Download or read book The Birth of Melbourne written by Tim Fridtjof Flannery and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1835 John Batman sailed up the Yarra and was astonished by the beauty of the land. It was a temperate Kakadu, teeming with wildlife and with soils rich enough to spawn pastoral empires. With the discovery of gold, the city was transformed almost overnight into 'marvellous Melbourne'.