The Hoddle Grid is the contemporary name given to the approximately 1-by-0.5-mile grid of streets that form the Melbourne central business district, Australia. Bounded by Flinders Street, Spring Street, La Trobe Street, and Spencer Street, it lies at an angle to the rest of the Melbourne suburban grid, and so is easily recognisable. It is named after the surveyor Robert Hoddle, who marked it out in 1837, establishing the first formal town plan. This grid of streets, laid out when there were only a few hundred settlers, became the nucleus for what is now Melbourne, a city of over five million people.
Aerial view of the city centre looking east. The Yarra River is on the right and the Melbourne Cricket Ground is in the background.
Satellite image of Melbourne at night, showing the grid plan of its major roads and streets.
Melbourne 1880, Samuel Calvert
Trees surrounded by buildings, King Street
Melbourne central business district
The Melbourne central business district is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city laid out in 1837, and includes its fringes. The Melbourne CBD is located mostly in the local government area of the City of Melbourne, which also includes some of inner suburbs adjoining the CBD, while a small section extends into the City of Port Phillip.
CBD of Melbourne as viewed from Eureka Tower, June 2012
Artist's impression of the signing of Batman's Treaty
John Pascoe Fawkner
Aerial view of the western end of the CBD. The far right of the image is Flinders Street station and the Yarra River.