MELBOURNE, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - It is situated in the State of Victoria, in Australia, and is its capital. The first Mass was celebrated there by the Rev. Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan on 13 May 1839. At that time the city was called Port Philip, and together with its territory it formed part of the ecclesiastical province of Sydney, from which it was detached and erected as a suffragan diocese on 25 June 1847, at the same time as the dioceses of Maitland and Victoria, now Darwin (q.v.). It was elevated to an archdiocese on 31 March 1874; on the same date the dioceses of Ballarat and Sandhurst were detached from its territory, and on 10 May 1887 that of Sale, which are still its suffragans today.
The city of Melbourne is, after Sydney, the most important in Australia. Throughout the archdiocese there are 124 parishes for the care of 306,000 Catholics, of European origin, out of a population of 1,200,000 living on a territory of 16,000 sq km. There are 239 diocesan priests and 230 religious. Of these, 168 are native-born Australians, the others mostly Irish. At the major seminary near Werribee, 134 seminarians are studying. There are two university colleges: Newman College for male students (92 resident, 102 non-resident) and St. Mary’s Hall for female students (36 resident). Of the twelve Catholic periodicals, the principal ones are *The Advocate* and *The Tribune*, both weeklies. There are 71 secondary schools with 13,082 pupils; 163 primary schools, 8 of which include secondary classes, with 33,016 pupils; and 16 kindergartens with 750 children. There are various charitable, social, and Catholic Action institutions. - See pl. XXXVIII.