St Albans

St Albans is a suburb 17 km (11 mi) north-west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located within the City of Brimbank local government area.

St Albans is a suburb 17 km (11 mi) north-west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located within the City of Brimbank local government area. St Albans recorded a population of 37,309 at the 2016 Census.

St Albans' main commercial and shopping precinct is located on Main Road West, Main Road East, Alfrieda Street, the railway station and East Esplanade. It has become a very multicultural area with 53.5% of residents being born overseas and has a high proportion of non-English speaking background residents. The postcode is 3021.

St Albans was first established as a township in 1887 and originally subdivided by the Cosmopolitan Land and Banking Company Ltd. who had acquired nearly 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) in the hope of a quick financial gain during that period's land boom. The town was promoted as an attractive location for professionals who had easy rail access to central Melbourne and adjoining suburbs with a recently constructed railway station platform attracting potential homeowners to industry in nearby locations. St Albans Post Office opened on 22 October 1888.Development of St Albans suddenly slowed with the economic depression of the late 1890s and did not restart in large numbers until after World War II, with the influx of displaced people and continuing through the 1950s and 1960s with the influx of European migrants in response to the Australian Government's gradual relaxation of its White Australia Policy in 1947, 1957 & 1958.

During the 1890s depression many local farmers struggled to make a living, especially as the properties were relatively small, i.e. averaging about 60 acres, after the subdivision of Keilor Common under the Closer Settlement Scheme in 1869. Farmers who acquired land in the area after the subdivision of the Overnewton Estate in 1905 did better, because their selections were between 200 and 300 acres. Local farmers had been involved in growing crops as well as grazing of sheep, dairying of cattle, and some breeding of horses. Horses were also being trained locally for the Melbourne Cup and the Caulfield Guineas, some were successful.

St Albans remained geographically isolated from other suburbs, with large areas of open land between it and other suburbs, until the 1980s.

St Albans is now considered to be a middle-city suburb as the Melbourne Metropolitan area boundary now extends to over 35 km (22 mi) from the Melbourne CBD.