seventy named cultivars have been developed, most of which have now vanished. A pink-flowered form, often referred to as "pink heath", is the floral emblem of the state of Victoria. Epacris impressa has proven a difficult plant to propagate reliably, which has limited its use in horticulture and revegetation. It grows best in well-drained but moist soil in a semishaded position. (Full article...)
The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae. Its closest living relatives are the wombats. The koala is found in coastal areas of the continent's eastern and southern regions, inhabiting Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is easily recognisable by its stout, tailless body and large head with round, fluffy ears and large, dark nose. The koala has a body length of 60–85 cm (24–33 in) and weighs 4–15 kg (8.8–33.1 lb). Its fur colour ranges from silver grey to chocolate brown. Koalas from the northern populations are typically smaller and lighter in colour than their counterparts further south. These populations are possibly separate subspecies, but not all researchers accept this.
Koalas typically inhabit open Eucalyptus woodland, as the leaves of these trees make up most of their diet. This eucalypt diet has low nutritional and caloric content and contains toxic compounds that deter most other mammals from feeding on them. Koalas are largely sedentary and sleep up to twenty hours a day. They are asocial; only mothers bond to dependent offspring. Adult males communicate with bellows that intimidate rivals and attract mates. Males mark their presence with secretions from scent glands located on their chests. Like other marsupials, koalas give birth to young known as joeys at a very early stage of development. They crawl into their mothers' pouches, where they live for their first six to seven months. They are fully weaned around a year old. (Full article...)- The first series of Australian crime television drama series Underbelly originally aired from 13 February 2008 to 7 May 2008 on the Nine Network and is loosely based on the real events of the 1995–2004 gangland war in Melbourne. It depicts the key players in Melbourne's criminal underworld, including the Carlton Crew and their rival, Carl Williams. The series is based on the book Leadbelly: Inside Australia's Underworld, by journalists John Silvester and Andrew Rule, and borrows its name from the successful Underbelly true crime anthology book series also authored by Silvester and Rule. An alternative and significantly updated tie-in novel, Underbelly: The Gangland War, was released as their 13th book in the series. The series is produced by the Australian Film Finance Corporation, in association with Film Victoria. The executive producers are Des Monaghan and Jo Horsburgh.
The lead-up to Underbelly involved a heavy marketing campaign which covered radio, print, billboards and an increased online presence, including the use of social networking tools. At a reported cost of $500,000, both this marketing investment and potentially millions of dollars in advertising revenue were claimed to be put at risk by the Victorian Supreme Court's injunction, as the series was expected to attract 800,000 to 1 million viewers in Victoria alone. The injunction was put in place to ensure that upcoming criminal trials were not unfair to the accused, because the series contained fictionalised re-enactments of several disputed events. Underbelly began screening on 13 February 2008 on the Nine Network in all states and territories except Victoria and some regional parts of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. An edited version of the series premiered in Victoria on 14 September 2008 after the injunction was partially lifted, although only the first five episodes were shown. In 2011, the injunction was partially lifted and the series was screened as "Underbelly: Uncut". This rebroadcast included scenes from the original DVD release, as well as several significant changes that were made to keep the show current, including a newly recorded final voiceover and the crediting of several characters that were previously uncredited (allowable due to the ending of related trials). Some previously named characters in the final episode however are now unable to be named, resulting in a continued banning of the sale of the video release in Victoria. (Full article...) 
The Tanami Desert where Ricky Megee was stranded for 71 days
Ricky Megee born 1970 is an Australian, most notable for having been stranded in the Outback and surviving for 71 days in 2006. Megee later gave contradictory statements as to how he came to be stranded crossing the Northern Territory and Western Australia. On one occasion he said that his car broke down, and on another that he had been carjacked by an armed gang. However, a doctor later confirmed that Megee's appearance was consistent with having lived in extreme conditions. Like most deserts, the Tanami can reach 40 °C (104 °F) during the day but still be very cold at night. Megee made his own primitive shelters and survived by drinking rainwater and eating small animals and available vegetation for nourishment. He was eventually discovered by a group of station hands near Katherine, Northern Territory, and taken to Darwin for medical assistance. Although some doubts were later raised as to the exact chain of events as Megee related them, the police did not find evidence that a criminal offence had occurred. (Full article...)
Southern Area Command was one of several geographically based commands raised by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. It was formed in March 1940, and initially controlled units located in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and southern New South Wales. Headquartered in Melbourne, Southern Area Command was responsible for air defence, aerial reconnaissance and protection of the sea lanes within its boundaries. From 1942 its operational responsibilities excluded New South Wales.
The area command continued to operate following the end of the war, becoming the hub of Air Force training services. In October 1953, the RAAF began reorganising its command-and-control system from one based on geography to one based on function; Southern Area was re-formed as Training Command, which in 2006 became Air Force Training Group, a component of RAAF Air Command. (Full article...)
Reginald Walter Saunders, MBE (7 August 1920 – 2 March 1990) was the first Aboriginal Australian to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army. He came from a military family, his forebears having served in the Boer War and the First World War. Enlisting as a soldier in 1940, he saw action during the Second World War in North Africa, Greece and Crete, before being commissioned as a lieutenant and serving as a platoon commander in New Guinea during 1944–1945. His younger brother Harry also joined the Army, and was killed in 1942 during the Kokoda Track campaign.
After the war, Saunders was discharged and returned to civilian life. He later served as a company commander with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR) during the Korean War, where he fought at the Battle of Kapyong. Saunders left the Army in 1954 and worked in the logging and metal industries, before joining the Office of Aboriginal Affairs (later the Department of Aboriginal Affairs) as a liaison officer in 1969. In 1971, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his community service. He died in 1990, aged 69. (Full article...)
Eric Banadinović (born 9 August 1968), known professionally as Eric Bana (/ˈbænə/ ⓘ), is an Australian actor and producer. He began his career in the sketch-comedy series Full Frontal before gaining notice in the comedy drama The Castle (1997) and the biographical crime film Chopper (2000) for which he won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
After a decade of roles in Australian television shows and films, Bana gained Hollywood's attention for his performance in the war film Black Hawk Down (2001) and for playing Bruce Banner in the superhero film Hulk (2003). He played Hector in the war epic Troy (2004), and took a leading role in Steven Spielberg's historical thriller Munich (2005). In 2009, he played the villain Nero in the science-fiction film Star Trek, which was a critical and commercial success. Bana continued to work steadily in the 2010s, portraying Lieutenant Commander Erik S. Kristensen in Lone Survivor (2013), and playing police Sergeant Ralph Sarchie in the horror film Deliver Us from Evil (2014). In 2018, Bana played the title role in a true crime miniseries, Dirty John. In 2020, he returned to Australia to star in outback thriller The Dry. (Full article...)
The 2008 Australian Grand Prix (officially known as the 2008 Formula 1 ING Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 16 March 2008 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia. It was the first race of the 2008 Formula One season. In qualifying for the event, Lewis Hamilton for the McLaren team started from pole position ahead of Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber by 0.15 seconds.
The 58-lap race featured three safety car interruptions due to collisions on lap 1, 26, and 42. A high rate of attrition meant that only 7 cars of the 22 participants finished the race, with six being classified after sixth place Rubens Barrichello was disqualified for exiting the pit lane illegally. Of the six, Hamilton lead most of the race and finished first ahead of Nick Heidfeld in second in a BMW Sauber and Nico Rosberg in third in a Williams. This was Rosberg's first podium finish. In winning the race, Hamilton and McLaren led the Drivers' Championship and Constructors Championship, respectively. (Full article...)
TISM (/ˈtɪzəm/ TIZ-əm; an acronym of This Is Serious Mum) are a seven-piece anonymous alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia, on 30 December 1982 by vocalist/drummer Humphrey B. Flaubert, bassist/vocalist Jock Cheese and keyboardist/vocalist Eugene de la Hot Croix Bun, with vocalist Ron Hitler-Barassi joining the group the following year. These four members have formed the core of the band since their inception, with the line-up being rounded out by guitarists Leak Van Vlalen (1982–1991), Tokin' Blackman (1991–2004; died 2008) and Vladimir Lenin-McCartney (2022–present), as well as backing vocalists/dancers Les Miserables and Jon St. Peenis.
Noted for their dark humour, sarcastic delivery and melodic songwriting, the seven members of TISM appear in public as a pseudonymous, semi-paramilitary collective masked in a variety of balaclavas (usually as part of a more elaborate costume), and are known for their "chaotic" appearances in Australian media, often frustrating interviewers with absurd non sequiturs and tongue-in-cheek nihilism. Their catalogue is replete with references to popular culture, particularly literature, music and Australian rules football; their (usually derogatory) references to celebrities have sometimes incurred controversy and even censorship. (Full article...)
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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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Ocean Grove is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Bellarine Peninsula. At the 2021 census, Ocean Grove had a population of 17,714. (Full article...)- The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their Ascot Vale home "Alisa" adopting the name of the local borough. While the exact date is unknown, it is generally accepted to have been in 1872. The club's first recorded game took place on 7 June 1873 against a Carlton seconds team. From 1878 until 1896, the club played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA), then joined seven other clubs in October 1896 to form the breakaway Victorian Football League (known as the Australian Football League since 1990). Headquartered at the Essendon Recreation Ground, known as Windy Hill, from 1922 to 2013, the club moved to The Hangar in the suburb of Melbourne Airport in late 2013 on land owned by the Melbourne Airport corporation. The club shares its home games between Docklands Stadium and the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Andrew McGrath is the current club captain.
Essendon is one of Australia's best-known and most successful football clubs. It has won 16 VFL/AFL premierships, which, along with Carlton and Collingwood, is the most of any club in the competition. The club won four consecutive VFA premierships between 1891 and 1894, a feat unmatched in that competition's history. Essendon also hold the distinction of being the only club to win a premiership in their inaugural season (1897). It has struggled to achieve significant on-field success in the 21st century, however, having won its most recent premiership in 2000 and most recent final in 2004. (Full article...) 
The Australian Grand Prix is an annual Formula One motor racing event, taking place in Melbourne, Victoria. The event is contracted to be held at least until 2035. One of the oldest surviving motorsport competitions held in Australia, the Grand Prix has moved frequently with 23 different venues having been used since it was first run at Phillip Island in 1928. The race became part of the Formula One World Championship in 1985. Since 1996, it has been held at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, with the exceptions of 2020 and 2021, when the races were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, it was held in Adelaide.
Historically, the Australian Grand Prix was held as either the last race of the season, when held at Adelaide, or as the opening round or early on at Melbourne. In 2022, it returned to the calendar as the third race of the season, following the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix. In 2025, the Grand Prix was moved back to the opening race slot of the season. (Full article...)- The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition and plays its home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Melbourne is the world's oldest professional club of any football code. A loosely organised Melbourne side began playing in the winter of 1858. The following year, the club was officially established and four members codified "The Rules of the Melbourne Football Club"—the basis of Australian rules football. The club was a dominant force in the early years of the game and a foundation member of the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in 1877 and the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1896, now the national AFL. Melbourne has won 13 VFL/AFL premierships, the latest in 2021. The club was a foundation team of the AFL Women's league (AFLW), and won its first AFLW premiership in 2022 season 7. (Full article...)
Wodonga (/wəˈdɒŋɡə/ wə-DONG-gə; Pallanganmiddang: Wordonga) is a city on the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, 324 kilometres (201 mi) north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is part of the twin city of Albury–Wodonga and is located all within the boundaries of the City of Wodonga LGA and is separated from its twin city in New South Wales, Albury, by the Murray River. As of the 2021 Census, Wodonga and its suburbs have a population of 37,839 and combined with Albury, the two cities form the urban area Albury–Wodonga with a population of 97,793. There are multiple suburbs of Wodonga including Bandiana, Baranduda, Barnawartha, Bonegilla, Ebden, Huon Creek, Killara, Leneva and Staghorn.
Wodonga produces a gross domestic product of $2.57 billion per year on average. (Full article...)
Eureka Tower is a 297.3 m (975 ft) skyscraper located in the Southbank precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction began in August 2002 and the exterior was completed on 1 June 2006. The plaza was finished in June 2006 and the building was officially opened on 11 October 2006. The project was designed by Melbourne architectural firm Fender Katsalidis Architects and was built by Grocon (Grollo Australia). The developer of the tower was Eureka Tower Pty Ltd, a joint venture consisting of Daniel Grollo (Grocon), investor Tab Fried and one of the Tower's architects Nonda Katsalidis.
Construction began August 2002. The tower was officially opened on 11 October 2006. The building's design is themed around the Eureka Stockade. It contains 556 apartments serviced by 13 lifts. Level 88 features an observation deck and level 89, a restaurant, cocktail bar and event space. The building is home to the annual Eureka Climb and a 2013 experiment involving airplants. (Full article...)
Western United Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club. The club is based in the western Melbourne suburb of Tarneit; the club represents western Victoria, incorporating the western suburbs of Melbourne; the regional cities of Ballarat, and Geelong; and regional and country towns in western Victoria.
The club was established as part of an expansion process in the country's premier soccer competition, the A-League. It began playing in the 2019–20 A-League season, under licence from Football Australia (FA). On 12 May 2022 it announced the establishment of an A-League Women team. (Full article...)
Luna Park Melbourne is a historic amusement park located on the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay in St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria. It opened on 13 December 1912, with a formal opening a week later, and has been operating almost continuously ever since. (Full article...)
The Carlton Gardens is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on the northeastern edge of the Central Business District in the suburb of Carlton, Melbourne, in the state of Victoria, Australia. The gardens are a popular picnic and barbecue area, and are home to an array of wildlife, including brushtail possums.
The 26-hectare (64-acre) site contains the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne Museum and Imax Cinema, tennis courts and an award-winning playground. The rectangular site is bounded by Victoria Street, Rathdowne Street, Carlton Street, and Nicholson Street. According to the World Heritage listing, the Royal Exhibition Buildings and Carlton Gardens are "of historical, architectural, aesthetic, social and scientific (botanical) significance to the State of Victoria." (Full article...)
Soccer in the Australian state of Victoria is organised by Football Victoria (FV). FV is a member of the national Football Australia. (Full article...)
Federation Square (marketed and colloquially known as Fed Square) is a venue for arts, culture and public events on the edge of the Melbourne central business district. It covers an area of 3.2 ha (7.9 acres) at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets built above busy railway lines and across the road from Flinders Street station. It incorporates major cultural institutions such as the Ian Potter Centre, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and the Koorie Heritage Trust as well as cafes and bars in a series of buildings centred around a large paved square, and a glass walled atrium. (Full article...)
Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory entered the competition in the inaugural season as the only Victorian-based club in the newly revamped domestic Australian league.
Recognised as the second most successful club in the league to date, Victory has won four A-League Championships, three A-League Premierships, one Pre-Season Challenge Cup and two Australia Cups, the only club to have won all four domestic trophies in the modern era of Australian association football. They have also competed in the AFC Champions League on seven occasions, most recently in 2020. Their furthest placement in the tournament was in the 2016 campaign and 2020 campaign, where they were knocked out in the Round of 16 by the eventual champion on both occasions. (Full article...)
South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at the 2021 census.
Historically known as Emerald Hill, South Melbourne was one of the first of Melbourne's suburbs to adopt full municipal status and is one of Melbourne's oldest suburban areas, notable for its well preserved Victorian era streetscapes. (Full article...)
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Melbourne, Australia. It is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Melbourne and the seat of the Archbishop of Melbourne, who is also the metropolitan archbishop of the Province of Victoria.
The cathedral was designed by the English Gothic Revival architect William Butterfield and completed in 1891, except for the spires which were built to a different design from 1926 to 1932. It is one of Melbourne's major architectural landmarks. (Full article...)
Aerial panorama of Sovereign Hill
Sovereign Hill is an open-air museum in Golden Point, a suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Sovereign Hill depicts Ballarat's first ten years after the discovery of gold there in 1851 and has become a nationally acclaimed tourist attraction. It is one of Victoria's most popular attractions and Ballarat's most famous. As part of a major 20-year Master Plan, the museum has recently expanded its cultural and educational focus with the establishment of new national centres and precincts dedicated to rare trades, gold rush collections, and Wadawurrung culture.
Set in the Australian 1850s, the complex is located on a 25-hectare site that is linked to the richest alluvial gold rush in the world. The site comprises over 60 historically recreated buildings, with costumed staff and volunteers, who are able to answer questions and will pose for photos. The recreation is completed with antiques, artwork, books and papers, machinery, livestock and animals, carriages, and devices all appropriate to the era. (Full article...)
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Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that the film The Taverna was shot at a Greek restaurant in Melbourne over sixteen days?
- ... that one newspaper labelled Caroline Hodgson the "wickedest woman in Melbourne"?
- ... that the largest IMAX cinema in the Southern Hemisphere is in Melbourne?
- ... that Argentine naval officer Barry Melbourne Hussey was known as El Ingles ('The Englishman') by his comrades?
Subcategories
In the News (for Australia)
- 16 April 2026 –
- A fire at the major Viva oil refinery near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, halts its gasoline production. (Bloomberg)
- 30 March 2026 – Porepunkah police shootings
- Victoria Police fatally shoot Dezi Freeman, a self-proclaimed sovereign citizen and fugitive following a seven month manhunt after he killed two police officers and seriously injured another in a shooting in Porepunkah, Victoria, Australia. It was the largest police operation in Australian history. (ABC News) (The Guardian) (Reuters)
- 21 February 2026 – 2025–26 Australian bushfire season
- The state emergency service of Victoria, Australia, issues the highest-level emergency evacuation warning for areas surrounding the A1 Mine Settlement of Gaffneys Creek, as an uncontrolled bushfire burns the settlement. (Reuters)
Topics
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To-do list
Here are some tasks you can do to help at WikiProject Victoria:
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Requests: – Missing topics
- Local Government Association of Victoria – request from pre 2016
- Maroon, Victoria – request from pre 2016
- University of Western Victoria – request from pre 2016
- Lincoln Square (Melbourne)
- Awakenings Festival – Horsham
- Central Goulburn Irrigation Area
- Rochester Irrigation Area
- Wimmera Mallee Pipeline Project
- Heytesbury fires – (1886)
- Victoria bushfire season 1969 – Lara (1969)
- Barwon (region) – sub-region of Barwon South West (region)
- Great South Coast (region) – sub-region of Barwon South West (region)
- Loddon Campaspe (region) – sub-region of Loddon Mallee
- Redlinks in navbox (Protected areas in Victoria)
- Aura Vale Lake Park (part of Cardinia Reservoir Parks)
- Barwon Bluff Marine Sanctuary
- Beechworth Historic Park
- Beware Reef Marine Sanctuary
- Birrarrung Park (part of Yarra Valley Parklands)
- Candlebark Park (part of Yarra Valley Parklands)
- Cape Liptrap Coastal Park
- Cardinia Creek Parklands
- Cardinia Reservoir Parks
- Corner Inlet Marine and Coastal Park
- Eagle Rock Marine Sanctuary
- Jawbone Marine Sanctuary
- Lake Tyers State Park
- Longridge Park Camp (part of Yarra Valley Parklands)
- Marengo Reefs Marine Sanctuary
- Maribyrnong Valley Parklands
- Maroondah Reservoir Park
- Merri Marine Sanctuary
- Mushroom Reef Marine Sanctuary
- Nooramunga Marine and Coastal Park
- Nortons Park (part of Dandenong Valley Parklands)
- Point Cooke Marine Sanctuary – part covered in Point Cook Coastal Park#Marine
- Point Danger Marine Sanctuary
- Point Gellibrand Heritage Park
- Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary
- Shallow Inlet Marine and Coastal Park
- Shepherds Bush (Victoria) (part of Dandenong Valley Parklands)
- Silvan Reservoir Park
- Steiglitz Historic Park
- Sugarloaf Reservoir Parks
- The Arches Marine Sanctuary
- Tirhatuan Park (part of Dandenong Valley Parklands)
- Wabba Wilderness Park
- Wilsons Promontory Marine Park
- Wimmera River Heritage Area Park
- Woodlands Historic Park
- Yarra Flats Park (part of Yarra Valley Parklands)
- Yarra Valley Parklands
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Expand: – stubs: 5,329
- List of schools in Victoria
- Mount Rothwell Biodiversity Interpretation Centre
- Melbourne Workers Theatre
- City West Water
- Belgrave Lantern Festival
- Red Tuesday bushfires – (1898)
- 1925–26 Victorian bushfire season – Black Sunday (1926)
- Linton Bushfire – (1998)
- 2003 Eastern Victorian alpine bushfires
- Mount Lubra bushfire – (2006)
- 2006–07 Eastern Victoria Great Divide bushfires
- Goulburn (region) – sub-region of Hume (region)
- Ovens Murray (region) – sub-region of Hume (region)
- Images: – requested images: 256
A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.
Geelong To-do |
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Here are some tasks you can do to help at WikiProject Geelong:
A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects. |
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