30 August

The city of Melbourne was founded 181 years ago when settlers landed on the North bank of the Yarra River. At the time of the arrival of the western settlers the area was inhabited by three local tribes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong.

The free British Colonists who founded the settlement sailed from Tasmania on the Schooner Enterprize in 1835. Melbourne was incorporated as a crown settlement two years later in 1837.

The settlement was named Melbourne by the governor of NSW after the British Prime Minister William Lamb 2nd Viscount Melbourne. Melbourne was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847, and became the capital of the newly founded colony of Victoria in 1851.