who was the city of melbourne named after
Melbourne Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemen's Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales,[14] it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837.[14] It was named "Melbourne" by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne.[14] It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria, to whom Lord Melbourne was close, in 1847,[15] after which it became the capital of the newly founded colony of Victoria in 1851.[15] During the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the world's largest and wealthiest cities.[16] After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the nation's interim seat of government until 1927.[17] Additionally, it was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Parliament of Australia The Commonwealth of Australia came into being on 1 January 1901 with the federation of the six Australian colonies. The inaugural election took place on 29 and 30 March and the first Australian Parliament was opened on 9 May 1901 in Melbourne by Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and York, later King George V.[9] The only building in Melbourne that was large enough to accommodate the 14,000 guests was the western annexe of the Royal Exhibition Building. After the official opening, from 1901 to 1927, the Parliament met in Parliament House, Melbourne, which it borrowed from the Parliament of Victoria (which sat, instead, in the Royal Exhibition Building until 1927). (The western annexe was demolished in the 1960s.)