Moonee Ponds, Victoria

Moonee Ponds is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 7 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its local government area is the City of Moonee Valley. At the 2011 Census, Moonee Ponds had a population of 13,532.

Moonee Ponds is home to Queens Park and the Moonee Valley Racecourse.

History
Moonee Ponds was named by Donald Kennedy after his native valley in Inverness-shire, Scotland.

Attractions


The Clocktower Centre was originally constructed as the Essendon Mechanics' Institute, which was later purchased by the State of Victoria to become the Essendon Town Hall. Today it is primarily used as a large theatre. As well as serving for some international, interstate and local functions, the centre has a number of conference rooms. It is named after its prominent clock tower.

Moonee Ponds Junction is the centre of the suburb, with buses, trams and trains all converging in the area. The Clocktower Centre is nearby.

Puckle Street is the main shopping street and there are many shops and cafes along its length. At its eastern end is Moonee Ponds Junction and at its western end is Moonee Ponds train station.

The Moonee Valley Racecourse is one of Melbourne's four horse racing tracks.

Moonee Ponds Central Shopping Centre has many stores including Kmart, Aldi, The Coffee Club, Man to Man, Dick Smith Electronics, EB Games and Smiggle, Moonee Ponds Sewing

Demographics
In Moonee Ponds 69.9% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were Italy 5.4%, India 2.6%, England 2.3%, Greece 1.5% and New Zealand 1.5%.

70.9% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Italian 8.8%, Greek 3.6%, Cantonese 1.0%, Spanish 0.9% and Mandarin 0.9%.

Sport


Essendon Royals soccer club are located in Moonee Ponds and play in the Victorian State League.

The suburb has an Australian Rules football team, Maribyrnong Park playing in the Essendon District Football League, and another, Moonee Valley Football Club, based at Ormond Park competing in the same league.

Transport
Moonee Ponds Station is located at the western end of Puckle Street, on the Craigieburn railway line. Bus runs from the station to Aberfeldie. At the eastern end of Puckle Street is Moonee Ponds Junction. Tram number 82 terminates at the junction and Tram number 59 stops there. There is a bus interchange at the junction (called Moonee Ponds Interchange) where many bus routes terminate (routes, , , , , , , , , , and ).

The Maribyrnong River Trail and Moonee Ponds Creek Trail are cycling tracks in and around Moonee Ponds.

Notable residents
Moonee Ponds is where Barry Humphries' fictional housewife-megastar Dame Edna Everage originally lived.

It is also the location of the office of politician Bill Shorten. Australian singer Tina Arena also spent a large part of her early life growing up in Moonee Ponds.


 * Allen Aylett, former North Melbourne Football Club player and chairman/president


 * Jake Webster, former Melbourne Storm player who now plays for Hull KR in the European Super League
 * Jason Moran, Melbourne underworld figure