Distance from Cape Town to Melbourne
The great-circle distance between Cape Town, South Africa and Melbourne, Australia is 10,314 km (6,409 mi · 5,569 nmi) — the shortest possible route over the Earth's surface, the path aircraft approximately follow.
The numbers
- Great-circle distance
- 10,314 km · 6,409 mi · 5,569 nmi
- Initial bearing Cape Town → Melbourne
- 141° (SE)
- Initial bearing Melbourne → Cape Town
- 222° (SW)
- Nonstop flight (rough estimate)
- ≈ 12 h 48 min
- Time zones
- Cape Town UTC+02:00 · Melbourne UTC+10:00 (+8 h)
- Sunrise gap today
- 499 min — the sun rises later in Cape Town
Flight time is a cruise-speed approximation (no routing/wind); driving distance depends on roads and is typically 20–40% longer than great-circle.
The two cities
- Cape Town
- -33.9258, 18.4232
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 05:34 UTC / 16:12 UTC
- Melbourne
- -37.8140, 144.9633
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 21:15 UTC / 07:39 UTC
Open in the distance calculator Find the halfway point
Distances here are straight-line (great-circle). Road routes typically run 1.2–1.4× longer — here's why, with the visual.