Geelong, << jee LAWNG >> (pop. 180,239) is a city and port in Victoria, Australia. It is 45 miles (72 kilometers) southwest of Melbourne. It is the second largest city in Victoria, after Melbourne. Geelong stands on the shores of Corio Bay. It is linked by road to Melbourne and Adelaide and by rail to Melbourne and Warrnambool.
Geelong is the home of Victoria’s oldest morning newspaper, the Geelong Advertiser, established in 1840. Deakin University has a campus in Geelong. The city has many fine parks, including the Botanical Gardens and Kardinia Park, which is home for the Geelong Cats in the Victorian Football League competition. Eastern Beach has a shark-proof swimming enclosure.
Major industries include car manufacturing, oil refining, aluminum smelting, and the production of batteries, carpets, cement, clothing, footwear, fertilizers, glass, home appliances, rope, salt, wine, and wire. The port of Geelong is Victoria’s second largest port.
In 1824, the Australian explorers Hamilton Hume and William Hovell traveled overland along the western shore of Corio Bay. They heard Aboriginal people call the bay Jillong, and the land Corayo. One of the first British colonial settlers, Alexander Thomson, established a property called Kardinia south of the present city in 1837. Sir Richard Bourke, the governor of new South Wales, visited the area in 1837, escorted by Thomson. In 1838, Bourke declared it a town. It became a city in 1910.
