Founded by free-settlers in 1835, 47 years after the first European settlement of Australia, Melbourne was transformed from a small pastoral settlement situated around the Yarra River into a growing metropolis by the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s. By 1865, "Marvelous Melbourne" was Australia's most populous and important city. It served as the temporary national capital from the Federation of Australia until the construction of Canberra in 1927.
The area was already inhabited by the indigenous Kulin people
