North Melbourne Melbourne, Victoria
Queensberry Street looking west
Population:	9962 (2006) [1]
Established:	1850s
Postcode:	3051
Area:	2.4 km² (0.9 sq mi)
Property Value:	AUD $615,000 [2]
Location:	2 km (1 mi) from Melbourne
LGA:	City of Melbourne City of Moonee Valley
State District:	Melbourne
Federal Division:	Melbourne
Suburbs around North Melbourne: Flemington Parkville Carlton Kensington North Melbourne Carlton West Melbourne West Melbourne Melbourne

North Melbourne's Town Hall

Arden Street Oval, home to the North Melbourne Football Club

North Melbourne is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Melbourne and Moonee Valley. At the 2006 Census, North Melbourne had a population of 9962.

Bounded by the CityLink freeway to the west, Victoria Street to the south, O'Connell and Peel Street to the east and Flemington Road to the north, North Melbourne is noted for its Victorian architecture, warehouses and factories.

[edit] History

North Melbourne's first institutions were built in the 1840s, beginning with a cattle yard. At this time the suburb was not well defined and included Parkville and Royal Park as part of West Melbourne. In the 1850s a Benevolent Asylum was built between Abbotsford and Curzon Streets, coinciding with the desire to find space to accommodate the growing population from the gold rush. In 1859 the area was named Hotham borough, after the governor of Victoria and by 1861 had a population of over 7000.

Hotham Post Office opened on 20 March 1860 and was renamed North Melbourne in 1887. ^[3]

The suburb was a predominantly working class area with most of the males employed in local industry. In 1869 they decided to form the North Melbourne Football Club that later became a foundation member of the VFA (Australian rules football). On the 26 August 1887 the borough was renamed North Melbourne Town after the completion of the imposing North Melbourne Town Hall and the Metropolitan Meat Market.

During the 1890s tram routes had entered the area as far as Abbotsford Street, walking distance from the Arden Street Oval. In the 1930s many areas of North Melbourne, in particular the laneways, became overcrowded and defined as slums. As such, large government housing development projects were proposed, which were eventually completed in the 1960s.

Since North Melbourne is close to the city (less than 3 kilometres) the suburb slowly became gentrified by a younger demographic during the 1980s. However, it was not until the early 1990s that shopping strips such as Errol Street (where the North Melbourne Town Hall is located) became noticeably upmarket.

While three state schools existed in North Melbourne in 1900, only one, Errol Street Primary School, remains. However, there is still a large Catholic school presence in the area.

The most interesting buildings to visit, apart from the North Melbourne Town Hall and the meat market (now a craft centre), are the Curzon street church, the Howard Street Anglican church, and especially the ornate Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, built in 1963 on the high part of Dryburgh Street.

[edit] Culture

North Melbourne still retains many of its working class culture with nearly half the area of the suburb still taken up by factories. There is a strong migrant mix here too, with low income families arriving from Somalia, Eritrea and Vietnam living in the numerous Housing Commission of Victoria flats.

"Spring Fling" is an annual festival for North and West Melbourne.

The North Melbourne Football Club is still active and plays in the national Australian football competition, the Australian Football League, while the club's football department and training sessions are based at its traditional home ground at Arden Street Oval, it has since moved its administrative facilities and home games to the larger Telstra Dome.

Demographics have changed over recent years. House prices are now 30% above Melbourne's mean, many cafes and boutiques have opened up along the main shopping strip of Errol Street and the Public Record Office building was recently constructed on Shiel Street, replacing an abandoned warehouse.

North Melbourne retains an attraction to new arrivals through its proximity to the city, a location fronting onto the expansive Royal Park and the ubiquity of old Victorian-style terrace houses.

[edit] Transport

Public transport in North Melbourne is comprehensive, with three tram routes:

• Tram route 59 (Airport West): travels along Elizabeth Street and down Flemington Road
• Tram route 57 (West Maribyrnong): travels along Victoria, Errol, Queensberry and Abbotsford Streets, then down Flemington Road
• Tram route 55 (West Coburg): travels down Flemington Road and then into Royal Park at Abbotsford Street, just skimming the boundary of North Melbourne.

Bus route 402 services the suburb.

North Melbourne is serviced by train stations North Melbourne and Flemington Bridge. Despite the station names, the North Melbourne railway station is actually in the adjacent suburb of West Melbourne, while the Flemington Bridge railway station is within the North Melbourne boundaries and is not in Flemington.

Major roads include Flemington Road, Elizabeth Street and Victoria Street.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Localhero: History of North Melbourne

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