region: Australia - Victoria

Victoria (abbreviated as Vic) is a federated state in southeastern Australia, and politically a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. It is Australia’s second-most populated state, and also the second-smallest state with a land area of 237,659 km2 (91,761 sq mi), making it the most densely populated state in Australia (26.56 per km2). Victoria is bordered with New South Wales to the north and South Australia to the west, and is bounded by the Bass Strait (which separates it from the island state of Tasmania) to the south,[note 1] the Great Australian Bight portion of the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea (a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean) to the southeast. The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the north-east and the semi-arid north-west.

Victoria has a population of over 6.6 million,[1] the majority of which is concentrated in the central south area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, and in particular in the metropolitan area of Greater Melbourne, Victoria’s state capital and largest city and also Australia’s second-largest city, where over three quarters of the Victorian population live. The state is home to four of Australia’s 20 largest cities: Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. The population is diverse, with 35.1% of inhabitants being immigrants.