Above: The State Lawn Bowls Centre will be located in the suburb of Thornbury, approx 10km from the CBD. Lawn Bowls is a very popular participation sport in Australia.

Melbourne projects itself as an international city through hosting major sports and cultural events. Melbourne is extremely well facilitated to host many major events. Although, Melbourne also has many other strings to its bow. It is headquarters for manufacturing and assembly of all Australian Ford and Toyota cars. Melbourne manufactures four and six cylinder engines for export for GM cars in Korea, the USA and Europe as well as major aircraft components for Airbus and Boeing. Melbourne is home to Australia's largest bank and 'BHP Biliton' one of the world's largest mining companies. Melbourne is home to the world famous 'Fosters' brewing company.

Melburnians love to do things in style and regularly turn out in mass to celebrate major events in the city. Visitors are often surprised by the scale and quality of the city's sporting facilites and how they are so well positioned around the city. There will be an unprecedented 2.5 million tickets available for these Commonwealth Games (there were 1.2 million tickets for Manchester in 2002 and 3 million available for the Sydney 2000 Olympics) so you're guaranteed a seat.