Melbourne is located at the mouth of the Yarra River at the top of Port Phillip Bay. Considered by many (particularly Melburnians) to be the sporting capital of Australia, Melbourne hosts many national and international sporting events including the Australian Open Tennis each January, the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Albert Park in March, the Aussie Rules Grand Final at the MCG in September, and the Commonwealth Games in 2006.

Melbourne is also the home of the Victorian Arts Centre which presents opera and ballet on a regular basis, and with a huge number of differing cultures can reasonably claim to be the culinary capital of Australia.

The city also hosts a significant number of national and international companies, in particular the automotive, pharmaceutical and IT industries.

Melbourne's climate is often the subject of much humour, particularly by those in Sydney, although the reality is that although Melbourne is typically cooler by 3 or 4 degrees it is actually drier, due in no small part to the quite significant rains that fall in Sydney during the summer.

If you are planning to migrate to Victoria as a skilled migrant it is also worth noting that a State Nomination is possible if your occupation is on Victoria's Skilled Occupations List - State Nominated Independent visas are typically granted in half the time of those granted under the Skilled Independent or Skilled Family Sponsored visa categories, and only require the visa applicant to have attained the pool mark, not the skilled visa pass mark.

If you want to know more about Melbourne you can access the following from the links on this page:

• A searchable database of residential properties for rent - we generally recommend renting a property rather than buying when you move to a new city
• A businesses for sale database - which should be of particular interest to those who are moving to Australia with business visas
• The Go Matilda Discussion Forum for Melbourne where you can discuss issues with others who are already living and working there

Please contact us if there are any aspects of this section that you would like to see enhanced, and if you are a business based in or close to Melbourne that would like to introduce your product or service on this section of the Go Matilda site please don't hesitate to let us know.