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History
Melbourne, in South Brevard County, originally was a training area for Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. Some soldiers, who were attracted to the river and the ocean, returned and bought land at 5 cents per acre. After the Civil War, pioneer families arrived and Melbourne was founded in the late 1860s by former slaves. The city was named Melbourne in honor of its first postmaster, Cornthwaite John Hector, an Englishman who had spent much of his life in Melbourne, Australia.
The first school in Melbourne was built in 1883 and is now part of the Florida Tech campus. In late 1942 the Naval Air Station Melbourne was established as a site to train newly commissioned Navy and Marine pilots for WWII. The program ran until 1946, and the land that was used for that program makes up most of what is currently the Melbourne International Airport.
[The History of Melbourne Florida] In 1969, the cities of Eau Gallie and Melbourne voted to merge, forming modern day Melbourne.
Geography
Melbourne is located approximately southeast of Orlando on the Space Coast along Interstate 95. It is approximately midway between Jacksonville and Miami. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . of it is land and of it is water.
Climate
== Demographics ==
As of the census of 2000, there were 71,382 people, 30,788 households, and 18,257 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,363.9/mi² . There were 33,6
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