North Melbourne is an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia, 2 km north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District.
North Melbourne is an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia, 2 km north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Melbourne. At the 2016 Census, North Melbourne had a population of 14,940.North Melbourne 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. Since July 2008 its local government area has been the City of Melbourne, when it took over the administration of parts of Kensington and North Melbourne that were previously under the City of Moonee Valley, resulting in an increase of approximately 4760 residents and almost 3000 workers (2006 Census).Formerly known as Hotham, it was essentially a working class area, with some middle class pockets,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 well as a 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. (The Asylum remained a feature of the area until its move to Cheltenham in 1911.) 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 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.Although there were pockets of middle class housing in the wider tree-lined streets such as Dryburgh, Chapman and Brougham,by the 1880sthe suburb 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.
The North Melbourne Court of Petty Sessions closed on 1 January 1968 and the former courthouse was sold to a private buyer in 1981.
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