Geelong trip planner

Geelong is a port city located on Corio Bay and the Barwon River, in the state of Victoria, Australia, 75km south-west of the state capital, Melbourne. It is the second largest Victorian city, with over 225,000 people living in the wider metropolitan area.Geelong runs from the plains of Lara in the north to the rolling hills of Waurn Ponds to the south, with Corio Bay to the east and hills to the west. It is the administrative centre for the City of Greater Geelong municipality which covers the urban and surrounding area.Geelong was named in 1827, with the name derived from the local Wathaurong Aboriginal name for the region, Jillong, thought to mean "land" or "cliffs". The area was first surveyed in 1838, three weeks after Melbourne. The post office was open by June 1840 (the second to open in the Port Phillip District). The first woolstore was erected in this period and it became the port for the wool industry of the Western District. During the gold rush, Geelong experienced a brief boom as the main port to the rich goldfields of the Ballarat district. The city then diversified into manufacturing, and during the 1860s, it became one of the largest manufacturing centres in Australia with its wool mills, ropeworks, and paper mills.