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** Victoria **** population is now 5000,000 and more people in our state called Victoria **
=== Victoria **is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by to the north,South Australia to the west, and Tasmania to the south, on Boundary Islet.** ===

===**Victoria is Australia's most densely populated state, and has a highly centralised population, with almost 75% of Victorians living in Melbourne, the state capital and largest city. **===

After the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788, Australia was divided into an eastern half named New South Wales and a western half named[|New Holland], under the [|administration] of the colonial government in Sydney. The first European settlement in the area later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor [|David Collins] at [|Sullivan Bay, Victoria] on [|Port Phillip]. It consisted of 308 convicts, 51 marines, 17 free settlers, 12 civil officers, a missionary and his wife. 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. Victoria's next settlement was at [|Portland], on the west coast of what is now Victoria. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by [|John Batman]. From settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. In 1851, the British Government separated the area from New South Wales, proclaiming a new Colony of Victoria. In 1851 gold was discovered near [|Ballarat], and subsequently at [|Bendigo]. Later discoveries occurred at many sites across Victoria. This triggered one of the [|largest gold rushes] the world has ever seen. The colony grew rapidly in both population and economic power. In ten years the population of Victoria increased sevenfold from 76,000 to 540,000. All sorts of gold records were produced including the "richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world" and the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|largest gold nugget]. Victoria produced in the decade 1851–1860 20 million ounces of gold, one third of the world's output. <span style="background-color: transparent; clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 1.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; width: auto;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: 1px solid #cccccc; display: block; font-size: 12px; min-width: 100px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 3px !important; text-align: center; width: 232px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="border: initial none initial; display: block; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px !important; text-align: left;"><span style="background-attachment: initial !important; background-clip: initial !important; background-color: initial !important; background-image: none !important; background-origin: initial !important; border: initial !important; color: #0645ad; display: block; float: right; text-decoration: none;"> Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross at the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Eureka Stockade] on 1 December 1854 — watercolour by <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Charles Doudiet] <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">Immigrants arrived from all over the world to search for gold, especially from Ireland and China. Many Chinese miners worked in Victoria, and their legacy is particularly strong in Bendigo and its environs. Although there was some racism directed at them, there was not the level of anti-Chinese violence that was seen at the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Lambing Flat riots] in New South Wales. However, there was a <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|riot at Buckland Valley] near <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Bright] in 1857. Conditions on the gold fields were cramped and unsanitary; an outbreak of typhoid at Buckland Valley in 1854 killed over 1,000 miners. <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">In 1854 at Ballarat there was an armed rebellion against the government of Victoria by miners protesting against <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|mining taxes] (the "<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Eureka Stockade] "). This was crushed by British troops, but the discontents prompted colonial authorities to reform the administration (particularly reducing the hated mining licence fees) and extend the franchise. Within a short time, the Imperial Parliament granted Victoria responsible government with the passage of the Colony of Victoria Act 1855. Some of the leaders of the Eureka rebellion went on to became members of the Victorian Parliament. <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">The first foreign military action by the colony of Victoria was to send troops and a warship to New Zealand as part of the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Māori Wars]. Troops from New South Wales had previously participated in the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Crimean War]. <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">In 1901 Victoria became a state in the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Commonwealth of Australia]. As a result of the gold rush, Melbourne had by then become the financial centre of Australia and New Zealand. Between 1901 and 1927, Melbourne was the capital of Australia while <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Canberra] was under construction. It was also the largest city in Australia at the time. Whilst Melbourne remains an important and influential financial centre, home to many national and international companies, it was slowly overtaken by Sydney in business importance around the 1970s and 1980s. <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">On Saturday 7 February 2009 ("Black Saturday"), the state was affected by the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|2009 Victorian bushfires], resulting in 173 deaths.



<span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">Victoria has a parliamentary form of government based on the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Westminster System]. Legislative power resides in the Parliament consisting of the Governor (the representative of the Queen), the executive (the Government), and two legislative chambers. The <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Parliament of Victoria] consists of the lower house <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Legislative Assembly], the upper house <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Legislative Council] and the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Queen of Australia]. <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">Eighty-eight members of the Legislative Assembly are elected to four-year terms from single-member electorates. <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">In November 2006, the Victorian Legislative Council elections were held under a new multi-proportional representation system. The State of Victoria was divided into eight electorates with each electorate represented by five representatives elected by <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Single Transferable Vote][|proportional representation]. The total number of upper house members was reduced from 44 to 40 and their term of office is now the same as the lower house members — four years. Elections for the Victorian Parliament are now fixed and occur in November every four years. Prior to the 2006 election, the Legislative Council consisted of 44 members elected to eight-year terms from 22 two-member electorates. ===<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: initial; color: black; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.3em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0.17em; padding-top: 0.5em; width: auto;">** Premier and cabinet ** === <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">The <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Premier of Victoria] is the leader of the political party or coalition with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Premier is the public face of government and, with <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|cabinet], sets the legislative and political agenda. Cabinet consists of representatives elected to either house of parliament. It is responsible for managing areas of government that are not exclusively the Commonwealth's, by the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Australian Constitution], such as education, health and law enforcement. The current Premier of Victoria is <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Ted Baillieu].

<span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">The 2006 Australian census reported that Victoria had 4,932,422 people resident at the time of the census, an increase of 6.2% on the 1996 figure. The <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Australian Bureau of Statistics] estimates that in June 2010 the state's population reached 5,547,500, an increase of 1.8% from the previous year and may well reach 7.2 million by 2050. <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">Victoria's founding <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Anglo-Celtic] population has been supplemented by successive waves of <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|migrants] from southern and eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and, most recently, the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Horn of Africa] and the Middle East. Victoria's population is ageing in proportion with the average of the remainder of the Australian population. <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">About 72% of Victorians are Australian-born. This figure falls to around 66% in Melbourne but rises to higher than 95% in some rural areas in the north west of the state. Around two-thirds of Victorians claim Australian, Scottish, English or Irish ancestry. Less than 1% of Victorians identify themselves as <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Aboriginal]. The largest groups of people born outside Australia came from the British Isles, China, <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Italy], <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Vietnam] , <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Greece] and New Zealand. <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">More than 70% of Victorians live in <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Melbourne], located in the state's south. The greater Melbourne metropolitan area is home to an estimated 3.9 million people.<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[|[7]] Leading urban centres include <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Geelong], <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Ballarat] , <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Bendigo] , <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Shepparton] , <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Mildura] , <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Warrnambool] , <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Wodonga] and the<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;">[|Latrobe Valley]. estimates for Victoria || Community Development || <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">Victoria is Australia's most urbanised state: nearly 90% of residents living in cities and towns. State Government efforts to decentralise population have included an official campaign run since 2003 to encourage Victorians to settle in regional areas,<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[|[8]] however Melbourne continues to rapidly outpace these areas in terms of population growth.<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[|[9]]
 * ~ Population growth
 * 2007 || 5,087,000 ||
 * 2011 || 5,500,000 ||
 * 2016 || 6,000,000 ||
 * 2021 || 6,400,000 ||
 * 2026 || 6,800,000 ||
 * 2031 || 7,300,000 ||
 * Source: Dept of Planning and