Some Important facts for anyone visiting Melbourne
Melbourne is a cosmopolitan city of some 3.5 million people situated
near the south eastern corner of the Australian mainland.
While the people of Melbourne come from many diverse cultural
and ethnic backgrounds, English is by far the predominant language spoken.
Melburnians are quite used to having many visitors from non-English speaking
backgrounds visiting every year so just a few phrases out of any tourist guidebook
will be enough to make your stay enjoyable.
Melbourne is proud of its record as a diverse multicultural
and tolerant city, and of its fine food, wines and restaurants. Indeed, in 2003,
Melbourne was recognised internationally as the "World's Most Liveable
City".
Melbourne is as far south of the equator as Athens is north. Hence
Melbourne has a warm "Mediterranean" climate.  In
summer, the prevailing winds blow from the dry north west interior of the
continent and hence Melbourne generally has low humidity. Since it is located
close to the cold southern ocean, cold fronts intermittently cross the state,
sometimes bringing a short interlude of rain. However, Melbourne is generally both
hot and dry in summer.
The local currency is the Australian Dollar. Most things can
be purchased on any internationally recognised credit card but it is advisable
to have some local currency for smaller purchases. Currency exchanges can be
found in the airport and city area and some banks, usually in the city area, can
also oblige.
See the Symposium links page for sites with additional
information.
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