MELBOURNE has added 666,000 new residents - equivalent to a third of a Brisbane - in a decade of growth that has outpaced anything any Australian city has seen before.

The Bureau of Statistics estimates that the city added 67,000 people in the year to June 30, 2011, almost 1300 a week, as new suburbs emerged, expanded and filled up, mostly to the north and west.

Pushing the city's limits: kangaroos graze at Attwood in Melbournes northern suburbs.

By mid-2011, the bureau estimates that Melbourne had 4,137,432 residents, and had grown by almost 20 per cent in 10 years. Most had set up home on the city's fringes, as home buyers moved out in search of affordable housing.

For the second year in a row, Wyndham (Werribee) was Australia's fastest-growing municipality, adding 12,230 people, more than Adelaide or the Gold Coast - and almost 10 times as many as the Pilbara.