Your Year 3 child is learning how Melbourne grew, and you want to tell the story well. It starts long before the first houses, and parts of it are hard. Here’s the history of Melbourne for kids in plain words: Kulin Country, what happened in 1835, the gold rush, people from many lands, what children learn at school, and ways to explore your own suburb’s story. Living elsewhere? The same questions work for any Australian town.
Whose Country is Melbourne on?
Melbourne is on Kulin Country. The City of Melbourne acknowledges “the Traditional Owners of the land we govern, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin”, and their connection to this place “for more than 2000 generations.”
The Kulin Nation is made up of several peoples. The City of Melbourne lists “the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Taungurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Wathaurung” (spellings vary), and says that for them, “Melbourne has always been an important meeting place”.
The river through the city is the Birrarung, the Yarra River. In a City of Melbourne film, Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Dave Wandin says, “We know this place is Naarm.” Our post on caring for Country explains what Country means.
What happened in 1835?
In June 1835, John Batman, a pastoralist from Tasmania, met Wurundjeri leaders and claimed he had bought a huge area of their land in exchange for goods. State Library Victoria calls it “the first known claim to ‘treaty’ in Australia”.
Deadly Story, a cultural site made with Victorian Aboriginal organisations, says the “treaty” was “not valid under European law or Kulin lore”, and that many in the Victorian Aboriginal community see it as an attempt to disadvantage the Kulin. For the Kulin, land was not something to buy or sell but “something they belonged to”, and the Wurundjeri leaders probably thought Batman was offering gifts in exchange for safe passage. The colonial government declared it invalid almost straight away, in August 1835, because it said the land belonged to the Crown. The Wurundjeri Corporation describes it as infamous.
Settlers came anyway. Batman wrote that the river was “all good water and very deep. This will be the place for a village”, and in August 1835 John Pascoe Fawkner’s party built the settlement’s first home beside it. In 1837, Governor Bourke had Robert Hoddle lay out the town and named it Melbourne, after the British Prime Minister.
For Kulin families, the consequences were huge: they lost much of their Country. In 1863, Wurundjeri leaders Simon Wonga and William Barak led their remaining people to the Upper Yarra and set up Coranderrk, for Kulin people who had been “forcefully displaced from their traditional lands some 30 years previously”.
How did the gold rush change Melbourne?
1851 changed everything. Victoria became a separate colony from New South Wales, with Melbourne as its capital, and gold was found. Heritage Victoria says that in August 1851 “miners found gold at Warrandyte, Clunes and Buninyong”, by October “7000 people were digging for gold at Golden Point near Ballarat”, and in December miners struck gold at Bendigo. “Melbourne lost most of its male population to the goldfields”, at first.
Then people poured in from all over the world. By 1854 Melbourne had nearly 80,000 people, and by 1861 it had 140,000. Museums Victoria says “Chinese settlers first rushed to Victoria in large numbers hoping to strike gold”, and by 1861 the Chinese community made up nearly 7% of Victoria’s population, with Little Bourke Street a busy centre. Hundreds of Italians came, and Greeks began building new lives here too. Heritage Victoria adds that newcomers “often faced discrimination and violence”, and that Victoria’s Traditional Owners were pushed further aside by the huge numbers of gold seekers.
Who came to Melbourne after the Second World War?
Another big wave of families arrived. According to Museums Victoria:
- Italy: “After World War II Italian immigration increased dramatically”, including many farm workers from Sicily and Calabria.
- Greece: over 160,000 Greeks came to Australia, mostly to Victoria, and Melbourne became “one of the largest Greek settlements in the world outside of Greece.”
- Vietnam: most Vietnamese families came after the end of the Vietnam War, and their businesses changed streets in suburbs like Richmond and Springvale.
- India: the India-born community grew strongly after the end of the White Australia Policy in 1973.
Today the City of Melbourne calls it “one of the great multicultural cities of the world”. Our post on Harmony Week has gentle ways to talk with children about belonging.
Is Melbourne still Kulin Country?
Yes. Wurundjeri and Bunurong people still live here and care for Country, through organisations such as the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation and the Bunurong Land Council. A 2017 bill to protect the Yarra River, Wilip-gin Birrarung murron, was “the first legislation ever to go before the Victorian parliament with a dual Aboriginal language title”. And Victoria’s Statewide Treaty, State Library Victoria notes, “became law on 13 November 2025”, the first of its kind in Australia.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| More than 2000 generations | Kulin peoples care for this Country and the Birrarung |
| 1835 | Batman’s “treaty”, soon declared invalid; settlers build by the river |
| 1837 | The town is laid out and named Melbourne |
| 1851 | Victoria separates from New South Wales; the gold rush begins |
| 1863 | Wonga and Barak set up Coranderrk |
| After the Second World War | Many families arrive from Italy and Greece, and later from Vietnam, India and more |
| 2025 | Victoria’s Statewide Treaty becomes law |
What Year 3 children learn about their local community
- In Victoria, History for Levels 3 and 4 covers “causes and consequences of changes in a local community and the contributions and experiences of people from diverse backgrounds to a local community” (VC2HH4K02). Children learn to “describe the causes and consequences of change” (VC2HH4S07), for example “describing the significance of migration as a cause of change in a local community”, and to put events in order on a timeline (VC2HH4S02).
- In the Australian Curriculum (AC9), it’s Year 3 HASS: “causes and effects of changes to the local community, and how people who may be from diverse backgrounds have contributed to these changes” (AC9HS3K01).
KidStudy’s Year 3 History lesson How Melbourne Grew covers Kulin Country, the first town, the gold rush and people from many lands. Children sort life by the Birrarung into long ago and now, answer cause-and-consequence questions, and build a timeline from Kulin Country to a big, busy city. Its 10-minute home activity, Our suburb’s story, sends your family on a walk to look for foods, shops, festivals and words from other places.
How to explore your own suburb’s story
- Tell your family’s story. Where did your family come from, and when?
- Walk your street. Look for foods, shops, festivals and words from other places, and talk about who brought them.
- Find out whose Country you’re on. Your council or school can tell you the Traditional Owners’ name. Practise saying it together.
- Make a timeline. Draw Kulin Country, the town by the river, the gold rush and the city today, then add your family’s arrival.
- Visit. State Library Victoria’s free Treaty exhibition, with the original 1835 documents, runs until 31 January 2027. Melbourne’s trams have a story too: see transport then and now.
Questions parents ask
Who were the first people in Melbourne?
The Kulin peoples. The City of Melbourne names the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners, connected to this place for more than 2000 generations. They still live here and care for Country.
When was Melbourne founded?
British settlers arrived in 1835 and built by the Yarra River, the Birrarung. The town was laid out and named Melbourne in 1837. But the Kulin Nation had lived here for thousands of years before that.
What was Batman’s treaty?
In 1835, John Batman claimed he had bought Kulin land from Wurundjeri leaders in exchange for goods. It was not valid under European law or Kulin lore, the Wurundjeri leaders probably understood it as gifts for safe passage, and the government declared it invalid almost straight away.
Why did Melbourne grow so fast?
Gold. After gold was found in Victoria in 1851, people came from all over the world, and Melbourne grew from nearly 80,000 people in 1854 to 140,000 in 1861.
What does Birrarung mean?
Birrarung is a Woi-wurrung name for the Yarra River. In a City of Melbourne film, Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Dave Wandin says “Birrarung” means the river of mists.
Sources
- Aboriginal Melbourne, City of Melbourne
- Melbourne’s history and heritage, and The history of the City of Melbourne (booklet), City of Melbourne
- Ancestors and past, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation
- Recent history and present, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation
- Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation
- Treaty (exhibition), State Library Victoria
- The Batman ‘treaty’ is signed, Deadly Story
- Batman’s treaty, State Library Victoria (Ergo)
- Victoria’s golden histories, Heritage Victoria
- Key milestones in Victorian public education, Victorian Government
- Origins: China, Italy, Greece, Vietnam and India, Museums Victoria
- Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0: History, VCAA
- Australian Curriculum v9.0: HASS, Year 3, ACARA
