Much of what is now Victoria was included in 1836 in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. The first European settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay. In 1770 James Cook claimed the east coast of the Australian continent for the Kingdom of Great Britain, and from 1788 the area that is now Victoria was a part of the colony of New South Wales. There were more than 30 Aboriginal languages spoken in the area prior to European colonisation. Victoria is home to numerous Aboriginal groups, including the Boonwurrung, the Bratauolung, the Djadjawurrung, the Gunai, the Gunditjmara, the Taungurong, the Wathaurong, the Wurundjeri, and the Yorta Yorta. The population is culturally diverse, with 35.1% of inhabitants being immigrants. The state is home to four of Australia's 20 largest cities: Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. Victoria has a population of over 6.6 million, the majority of which is concentrated in the central south area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, and in particular in the metropolitan area of Greater Melbourne, Victoria's state capital and largest city and also Australia's second-largest city, where over three quarters of the Victorian population live. The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the north-east and the semi-arid north-west.
Victoria is bordered with New South Wales to the north and South Australia to the west, and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south (with the exception of a small land border with Tasmania located along Boundary Islet), the Great Australian Bight portion of the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea (a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean) to the southeast. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of 227,444 km 2 (87,817 sq mi) and the most densely populated state in Australia (28 per km 2).
Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia.