Bill Peach looks at Melbourne, capital of Victoria, and the migrant capital of Australia. Melbourne, and a vast area around it, was purchased from the Doutigalla Tribes in 1835 by John Batman, in a land deal as audacious as Peter Stuyvesant's purchase of Manhattan Island in the USA. Fifty years later, Victoria struck gold, and Melbourne became the thriving capital of a boom colony, attracting an enormous flow of immigrants. The city, home of such native institutions as The Melbourne Cup and Aussie Rules football, has become the most cosmopolitan city in Australia.