Victoria

Victoria is a state in the south-east of Australia. Victoria is Australia's most densely populated state and its second-most populous state overall. Most of its population is concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its capital and largest city, Melbourne, which is Australia's second-largest city. Geographically the smallest state on the Australian mainland, Victoria is bordered by Bass Strait and Tasmania to the south, New South Wales to the north, the Tasman Sea to the east, and South Australia to the west.


HISTORY
The state of Victoria was originally home to many indigenous nations that had occupied the land for tens of thousands of years. According to Gary Presland Aborigines have lived in Victoria for about 40,000 years, living a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farming eels.

At the Keilor Archaeological Site a human hearth excavated in 1971 was radiocarbon-dated to about 31,000 years BP, making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia. A cranium found at the site has been dated at between 12,000 and 14,700 years BP.

Archaeological sites in Tasmania and on the Bass Strait Islands have been dated to between 20,000 – 35,000 years ago, when sea levels were 130 metres below present level allowing Aboriginal people to move across the region of southern Victoria and on to the land bridge of the Bassian plain to Tasmania by at least 35,000 years ago.

During the Ice Age about 20,000 years BP, the area now the bay of Port Phillip would have been dry land, and the Yarra and Werribee river would have joined to flow through the heads then south and south west through the Bassian plain before meeting the ocean to the west. Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands became separated from mainland Australia around 12,000 BP, when the sea level was approximately 50m below present levels. Port Phillip was flooded by post-glacial rising sea levels between 8000 and 6000 years ago.

CLIMATE
Victoria’s climate is generally favourable to plant growth, providing a combination of adequate rainfall and warmth, in most parts of the State. In winter, growth may be restricted by lower temperatures, whilst in summer, rainfall may be insufficient to meet plants’ demands for water. If irrigation water is available in summer then the productivity of pastures, crops, orchards and vineyards can be high as plants grow vigorously through long days of sunshine and warm temperatures. The climate of Victoria is influenced by seasonal weather patterns as well as topographic features.

Victoria differs from other mainland Australian States in that it lies furthest South and has its major mountain ranges running east-west rather than north-south. Its southerly position and maritime influence have a moderating effect on climate, which is particularly evident in winter. Snow rarely falls at altitudes below 600 metres. To the west and north of the Great Divide the land flattens out to the dry inland plains. It is in the Mallee where the highest temperatures in the state most commonly occur during summer, and where the annual median rainfall drops below 300 mm.

The coastal strip, south of the ranges, is generally wetter except for areas around central Gippsland and to the west of Melbourne, where hilly terrain upwind reduces the effectiveness of rain-producing systems. Rainfall here drops below 600 mm.

SEASONAL VARIATIONS
The weather of Victoria is primarily influenced by weather patterns originating in the Southern Ocean. There is a general west to east movement of high pressure systems across or north of Victoria throughout the winter months from April to November. These high pressure systems are interspersed with low pressure systems or cold fronts which bring moist airstreams and showers or rain to many parts of Victoria. When these systems link with tropical moisture from the north, rainfall can be significant, even over the dry northern plains.

In Spring, weather systems are more mobile and the location and extent of anticyclonic cells is more variable. This results in Victoria’s weather being more variable from September to November, compared to the winter months.

During the summer months from December through March, high pressure systems from the Southern Ocean move further south. Warmer conditions are moderated by the passage of cold fronts which are associated with cooler southwesterly changes and isolated showers in the southern half of Victoria. Thunderstorms or the influence of tropical systems to the north can provide significant rainfall in certain circumstances.