A magnificent curling conversion from Christian Lealiifano gave Australia a 16-15 win to level the Lions Test series at 1-1.
It means that the Test series will go down to the wire in Sydney next weekend — the final chapter in an enthralling, brutal tour that has left the nerves of both sets of supporters in shreds.
An opening half dominated by the scrum and interpretation of referee Craig Joubert was at the core of an excruciatingly tense first half — Halfpenny and Leali'ifano finding themselves in a shootout.
The suffocating tension under the Etihad Stadium roof saw both sides make plenty of mistakes in the opening quarter.
There were however obvious strengths early on — the Lions rolling maul for one, and the Australian scrum as Will Genia gradually began to control the tempo of the match.
Halfpenny fell short with his first penalty attempt, hitting the crossbar after good work from Warburton at the breakdown with the Lions free of the constraints placed upon the ruck area under Chris Pollock's officiating in Brisbane.
Bold leadership from Warburton saw the Lions unleash two successive lineout drives on the Wallaby line, a 12-man maul on the second drive bringing a penalty advantage. Halfpenny this time made no mistake.
Early struggles for Mako Vunipola at the scrum handed the Wallabies their first points, Ben Alexander winning the opening exchange for Leali'ifano to score his first points in an Australian jersey.
Another scrum penalty, again against Vunipola, turned a Lions problem into a calamity as the loosehead's struggles continued but Australia were not beyond conceding a penalty at the scrum themselves — Adam Jones splintering the front row to result in Halfpenny's second penalty and a tied scoreboard at 6-6 after 27 minutes.
Pressure does funny things even to experienced Test players, as the Lions lineout wobbled and James O'Connor dropped a simple pass. Scrums though persisted to dictate the match — Halfpenny's third penalty coming as the Wallaby pack creaked and turned.
A lazy offside penalty against Dan Lydiate saw Leali'ifano level things up a 9-9 but the Lions had the final say of the half. North had been subdued throughout the opening 40 but a burst created the penalty chance for Halfpenny to put the Lions ahead again — 12-9 at half-time.
A golden wall repelled the Lions in the opening minutes of the second half held firm but the action was breathless — neither side adding points as Warburton grew into the role of a winning Lions captain.
Utterly draining and breathless stuff from both sides as the game opened up gradually turned the Etihad into a cauldron of screams.
Warburton was enormous, writing his way into Lions folklore as poor execution from both sides hindered the attacks of both sides and saw the total number of scrums rise into double figures.
Australia threw everything at the tourists, enjoying more possession and working the short side, but it came at a price. North produced an act of incredible physicality to carry Folau on his back, but landed on his head as a result to the concern of every fan in a red shirt.
The introduction of Dan Cole and Richard Hibbard gave the Lions impetus in the battle upfront, leading Halfpenny to slot his most remarkable kick of all from 48 metres out.
Making half the number of tackles as the visitors, the Wallabies continued to stutter — Beale this time the culprit with numbers on his outside as they chased the game.
They nearly came so close. Folau's step undid the Lions in Brisbane and it nearly bamboozled them again, instead resulting in a five-metre Wallaby scrum under the Lions posts, from which Folau was unable to gather O'Connor's clever inside pass.
Australia's persistence though was undeniable. With the space on the outside to left, O'Connor sucked in the drift and unleashed Ashley-Cooper through the gap for the try. It was a hammerblow.
Nor was the drama over. A loose kick from O'Connor after Genia's pass came back into the 22 handed Hibbard and the Lions a chance to set up the platform for the win. His accuracy, as so often on this tour, was sorely absent.
It summed up the Lions lack of control, in a second-half were the Wallabies retained 68% possession.
There was one last chance for Halfpenny, a long-range attempt from just on the wrong side of half way. But as with Beale in Brisbane, it was not to be Halfpenny's night in Melbourne. The Wallabies have gloriously stayed alive. All eyes on Sydney.
Man of the match: Hard to look past the Lions captain. Sam Warburton was initially a doubt to start in the Test series, let alone lead the Lions, but his performance in Melbourne regardless of how the result turned out was always going to go down in history. His loss to injury in the 67th minute was a cruel blow.
Moment of the match: The composure of Christian Leali'ifano to curl in that conversion spoke volumes of the young man. An incredibly assured performance.
Villain of the match: Nothing nasty to report.
The scorers:
For Australia:
Try: Ashley-Cooper
Con: Leali'ifano
Pens: Leali'ifano 3
For British and Irish Lions:
Pens: Halfpenny 5
Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 Israel Folau, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Christian Leali'ifano, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 James O'Connor, 9 Will Genia, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Ben Mowen, 5 James Horwill (c), 4 Kane Douglas, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Saia Fainga'a, 17 James Slipper, 18 Sekope Kepu, 19 Rob Simmons, 20 Liam Gill, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Rob Horne, 23 Jesse Mogg.
British and Irish Lions: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 George North, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Alun Wyn Jones, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Makovina Vunipola.
Replacements: 16 Richard Hibbard, 17 Ryan Grant, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Tom Croft, 20 Sean O'Brien, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Alex Cuthbert.
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Chris Pollock (New Zealand), Romain Poite (France)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
The result means Heyneke Meyer's team claim the silverware at the end of the four-nation quadrangular series involving Italy and Scotland, but more importantly, they bounced back from an under-whelming display in Nelspruit a week ago.
The result leaves Italy win-less on their three-game tour of South Africa having already lost to Samoa and the Springboks.
The replacement was unsuccessful off the tee as an Australian outfit decimated by injuries almost pulled off a famous victory against the tourists.
The result is New Zealand's seventh consecutive win over the French, who were once again held try-less, but the result hung in the balance right up to the dying minutes.
The Pacific islanders scored four tries against the Americans' one during the game in Nagoya, central Japan.
The loss is Canada's first in the 2013 competition and means that either Fiji or Tonga, who face each other on Sunday, June 23, can win the title.
Tonga, who fell 36-27 in Ontario last Saturday to unbeaten Canada, were without three players suspended by the IRB as a result of last week's match — full-back David Halaifonua, prop Eddie 'Aholelei and centre Siale Piutau.
Canada came into the contest riding high, after victories over Tonga, Fiji, the United States and Russia.
It was a success built on the solid foundations of a dominant scrum that created fourteen points through two penalty tries during the first-half.
Scotland have never won on South African soil and with an under-strength side, few expected the tourists to trouble the Boks on their first visit to Mbombela Stadium. But it turned out to be a tightly-contested affair and the hosts looked in trouble when they trailed by 11 points early in the second half and only led by three with six minutes left to play.
The Italian scrum was their only source of a joy in a dire performance, with Samoa holding firm in defence and also excelling in open play by racking up several long-range tries.
The two sides will meet again next weekend in New Plymouth with France unable to overtake New Zealand's unassailable 2-0 lead, which came after a comfortable victory over their fellow 2011 Rugby World Cup finalists.
The hosts' win — their first ever triumph over Wales — is sweet revenge after they suffered a narrow 22-18 loss to their opponents in Osaka last Saturday and secures them a 1-1 draw in the series.
Stuart Lancaster's side stormed out of the blocks in the opening 40 minutes to rack up tries through David Strettle, Billy Twelvetress and Ben Morgan — the latter pair particularly impressive throughout on their return to Test rugby.
The USA proved to be stubborn opposition in Houston as they kept the scoreline close throughout.
A clinical South Africa got their 2013 international season up and running with a five-try 44-10 victory over Italy at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday.
The visitors were oustcored two tries to one but a big second half saw them come from behind to snatch victory in the last quarter.
The win was an historic one for Samoa as it is the first time that they have beaten Scotland at Test level.
In the first game between these sides since the 2011 Rugby World Cup Final at the same venue, the All Blacks outscored their visitors two tries to one but were pushed all the way by a French side showing a marked improvement on their woeful Six Nations campaign.
The Sudamerica XV - representing the CONSUR nations - scored three tries of their own as England blew hot and cold.
Eight tries from the Lions including doubles from Mike Phillips and Alex Cuthbert set them on the road to success as encouraging moments were mixed with multiple handling errors — the Lions coming into their own to produce an excellent second half.