Current Time in Geelong, Australia

Geelong stands on the shores of Corio Bay at the western edge of Port Phillip, about seventy-five kilometres south-west of Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria. The city spreads from a compact waterfront centre along the Barwon River towards the rolling farmland of the Bellarine Peninsula, and it marks the point where travellers turn south for the surf beaches of Torquay and the start of the Great Ocean Road. The climate is temperate, with warm dry summers and cool green winters cooled by sea breezes.

With around three hundred thousand residents in its greater urban area, Geelong is the second largest city in Victoria and one of the fastest growing regional centres in Australia. For much of its history it was known as the wool capital of the world, and it later became a manufacturing town built on car assembly, aluminium and textiles. The closing of those plants pushed the local economy towards health care, education, insurance and design, and Geelong was named a UNESCO City of Design in recognition of that reinvention.

The land around the bay is the traditional country of the Wadawurrung people, who have lived here for many thousands of years. European settlement began in the 1830s, when graziers drove sheep across the Western District and shipped their wool through the new port. The gold rushes of the 1850s brought sudden wealth and a wave of migrants, leaving behind the bluestone warehouses, wide streets and ornate public buildings that still give the centre its character.

The waterfront is the city's showpiece. A promenade runs past Cunningham Pier and the Art Deco Eastern Beach bathing complex, with its sea baths and diving platform, while more than a hundred carved and painted bollards by the artist Jan Mitchell line the walk, depicting fishermen, bathers, footballers and sea captains from the city's past. A restored carousel from the 1890s turns inside a glass pavilion nearby. The National Wool Museum, housed in a former bluestone wool store, tells the story of the industry that built the town, and the Geelong Botanic Gardens in Eastern Park are among the oldest in the country.

Cultural life centres on the Geelong Gallery, known for its collection of Australian painting, and the Geelong Arts Centre. Each year Pako Festa fills Pakington Street with music, food and dance from the many communities that have settled here. Sporting passion belongs to the Geelong Cats, whose home ground at Kardinia Park draws crowds from across the region.

Frequent trains reach Melbourne in about an hour, the Princes Freeway carries road traffic, and nearby Avalon Airport handles domestic flights, while the deep-water port still ships grain, wool and fuel. Deakin University, with campuses at the waterfront and Waurn Ponds, and the long-established Gordon technical institute give the city a substantial student population.

Geelong appeals to visitors as a relaxed bayside city with maritime charm, strong local culture and easy access to some of Australia's most famous coastline.