Geelong, Victoria

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Infobox Australian CityImage:Geelong Xmas.jpg Geelong (Template:Coor dm) is the largest regional city in the state of Victoria, Australia. It is a port city with an urban population of 190,000 people (Source ABS) [1]. Geelong is located on Corio Bay, 75 kilometres south-west of the state's capital, Melbourne.

The city is a gateway to many renowned tourist attractions, namely the scenic Great Ocean Road, the Shipwreck Coast and the Bellarine Peninsula. Geelong is also home to the second oldest Australian Rules football club in the world, the Geelong Football Club, known by locals as The Cats.

Geelong is covered by the municipality of the City of Greater Geelong.

Contents

[edit]

History

Template:Main

[edit]

1800's: Early settlers

Prior to white settlement, the area of Geelong was originally occupied by Aboriginal tribes, notably the Wautharong people. Lieutenant John Murray was the first European visitor in 1802. William Buckley, an escaped convict, lived among the Wautharong people for 32 years in areas of the Bellarine Peninsula. In 1835, Buckley was pardoned, and given the position of Interpreter to the natives and as a guide for Captain Foster Fyans. Fyans was commissioned as the local Police Magistrate and established himself on the Barwon River at the site of present-day area of Fyansford. Image:CaptainFosterFyans.png Fyans constructed a breakwater to provide a sheltered harbour that became the premier wool-exporting port of the colony, and which gave name to the area now known as Breakwater, today an eastern industrial and residential suburb of Geelong. Fyan's ford stopped the inflow of salt water to the fresh water river, thus supplying Geelong with fresh river water. The Fyansford Hotel is located nearby to the site of Fyan's first camp.

In 1849, Fyans was nominated as the inaugural Mayor of the Geelong Town Council. An early settler of Geelong, Alexander Thomson, for which the area of Thomson in East Geelong is named, settled on the Barwon River, and was Mayor of Geelong on five occasions from 1850 - 1858.

In 1851, gold was discovered in nearby Ballarat, causing the Geelong population to grow from 8,000 to 22,000 during 1851 - 1853. The first issue of the Geelong Advertiser newspaper is published in 1857. HM Prison Geelong, built using convict labour was opened in 1864.

[edit]

1900's: 20th century

Image:Geelonglawcourts myersst.jpg

Electric trams began operation in 1912, travelling along Pakington St, Geelong West until their demise in 1956.

Government housing was constructed in the northern suburbs of Norlane, North Shore and Corio to provide accommodation for many low income workers at nearby Ford Motor Company, International Harvester, Pivot Phosphate and Jackson's Abbatoirs factories.

The Geelong Football Club wins premierships in 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952 and 1963. Major CBD shopping centre Market Square, Geelong was constructed in 1985, with Westfield Bay City (formerly Bay City Plaza) built in 1988.

[edit]

2000's

The Geelong Bypass ring road is planned to bypass the city of Geelong, due to begin construction in 2006. Template:See also Template:See also

[edit]

Demographics

As of 2006, there were 79,000 households, and 190,000 people residing in Geelong. The average household size is 2.67. The racial makeup of the city was 79.1% Australian born and 20.9% overseas born. Of those residing in Geelong born outside Australia, the remaining were born in United Kingdom (28.7%), Italy (6.4%), Netherlands (5.1%), Germany (4.6%), Croatia (4.5%), and New Zealand (3.1%) [2].

[edit]

Geography and climate

Image:Greater Geelong.png Image:Geelong location map in Victoria.PNG Geelong is located on Corio Bay, a south-western inlet bay of Port Phillip. Geelong is surrounded by many kilometres of developed farmland and is noted for its many wineries and nearby surf beaches along the Great Ocean Road. During clear weather, the Melbourne skyline is visible from areas of Geelong when viewed across Port Phillip. The Barwon River flows through the city to the south before entering Bass Strait at Barwon Heads.

Many materials used to construct notable Victorian buildings were quarried from Geelong, such as bluestone, used to construct the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne and sandstone, used to construct the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Bendigo.

[edit]

Climate

Average temperature in Geelong peaks at 25.6 Celsius (maximum) during February to a low of 14.1 (minimum). Winter temperature averages from 13.9 Celsius (daily maximum in July) to 5.1 (daily minimum). Average yearly rainfall is 551.8 mm. [3]

[edit]

Economy

Geelong's major industries and employers include the Ford Motor Company, which was founded in Geelong in 1926, Godfrey Hirst carpet manufacturer, Target, Alcoa, Steggles and a Shell oil refinery. A rail network connects the Port of Geelong to nearby grain elevators and surrounding industries. Major Australian retailer, Target began operations in Geelong in 1925, with its' head office still located in its' original North Geelong premises in Thompsons Road.

The nearby town of Torquay is the location of many surfing equipment and clothing manufacturers, notably Rip Curl, as well as some of Australia's finest surf beaches and the Surf World Museum [4].

[edit]

Education

[edit]

Colleges and universities

Image:GGSCorio1.jpg The world-renowned Geelong Grammar School, whose alumni include Charles, the Prince of Wales, many former Australian Prime Ministers, Lord Broers (former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge), Alexander Downer (Minister of Foreign Affairs), John Fairfax (Media Proprietor), and Victorian Governor John Landy. The School attracts visitors to the Geelong region and students and staff from the world over.

Deakin University is located in Waurn Ponds and also has a campus located on the waterfront of Corio Bay in the Geelong CBD. Also located in Geelong are the Gordon Institute of TAFE, the Marcus Oldham Farm Management College, the International Fibre Centre, the Geelong College, and the Kardinia International College.

[edit]

Research laboratories

Located in Geelong are major research laboratories, the CSIRO Division of Animal Health in Moolap, CSIRO Division of Textiles and Fibres Technology and the Marine and Freshwater Resources Institute.

[edit]

Public schools and libraries

Geelong is serviced by many public libraries, located at Barwon Heads, Belmont, Chilwell, Corio, Drysdale, Geelong, Geelong West, Grovedale, Highton, Newcomb, Ocean Grove, Queenscliff, and Torquay. A mobile library service travels to the greater Geelong area, the surf coast and also the Golden Plains shire for those unable to visit a library in person [5].

[edit]

Culture

[edit]

Arts and entertainment

Geelong is home to a vast number of pubs, nightclubs and live music venues and has also given birth to a number of notable Australian bands and musicians such as Barry Crocker, Magic Dirt, Jeff Lang, Denis Walter, and also festivals such as the Meredith Music Festival,the Offshore Festival and Poppykettle Festival.

[edit]

Geelong in film

Geelong has been used as a filming location for several feature films and television series:

[edit]

Media

The Geelong Advertiser is the second oldest continuously run newspaper in Victoria and was established in 1857. Also circulated are the free Geelong Independent, and Geelong News newspapers, as well as smaller regional suburban newspapers serving the Bellarine Peninsula area. Melbourne newspapers, The Age and The Herald Sun are readily available.

Geelong does not have television broadcasting facilities and relies on broadcasts from Melbourne for free to air television reception. A set of small analogue UHF TV in-fill repeaters located at the Highton water basin service a television reception black spot in the valley suburbs of Highton & Newtown. The Geelong region also receives cable and satellite television service through Pay-TV operators Foxtel & Neighbourhood Cable. Channel 31 is also available.

[edit]

Radio

Local radio stations are 3GL (Ethnic service), K-Rock (FM), Rhema FM (Christian Community station), The Pulse (Community Radio service) and Bay FM. Transmitters for K-Rock, The Pulse, Rhema FM & Bay FM are located at a shared transmitter site on Mt Bellarine on the Bellarine Peninsula near Drysdale. Most Melbourne radio stations can be clearly heard in Geelong.

[edit]

Visitor attractions

Image:Great ocean road.jpg Image:Bells-Beach-View.JPG

[edit]

Notable people from Geelong

50%}}}" align="{{{align|left}}}" valign="{{{valign|top}}}" | 50%}}}" align="{{{align|left}}}" valign="{{{valign|top}}}" |
[edit]

Infrastructure

[edit]

Transportation

Image:P3210003.JPG Geelong is serviced by local bus routes covering the city centre and most surrounding suburbs. Taxi and hire car services are also available. Pakington Street in Geelong West was served by an electric tramway service until 1956, when the service was replaced by buses subcontracted out to Bender Buslines (currently owned by Kefford Corporation). Current buslines are operated under the government transport initiative, the Geelong Transit System, currently contracted to Bender Buslines and McHarry Buslines.

Hourly V/Line train services to Melbourne depart the Geelong railway station and also run to to Warrnambool twice daily. Train travel time from Geelong to Melbourne Southern Cross Station (formerly Spencer Street Station) is approx 60 minutes making it a popular alternative to driving for Geelong residents working in the Melbourne area. Train services between Melbourne and Geelong received a government funded upgrade during 2005 called the Regional Fast Rail project, with new high speed locomotives called V'locity 160 manufactured by Bombardier in Dandenong scheduled to service the Geelong to Melbourne line beginning in 2006.

A ring road is in planning stages to bypass the greater Geelong metropolitan area. The bypass will begin leave the Princes Highway near Lara and rejoin the highway near Waurn Ponds and is due to begin construction in 2006. The Bellarine Peninsula links to the Mornington Peninsula via the Searoad ferry which runs hourly. Avalon Airport is appeoximately 15 kilometres to the north-east. Geelong also has many kilometres of bike trails covering most of the city and the Bellarine Peninsula.

[edit]

Airports

  • Avalon Airport is located in Avalon, Victoria to the north of the city of Geelong. The airport is designed to cater for jet aircraft, and comprises a single runway. It was originally constructed in 1953, to cater for the production of military aircraft. In 1959, Qantas established a training base at the site, and the runway was extended to cater for jet aircraft, becoming, for some years, the longest in the Southern Hemisphere. It continued to be used to build military aircraft until the 1980s, and for aircraft maintenance until 1996. Avalon Airport is also home to low cost aircraft Jetstar owned by QANTAS. QANTAS aircraft servicing has moved from Kingsford Smith International Airport in Sydney.
  • Geelong Airport is a small airfield specifically for light aircraft located in Mount Duneed. It is primarily used for scenic flights and private aircraft.
[edit]

Sports

Image:Geelongspeedtrials.jpg Geelong is home to an AFL club, the Geelong Football Club, the second oldest football club in the world, and for many years the only VFL club to exist outside of the greater Melbourne metropolitan area. The local basketball team is the Geelong Supercats. During the 2006 Commonwealth Games, The Arena stadium in North Geelong was used for basketball matches.

The Eastern Beach foreshore and nearby Eastern Gardens is used to host internationally televised triathlon events, as well an annual sports car and racing car events such as the Geelong Speed Trials [7]. Corio Bay also hosts many sailing and yachting events.

Geelong also boasts many golf courses, sporting and recreation ovals and playing fields, as well as facilities for water skiing, rowing, fishing, hiking, greyhound racing, trots, and horse racing.

[edit]

Sister cities

Geelong has a number of sister cities. They are:

[edit]

See also

[edit]

External links

Template:Victorian cities Template:Geelong suburbs Template:CoorHeaderde:Geelong fr:Geelong fi:Geelong sv:Geelong

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Geelong%2C_Victoria"