58 Facts About Geelong

Geelong is the second largest Victorian city with an estimated urban population of 268,277 as of June 2018, and is Australia's second fastest-growing city.

Geelong is known as the "Gateway City" due to its critical location to surrounding western Victorian regional centres like Ballarat in the northwest, Torquay, Great Ocean Road and Warrnambool in the southwest, Hamilton, Colac and Winchelsea to the west, providing a transport corridor past the Central Highlands for these regions to the state capital Melbourne in its northeast.

The City of Greater Geelong is a member of the Gateway Cities Alliance in partnership with Councils from Newcastle and Wollongong.

Geelong is the administrative centre for the City of Greater Geelong municipality, which is Port Phillip's only regional metropolitan area, and covers all the urban, rural and coastal reserves around the city including the entire Bellarine Peninsula and running from the plains of Lara in the north to the rolling hills of Waurn Ponds to the south, with Corio Bay to the east and the Barrabool Hills to the west.

Traditional owners of the land on which Geelong sits are the Wadawurrung Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation.

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Today, Geelong stands as an emerging healthcare, education and advanced manufacturing center.

Name Geelong comes from Djilang, used by the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners of the area at the time of settlement.

Geelong named the bay Port King, after Philip Gidley King, then Governor of New South Wales.

In January 1803, Surveyor-General Charles Grimes arrived at Port Phillip in the sloop Cumberland and mapped the area, including the future site of Geelong, but reported the area was unfavourable for settlement and returned to Sydney on 27 February.

Geelong was first surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W H Smythe three weeks after Melbourne, and was gazetted as a town on 10 October 1838.

Geelong Keys were discovered around 1845 by Governor Charles La Trobe on Corio Bay.

Geelong Hospital was opened in 1852, and construction on the Geelong Town Hall commenced in 1855.

Development of the Port of Geelong began with the creation of the first shipping channel in Corio Bay in 1853.

In 1866, Graham Berry started a newspaper, the Geelong Register, as a rival to the established Geelong Advertiser.

Improvements to transport saw Geelong emerge as the centre of the Western District of Victoria, with railway lines extended towards Colac in 1876, and to Queenscliff in 1879.

Geelong Cup was first held in 1872, and Victoria's first long-distance telephone call was made from Geelong to Queenscliff on 8 January 1878, only one year after the invention of the device itself.

Geelong was the home of a prosperous wine industry until the emergence of the sap-sucking insect Phylloxera vastatrix at Fyansford in 1875, which led to the Victorian Government ordering the destruction of all vines in the Geelong area to prevent the spread of the pest, killing the industry until the 1960s.

In 1938, one of the last Port Philip Bay steamers, Edina, made its final trip to Geelong, ending a period of seaside excursions and contests for the fastest trip.

On 18 May 1993, the City of Greater Geelong was formed by the amalgamation of a number of smaller municipalities with the former City of Geelong.

The Waterfront Geelong redevelopment, started in 1994, was designed to enhance use and appreciation of Corio Bay and in 1995 the Barwon River overflowed in the worst flood since 1952.

Geelong is planned to expand towards the south coast, with 2,500 hectares of land to become a major suburban development for 55,000 to 65,000 people, known as Armstrong Creek.

The new addition to Geelong offers new research facilities, display areas and hosts Geelong's extensive heritage, modern and Indigenous.

Currently Geelong is undergoing a major revival effort, the Green Spine Project.

Geelong is located on the shores of the western tip of Corio Bay, a southwestern inlet of Port Phillip Bay.

Development in Geelong started on the shores of Corio Bay in what is the inner city.

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Geelong has stable weather, yet still offers four distinct seasons.

Geelong has a number of shopping precincts in the CBD and surrounding suburbs.

Geelong is home to Mitre 10's largest franchisees - Fagg's - operating five stores across the town and employing over 160 people.

The population of Geelong is growing by 2500 people each year, and the City of Greater Geelong had the highest rate of building activity in Victoria outside metropolitan Melbourne.

From 2012 to 2016, the Mayor of Geelong was directly elected by the public to a four-year term.

Geelong and Bellarine are generally more marginal, though lean more towards Labor whereas South Barwon is a marginal seat that tends to lean towards the Liberal Party.

Corio roughly covers the northern half of Geelong and has been a safe Australian Labor Party since the 1970s, but was previously the seat of Richard Casey, a leading conservative Cabinet member in the 1930s and later Governor-General, as well as Hubert Opperman, a former cycling champion and a prominent minister in the 1960s.

Now defunct, Geelong hosted a digital conference Pivot Summit which was headlined by Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak in 2017.

Geelong is home to a number of pubs, nightclubs, and live-music venues.

City's prominent cultural venues are the Geelong Performing Arts Centre, the 1500-seat Costa Hall auditorium and the Geelong Art Gallery.

Local community-led, not for profit Creative Geelong Inc was established in 2015 to support local creatives and highlight the opportunities for creative industries practitioners in the region.

In 2017, Creative Geelong partnered with Deakin University to crowdfund and produce three documentaries about Geelong's transformation from a heavy manufacturing hub to a creative destination.

Geelong is part of the Melbourne television licence area, and receives all of the free-to-air stations from Melbourne, including ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine, Ten, and the community channel C31.

The Geelong region receives cable and satellite television services through operators Foxtel and Neighbourhood Cable.

Arena stadium in North Geelong is the home of the Geelong Supercats basketball team, and was used during the 2006 Commonwealth Games for basketball games.

Western United play a few home games every year in GMHBA stadium, Geelong is included in the marketing for the club in western victoria.

The Geelong Cup was first run in 1872, and is considered one of the most reliable guides to the result of the Melbourne Cup.

Geelong Harness Racing Club conducts regular meetings at its racetrack at Corio, and the Geelong Greyhound Racing Club holds regular meetings.

Geelong has many golf courses, sporting and recreation ovals, and playing fields, as well as facilities for water skiing, rowing, fishing, hiking, and greyhound and harness racing.

Geelong Athletics holds competitions during both the summer and winter, including high-profile events such as Victorian and sometimes national and international track and field meets.

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Geelong is the birthplace of Bev Francis, an IFBB professional Australian female bodybuilder, powerlifter, and national shot put champion.

Geelong is served by a number of public and private schools that cater to local and overseas students.

Geelong is home to the oldest state secondary school in Victoria, Geelong High School, which has been serving the community since 1905, for over 100 years.

Water storage and supply in Geelong is managed by Barwon Water, a Victoria government-owned urban water corporation.

Geelong is supplied with water from three river systems: the Barwon, the East Moorabool, and the West Moorabool Rivers.

Geelong was first supplied with electricity in 1902 when the Geelong power station opened on the corner of Yarra and Brougham Streets.

Geelong was converted to natural gas in 1971, with the Geelong Gas Company being taken over by the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria on 30 June 1971.

Geelong is well-connected by roads to all of south-west Victoria, to Melbourne by a major-arterial the Princes Freeway with three or four lanes in each direction, to Warrnambool by the Princes Highway, the Bellarine Peninsula by the Bellarine Highway, Ballarat by the Midland Highway, and to Hamilton by the Hamilton Highway.

The Lewis Bandt Bridge, named in honour of the Ford Australia engineer who is credited as the inventor of the ute, in Geelong is a feature of the new road.

Geelong is a major hub for rail transport in Victoria, having frequent services to and from Melbourne, and being at the junction of the Port Fairy, Western standard gauge and the Geelong-Ballarat lines.

The Geelong line provides passenger services to Melbourne in the off-peak with trains departing Geelong every 20 minutes on weekdays, with more frequent services at peak times.

Freight trains operate from Melbourne to Geelong serving local industries, as well as to Warrnambool and other western Victorian towns.

Port of Geelong is located on the shores of Corio Bay, and is the sixth-largest seaport in Australia by tonnage.