page_title: Cycling in Melbourne
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Cycling in Melbourne / History / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Cycling in Melbourne on a Sunday in 1895 . Photo believed to be in the Public Domain
context_page_description: Cycling in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria, Australia, is enhanced by the city's relatively flat topography and generally mild climate. The city has an active cycling culture for commuting, recreation, fitness and sport, and the metropolitan area has an extensive network of off-road bicycle paths, as well as designated bicycle lanes on many streets.
  As in most Western cities, commuter cycling in Melbourne saw a dramatic decline in popularity during the 20th century with the coming of mass car-ownership and the resulting urban sprawl, metropolitan Melbourne being one of the lowest density major cities in the world. In addition to this, the introduction of mandatory helmet legislation in the state of Victoria in the early 1990s, the first such legislation in the developed world, further exacerbated the decline in cycling's popularity.
context_section_description: During the worldwide bike boom of the 1890s, cycling was seen an exciting new option for transport taken up eagerly by many people. The craze for cycling in the 1890s is portrayed in the poem Mulga Bill's Bicycle by Australian poet Banjo Paterson, and many other ballads from the time. For women at the time, cycling provided the opportunity of more freedom and being able to wear less restrictive clothing, or rational dress.
  Cycling clubs and societies were established in the 1880s and 1890s. In 1885, the Victorian Cyclists Union (VCU) was active, and the League of Victorian Wheelmen (LVW) was formed in 1893. Various notables of the era were members, such as University of Melbourne Professor of Engineering William Charles Kernot who was vice-president of the LVW for a time.
  In the 1890s, cycle races like the Austral Wheel Race, and later the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic, were very popular forms of entertainment, drawing crowds of many thousands. The first women's road race in Victoria occurred in Melbourne on Saturday the 16th of May 1896 on a hilly 11-mile (18 km) course through the northern suburbs of Northcote, Heidelberg, Ivanhoe, Alphington and Clifton Hill.
caption: Sunday cyclists in Melbourne in 1895
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