General

The Australian city of Melbourne hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2006. Melbourne was the location for the 1956 Olympic Games, and 50 years on hosted a Commonwealth Games.

Melbourne is the capital of the State of Victoria and the second largest city in Australia with a population of nearly 3,500,000 people. The city is a multicultural one, known for its arts, culture, parks and gardens, restaurants and sport. Melbourne describes itself as the "sporting capital of Australia" and hosting the 2006 Commonwealth Games will be a good opportunity to demonstrate this to the rest of the world.

The Melbourne Games had one village which housed both the athletes and team officials, located within three kilometres of the city centre. The majority of the sports venues were located along the Yarra River within the city precinct and were of world class standard. The Opening Ceremony and Athletics competition was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, one of the world's largest and most outstanding outdoor sporting grounds. It seats approximately 100,000 spectators.

Medal Tally

Logo

The M2006 Logo was developed by the Australian company FutureBrand (FHA) which was appointed by the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee in November 2002.

Sport and culture are combined in the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games visual identity. Conveying sport as a performing art, the visual identity captures that moment when achievement is united with excellence.

The colours are celebratory, fresh and youthfully optimistic, they evoke feelings of Australia and the landscape, are contemporary in their hue and will dominate Melbourne in the lead up to the Games in 2006. The visual identity also joins two figures to form a subtle reference to Melbourne.

The Melbourne 2006 visual identity expresses the quality and style of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games and is used to inspire and motivate. It acts as the focal point for a complete image program that will engage with the community, commerce and industry, sponsors, Government, sporting associations, athletes and those involved with the Commonwealth Games in Australia and abroad.

Mascot

The Official Mascot for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games is a handsome Australian native bird with has been named "Karak".

Karak is a south-eastern Australian Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, which as a species are characterised by playful, loud, friendly, cheeky and energetic behaviour.

Karak's scientific name, which is the name for south-eastern Australian Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, is calyptorhynchus banksii graptogyne, and unfortunately, the bird is on the endangered list.

With the moniker "Karak" - after his distinctive birdcall - this native bird was chosen because he embodies the spirit of the Games. He is uniquely Australian and welcoming to all. His gregarious nature and rugged good looks make Karak the perfect Mascot to unite city and bush.

The south-eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoo is threatened with extinction. Fewer than 1,000 remain, living in small pockets of native woodland in Victoria's west between Portland and the Little Desert. Estimates put the number of mating pairs at around 300 and despite extensive rescue efforts, their numbers continue to fall.

The future of this cockatoo depends on trees. He feeds almost entirely on the seeds of Brown Stringybarks and Bulokes. Since settlement, 60% of Stringybarks and 98% of Bulokes have been cleared for agriculture.

The bird will usually only nest in hollowed-out eucalypts. He particularly favours dead River Red Gums in farmed paddocks and these trees usually need to be within 2km of the food source. Dead eucalypts are often cleared for firewood or felled to make way for farm forestry or cropping.

In his role as Official Mascot, Karak is promoting the Games and spreading the word about the importance of preserving old growth trees for nesting and feeding. Through Karak the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee aims to work in conjunction with the Victorian Government and Healesville Sanctuary to raise awareness of the plight of this stunning bird.