North Melbourne, Victoria

North Melbourne is a large inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. It is bounded by the CityLink freeway to the west, Victoria Street to the south, O'Connell and Peel Streets to the east and Flemington Road to the north. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Melbourne and Moonee Valley. At the 2006 Census, North Melbourne had a population of 9,962.

Formerly known as Hotham, it was a working class area and was one of the first towns in Victoria to be granted municipal status.

Today it continues to undergo gentrification, noted for its Victorian architecture, cosmopolitan demographic, commercial and older industrial areas.

History
North Melbourne's first institutions were built in the 1840s, beginning with a cattle yard. At this time the area 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 Charles Hotham. Hotham Post Office opened on 20 March 1860.

By 1861, Hotham had a population of over 7,000.

In 1869 some of these decided to form the Hotham Football Club that later became a foundation member of the VFA (Australian rules football) today known as the North Melbourne Kangaroos.

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 1880s it had become a predominantly working class area with most of the male population employed in local industry.

In 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.

Commercial Centre
The main shopping strip of Errol Street situated around the old North Melbourne Town Hall.

Since the 1990s it has become something of an upmarket strip, home to a number of popular cafes and boutiques.

Demographics
It has a strong migrant mix, being a popular destination for low income families for decades. More recent arrivals are refugees from countries such as Somalia and Eritrea.

Religion
Curzon Street Church (now known as St Mark the Evangelist), St Mary's Anglican Church, and the ornate Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, built in 1963 on the high section of Dryburgh Street.

Housing
The predominant housing types are old Victorian-style terrace houses and Housing Commission of Victoria flats, some hi-rise.

North Melbourne has been slower to gentrify than other inner suburbs, due to established families resisting the sale of their homes for decades. A younger generation finally began to move in in the 1980s, capitalising on the proximity to the Melbourne City Centre. Many of the old factories and warehouses were converted into fashionable loft-style apartments in 1990s. Since 2000, there has been a large increase in new medium density apartment complexes being built.

House prices now exceed Melbourne's median.

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

The heritage listed town hall and former Meat Market are both theatre and arts spaces.

Sport
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, which has recently been redeveloped

Schools and Education
While three state schools existed in North Melbourne in 1900, only one, Errol Street Primary School, remains.

However, there remains a large Catholic school presence in the area, with several campuses and colleges continuing to operate.

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

The main railway station is Flemington Bridge which is on the Upfield railway line. Despite the naming, the North Melbourne railway station is actually in the adjacent suburb of West Melbourne, while the Flemington Bridge railway station is in North Melbourne boundaries and not in Flemington.

It is serviced by 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.

It also has bus routes.