Melbourne, Australia
What Melbourne is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 11,655 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.
11,655 businesses on file · 112 trades · 27 sectors · · built from geonet.melbourne on 2026-11-07
EDM, dance music
Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Melbourne → — the free guidebook for this region: why go, what to see, what is open when it rains.
The local economy
What the business base is made of, what it is specialised in against the national pattern, and what that mix implies. This is the part a development office would read first.
Composition, not health. geonet records what trades exist and where; it does not record formation, closure, employment or revenue, so none of those appear here. What makes this economics rather than a directory is the NAICS coding: it lets the local mix be read against the BLS survival curves and against the 323 industry groups this research has screened.
Every industry group on this page links through to its NAICS page, and to the screened market report where this research has one — that is what the trait-to-NAICS coding buys.
What this city is specialised in
Location quotient is this city's share of a trade divided by the same share across 2 AU metro tables. Above 1.25 is the conventional threshold for a local specialisation.
Thin against the national pattern
Common trades that are under-represented here. For someone deciding what to open, this is the more useful half of the table — though a gap can mean unmet demand or a market that does not work here, and this does not tell you which.
The base against the entry screen
Businesses by the entry signal of the industry group they sit in, from the /markets screen. A large "structure decides" share means most local trades are ones where being better than the incumbent does not by itself win. A trade is matched to the screened record at whatever level the research wrote it — the same code, a broader one, or a narrower one. Where a group holds several screened sub-markets the count is shown, because no single one of them speaks for the whole group.
How to read the survival figure
Each sector's five-year establishment survival rate, weighted by how many of this city's businesses sit in that sector. It is a property of the MIX, not of these businesses — it says what survival this composition would imply at US private-sector rates, because no Canadian equivalent series exists.
Weighted over 99.1% of the coded base — public administration carries no curve. Source: Business Employment Dynamics — Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And what it does not measure
A "mixed" trait is one that genuinely spans codes — "computers" covers systems design, repair and supply. The clear share is how much of this reading rests on unambiguous coding. Business density also reflects how completely the directory covers a place, not only how many businesses are in it — so it compares poorly between a city the register knows well and one it does not.
Who lives here, and who the city is for
The census: the only figures on this page that count people rather than businesses, and the three cohort readings they make possible.
No census subdivision is mapped for au-melbourne in local/census-map.json, so this page carries no census figures. The mapping is kept explicit because Canada has several places called London, Toronto and Kelowna, and attaching the wrong one would put another city's demographics on this page.
The communities the register shows
A community appears in the business register before it appears in prose — a national church, a society, a credit union, a newspaper. Those are counted as institutions, and they are what suggests residents. A restaurant serving a cuisine is counted separately as trade, because every city has those and they say nothing about who lives nearby. The ranking is by institutions.
| Community | Institutions | Worship | Trade | Where it shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 7 | 4 | 22 | trade on Little Bourke Street (5) · Russell Street (3)
Victorian Elderly Chinese Adult Day Care Centre · The Tide Chinese Newspaper Pty · 21st Century Chinese Newspaper |
| Greek | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Greek Orthodox Community Of Melbourne and Victoria · Greek Orthodox Community Of Melbourne and Victoria |
| Polish | 2 | — | 2 | institutions on Queen Street (2)
Polish Australian Business Services · Polish Community Council Of Victoria |
| Japanese | 1 | — | 25 | trade on Collins Street (4) · Bourke Street (3) · Clarendon Street (3) · Russell Street (2)
Fuji Japanese Culture Centre |
| Swiss | 1 | 1 | 14 | trade on King Street (2) · Flinders Ln (2) · Street (2)
Swiss Club Of Victoria |
| Italian | 1 | 1 | 10 |
Italian Australia Institute |
| Indigenous | 1 | — | 5 | trade on Bourke Street (2)
Mirimbiak Nations Aboriginal |
| German | 1 | — | 3 |
Australian German Welfare Society |
| Arabic-speaking | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Al Bairak Lebanese Newspaper |
| Jewish | 1 | 1 | 2 |
The Review Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs C |
| Lithuanian | 1 | — | 1 |
Lithuanian Credit Society Ltd TALKA |
| Latvian | 1 | — | — |
Latvian Australian Credit Co Op Society |
| Thai | — | — | 8 | |
| Korean | — | — | 5 | |
| Spanish-speaking | — | — | 5 | trade on Clarendon Street (2)
|
| French | — | — | 5 | trade on Collins Street (2)
|
| Irish | — | — | 4 | |
| Malaysian | — | — | 3 | |
| Scottish | — | — | 3 | trade on William Street (3)
|
| Dutch | — | — | 2 | |
| Islamic | — | — | 2 | trade on Jeffcott Street (2)
|
| Indonesian | — | — | 1 | |
| Portuguese | — | — | 1 | |
| Brazilian | — | — | 1 | |
| Croatian | — | — | 1 | |
| Danish | — | — | 1 | |
| Swedish | — | — | 1 | |
| Austrian | — | — | 1 | |
| Persian | — | — | 1 | |
| Caribbean | — | — | 1 | |
| Welsh | — | — | 1 | |
| Maltese | — | — | 1 |
Where the communities are
Streets, not neighbourhood names. The data knows that Greek institutions sit on one street and Greek restaurants on another; it does not know the word "Greektown", so it does not use it.
Chinese
Polish
Japanese
Swiss
Indigenous
What the city is made of
Every business on file, grouped by the sector it trades in. This is the economic-development view: where the 11,655 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.
| Sector | Businesses | Share | What is in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel | 1,692 | 14.5% | motel (816) · hotel (494) · auction (300) · parking (38) · fruit (22) · diner (12) · travel agent (3) · bnb (3) |
| Business | 1,157 | 9.9% | consulting (494) · accounting (296) · association (176) · government (89) · auction (86) · vending (4) · foundation (3) · bank (3) |
| Retail | 862 | 7.4% | jeweler (271) · antiques (177) · photography (169) · flowers (108) · auction (71) · gifts (22) · toys (17) · department store (9) |
| Entertainment | 790 | 6.8% | games (485) · video producer (210) · dj (61) · music instruments (14) · amusement (8) · museum (5) · bank (2) · vineyard (2) |
| Construction | 616 | 5.3% | insurance (191) · heating and cooling (121) · machinery (64) · excavating (48) · carpet (40) · painting (37) · home builder (33) · roofing (31) |
| Living | 531 | 4.6% | place of worship (193) · cleaning (114) · auction (105) · daycare (43) · furniture (23) · appliances (19) · property (14) · swimming pools (11) |
| Health | 461 | 4% | chiro (229) · cardiologist (78) · optical (49) · home healthcare (38) · pharmacy (35) · garden (20) · medical clinic (9) · fruit (2) |
| Manufacturing | 456 | 3.9% | industrial supplier (363) · salvage (63) · chemical (10) · fabrication (9) · irrigation (4) · pallets (2) · greenhouse (2) · garden (1) |
| Finance | 435 | 3.7% | mortgage (286) · bank (107) · bankruptcy (20) · credit union (17) · insurance (3) · loans (2) |
| Fashion | 409 | 3.5% | clothing (408) · vineyard (1) |
| Education | 368 | 3.2% | library (180) · school (138) · writing (48) · fruit (2) |
| Beauty | 342 | 2.9% | dentist (337) · hair stylist (4) · bank (1) |
| Media | 337 | 2.9% | advertising (286) · signs (38) · vineyard (12) · fruit (1) |
| Sports | 326 | 2.8% | golf course (292) · martial arts (17) · boating marine (9) · golf equipment (7) · bank (1) |
| Safety | 194 | 1.7% | home inspector (189) · auction (3) · insurance (1) · waste management (1) |
| Tech | 108 | 0.9% | computers (82) · telecom (23) · wireless (2) · programmer (1) |
| Agribusiness | 106 | 0.9% | livestock (50) · garden (25) · dairy (16) · fertilizer (7) · landscaping (7) · greenhouse (1) |
| Automotive | 96 | 0.8% | insurance (56) · autos (21) · tires (16) · bank (2) · credit union (1) |
| Food | 87 | 0.7% | fruit (46) · grocer (18) · seafood (13) · baker (5) · ice cream (5) |
| Energy | 80 | 0.7% | natural gas (72) · petroleum (6) · auction (1) · bank (1) |
The franchises already here
Brands from a register of 2,024 franchise systems, matched into this city by name. A high count is a signal in both directions: the territory works, and it may be taken.
28 of these brands are a single common word — Metro, Avenue, Budget — so their counts include businesses that merely share the word. They are marked rather than dropped.
| Brand | Category | Here | Worldwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Eleven | convenience | 26 | 30,000 |
| Holiday Inn | businesshotel | 5 | — |
| St. John | retail | 5 | — |
| Sunglass Hut | retail | 4 | — |
| David Jones | retail | 3 | 37 |
| Best Western | businesshotel | 2 | 4,200 |
| Cash Converters | retail | 2 | 16 |
| Dendy Cinemas | entertainment | 2 | 6 |
| Flight Centre | travel | 2 | 1,500 |
| General Motors | auto | 2 | — |
| Laura Ashley | retail | 2 | — |
| Salvation Army | retail | 2 | — |
| Advantage Rent A Car | car | 1 | — |
| Adventure Travel Company | travel | 1 | 11 |
| Blue Spirit | retail | 1 | 400 |
| Cartridge World | retail | 1 | 1,400 |
| Comfort Inn | familyhotel | 1 | — |
| Hard Rock Cafe | food | 1 | 140 |
| Jani-King | cleaner | 1 | 115 |
| Jenny Craig | fitness | 1 | 640 |
| Nine West | retail | 1 | — |
| Pizza Hut | pizza | 1 | 10,000 |
| Salvatore Ferragamo | retail | 1 | — |
| Target Australia | retail | 1 | 250 |
| Worldwide Express | post | 1 | — |
| Limited name only | retail | 146 | — |
| Esprit name only | retail | 9 | — |
| Michaels name only | retail | 7 | 805 |
| Toyota name only | car | 5 | — |
| Diana name only | supermarket | 3 | 3 |
| Florsheim name only | retail | 3 | — |
| Lexus name only | luxurycar | 3 | — |
| Mitsubishi name only | auto | 3 | — |
| Burton name only | retail | 2 | — |
| Greyhound name only | travel | 2 | — |
| Hallmark name only | greetingcards | 2 | 5,600 |
| Jeep name only | suv | 2 | — |
| Myer name only | retail | 2 | 60 |
| Sofitel name only | luxuryhotel | 2 | — |
| AEON name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Aveda name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Blackwell name only | book | 1 | 6 |
| Burberry name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Europcar name only | car | 1 | 2,825 |
| ExxonMobil name only | — | 1 | 13,000 |
| MANGO name only | retail | 1 | 850 |
| Manor name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Midas name only | auto | 1 | 1,800 |
| Progressive name only | supermarket | 1 | 150 |
| Renaissance name only | upscalehotel | 1 | — |
| Roots name only | retail | 1 | 145 |
| Roxy name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Tiffany name only | retail | 1 | 150 |
Real estate as a local trade
Four unrelated jobs share the name: selling existing homes, owning and letting them, managing them for someone else, and building new ones. For anyone weighing a move or a licence these are the counts — and the ownership question goes to /property, which answers it building by building.
Real estate is a local job market in its own right, and four unrelated trades get the same name. Counts are businesses filed under each trade in the register, which lists a brokerage once however many agents work there — so this measures firms, not licensees.
Owning and letting
5311Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.
Named in the register
- Apartment 590 — 590 Little Bourke Street
Managing for owners
5313Property managers, who run buildings the landlord does not.
Named in the register
- Action Property Maintenance Services — 217 Heath Street
- Ambassador Property Services — 18 Little Curzon Street
- Berkeley Challenge — 350 Queen Street
- Biniris Aust Pty — Level 11, 488 Burke Street
- C M C Business Services — 25 Yarra Street
- Elite Property Care Central — 101 Collins Street
- Enviro Bins Victoria EBV — PO Box 14075
- F M I Pty — 241 Ingles Street
- Frogs On The Run — 259-263 Collins Street
- P and O Berkeley Challenge — 530 Collins Street
- Protection Property Services Pty — 368 King Street
- QuayClean — 101 Collins Street
- Service Alliance Group — 189 Queens Street
- Vertigo Specialist High Access Services — 166 Abbotsford Street
Building new homes
2361Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.
Named in the register
- Able Shutter Service — 222 Latrobe Street
- Crowly Plaster Pty — 567 Spencer Street
- Delta Group — Plummer Street
- Dial Before You Dig — 242 Exhibition Street
- Donald Cant Watts Corke Pty — 126 Wellington Parade
- Integrated Maintenance — 274 Salmon Street
- North Melbourne Glass — 271 Macaulay Road
- Page Kirkland Victoria — Level 3, 316-320 Queen Street
- PFM — 50 Market Street
- Rawlinsons Aust Pty — 616 Street
- Slattery Australia Pty — 313 Latrobe Street
- Trevor Main and Associates Pty — 468 Street
- Trevor Main and Associates Pty — 545 Street
- Urban Spaces Pty — 44 Lothian Street
Financing it
5222Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.
Named in the register
- Challenger Financial Services Group — Level 41, 101 Collins Street
- Challenger Superannuation Services — 101 Collins Street
- Collins Securities — Collins Street
- Como Financial Services — 636 Street
- ELM Financial Services — 535 Bourke Street
- First Permanent Home Loans — 85 Coventry Street
- Godfrey Pembroke Financial Consultants — 31 Queen Street
- ipac — 459 Collins Street
- Mortgage Helpline Pty — 4 Layfield Street
- Perpetual — 360 Collins Street
- PFS Business Development Group Pty — 4 Layfield Street
- Professional Lender Association Network — 488 Burke Street
- Vantage Finance Group — 423 Bourk Street
- WorkForce Financial Services — 2 Lonsdale Street
Who actually owns it
The full property record →From the /property research for this city, which asks a different question: not who trades in property here, but who owns it. An owner is named there only where a document says so. Torrens, 40-yr private concession; owner sold per title, fee page 403; sales = medians.
Homebuilders
- Sumitomo Forestry Australia (Henley, Wisdom, Scott Park Group, Metricon) — 8,038
- ABN Group — 3,764
- NEX Building Group — 3,585
- Parkview Constructions — 2,735
- Hutchies (Hutchinson Builders) — 1,907
- Simonds Homes (Simonds Group Limited) — 1,772 site starts, FY2024 (company report, not HIA)
Commercial landlords
- The GPT Group (ASX: GPT) and GPT Wholesale Office Fund (GWOF) — Melbourne Central 100% (55,700 sqm retail + 65,800 sqm tower); GWOF: 530 Collins St 100% (65,000 sqm), Queen & Collins 100% (33,600 sqm), 2 Southbank Blvd 100% (53,900 sqm), 8 Exhibition St 50% (44,500 sqm)
- Mirvac Group (ASX: MGR) and Mirvac Wholesale Office Fund (MWOF) — MWOF: Collins Place 100% (102,000 sqm), Bourke Place 100% (67,000 sqm), 700 Bourke St 100% (64,000 sqm) — fund total 735,000 sqm, 11 assets; Mirvac balance sheet: Olderfleet 477 Collins ($424m), 90 Collins ($240m), 664 Collins ($101m), 7-23 Spencer ($183m), 699 Bourke ($83m), Riverside Quay ($280m), 380 St Kilda Rd (held for sale)
- Dexus (ASX: DXS) and Dexus Wholesale Property Fund (DWPF) — $20.2b office across the Dexus platform; 80 Collins Street (Dexus 75%, DWPF 25%)
- Cbus Property (wholly owned by Cbus Super) — Portfolio 'exceeds $7.8 billion', plus '$3.4 billion of development work in hand'; 435 Bourke Street ($1.1bn, 48 levels, 62,000 sqm, completion 2026)
- IFM Investors (formerly ISPT, the industry-super property trust) — A$8.4bn office portfolio across Australia, as at 30 June 2026
- Crown Resorts Limited — Crown Melbourne (integrated resort, Southbank), plus Crown Perth and Crown Sydney
11 marquee buildings examined, 9 with an owner established.
On "how many doors"
How many doors a landlord holds is not in any of this. The register files an apartment building under the building, not its owner, and carries no unit count; there is no open dataset of Canadian landlords by portfolio. Where this research has established ownership it is in the Melbourne (City of Melbourne LGA) property record for the city, building by building, which is a different and much slower exercise.
Work on the go, mobile services
The Ultimate 411 half of local: everything where the customer does not have to come to you. Each service opens a page on Ultimate 411 to request a quote or book a time.
A shop needs the customer to walk in. These 320 services do the opposite — the mobile mechanic, the mobile groomer, the bookkeeper, the junk haul — and they are the ones a person can start without a lease. 1 of them already match a trait filed in this city's register.
The 320 Service=1 rows in search.local: work on the go, mobile services, where the provider travels to the customer. "present" counts businesses already filed under that exact trait name; a blank is a coverage gap, not proof of absence, because the two vocabularies were built separately.
home services
construction
services
events
healthcare
pets
beauty
luxury
sporting goods
sports
business
outdoors
spas
travel
Schools and colleges
wander.schools is a post-secondary table — universities and colleges. K-12 public and private schools are not in it, and only 7 of its 1,686 rows carry coordinates, so these are listed and not mapped.
| Institution | Type | Students | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Trobe | University | — | — |
| Melbourne | University | — | — |
| Monash | University | — | — |
| RMIT | University | — | 1887 |
| Swinburne | University | — | 1908 |
In the business register
Where schooling shows up as a business rather than an institution — which is where K-12, tutoring and childcare appear.
Health and care
What a person moving a parent here would ask first. The register files clinics and pharmacies; it has no category for a hospital at all, so hospitals are matched by name and the limit is stated rather than hidden.
Matched on the name "hospital"
- Mercy Hospital For Women — 126 Clarendon Street
- Hospital Telecommunications Pty — 1 Bakery Ln
- Lort Smith Animal Hospital — 24 Villiers Street
- Freemasons Hospital Echo — 166 Clarendon Street
- All Hospital Flowers — 29 Victoria Parade
- Clarendon Community Mental Health Centre — 52 Albert Street
- Freemasons Hospital — 320 Victoria Parade
- Freemasons Hospital Day Procedure Centre — 320 Victoria Parade
- Freemasons Hospital Maternity Unit — 320 Victoria Parade
- Cliveden Hill Private Hospital — 29 Simpson Street
- Advice Line Freemasons Hospital — 166 Clarendon Street
- Freemasons Hospital Emergency Department — 166 Clarendon Street
- Freemasons Hospital PR Office — 166 Clarendon Street
- Clarendon Street Animal Hospital — 220 Clarendon Street
- Society Of Hospital Pharmacists Of Aust The — 33 Raglan Street
- St Vincents and Mercy Private Hospital — 159 Grey Street
geonet carries no 'hospital' trait, so these are matched on the business name. A distance-to-hospital figure needs a source that states hospital locations.
What this record cannot tell you
Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.
- No census figures on this page: this region is not mapped to a census subdivision in local/census-map.json, so the community counts here are business-register institutions, which is a different measurement and cannot substitute for a population.
- wander.schools is now readable, but it holds universities and colleges only and 1,679 of its 1,686 rows have no coordinates. K-12 public and private schools need a separate source — in Ontario the Ministry of Education school finder, in British Columbia the provincial school list. wander.citytowns, hotels and territories remain denied to the ru user.
- No 'hospital' trait exists in geonet; distance to a hospital needs an external source such as StatCan's Open Database of Healthcare Facilities.
- 100.0% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 100%.
Built from
geonet.melbourne— the local business registerwander.regions— city name, population, metrosearch.local— trait vocabulary and the come-to-you servicessearch.cozfranchises— 2,024 franchise brands