Essendon
The website CityHobo, which is dedicated to helping people find a new place to live, describes Essendon as "Pleasantville, thoroughly middle class family territory. You know - mum, dad, two kids, the private schools, the 4WD, and the dog. It s also the place Steve Irwin spent the first few years of his life; and the suburb people on the north side of Melbourne aspire to live in because of its wide streets and well preserved period homes."Situated 10 km north-west of Melbourne's central business district, it is considered an inner suburb these days, though when it was first being sudivided it was considered to be "out in the sticks", which is why it was chosen as the site for Melbourne's first airport. In terms of area, Essendon is one of Melbourne's larger suburbs, with numerous schools and three shopping strips. Being one of the original suburbs of Melbourne, the architecture of dates mainly from the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, housing lots are sizeable by today's standards and the stereets are wide.
The neighbouring suburb of Essendon West is primarily residential with a range of housing ranging from inter war Californian Bungalows to post war dwellings to more modern homes. At Avondale Heights and Essendon West residents have a spectacular view over the Maribyrnong River valley to the skyscrapers of the Melbourne CBD.
Essendon is the birthplace of conservationist and television personality Steve Irwin (best known as "The Crocodile Hunter"), and singer Judith Durham. It is home of the Essendon Football Club (the Bombers), an Australian rules football club which is a member of the Australian Football League. Essendon is one of the most successful football teams in Australia, having won 16 premierships in the VFL/AFL. The Essendon District Football League is one of the most successful suburban football competitions in Melbourne and in the zone days, fed many players into elite level competition.
Getting there: The number 59 tram provides public transport along Mount Alexander and Keilor Roads to the city.
Train services are available from Essendon Station on Rose Street, Glenbervie Station on Glass Street, and Strathmore Station on Woodland Street railway stations on the Craigieburn railway line.
Bus services are also available from Essendon railway station with several routes ending at the station or continuing through to Moonee Ponds.
Click on or tap a heading to read the description. Click or tap again to hide the description.
When it was opened in February 1950, Essendon became Australia's second, and Melbourne's first international airport. The airport was renamed Melbourne Airport, and the first international commercial flight arrived from New Zealand a year later. Within a decade of its opening, Essendon Airport was found to be too small to handle the large jet aircraft being introduced onto domestic and international air routes, such as the Boeing 707. Being increasibly surrounded by housing, expansion was impossible, so in 1959, Cabinet approved the acquisition of 2,167 ha (5,350 acres) in Tullamarine for the purpose of a new international airport, which began construction in the 1960s and was ready to handle aircraft by 1967, but not passenger flights. At this time, Essendon was no longer named Melbourne Airport, with the new airport rapidly taking shape. Commercial international flights were transferred to the new airport in 1970, with commercial domestic flights following the next year.
The major passenger airlines using Essendon in the postwar years until scheduled air services were transferred to Tullamarine were Ansett Airlines and Trans Australia Airlines. A variety of passenger aircraft became common sights in and around Essendon in the 1960s - Lockheed L-188 Electras; Vickers Viscounts; Fokker F27 Friendships; Douglas DC-3s, DC-4s, and DC-6s; de Havilland Comets, and from 1964, Boeing 727s. Douglas DC-9s were introduced later in the decade. International flights departed mainly from Sydney during Essendon's years of operation, and there were regular daily flights between the two largest metropolitan areas in Australia.
In 2007, the airport was re-designed under a new master plan, as part of the Essendon Fields development. This master plan catered for the future of the site for both aviation and non-aviation use. A new access road and off ramp was constructed from the Tullamarine Freeway to enter the airport precinct from the north, rather than the common Matthews Avenue entry point. This necessitated the construction of an Aero-Crossing as the new access road crosses a taxiway. Most of the aviation users of the former 'Northern Hangars' moved to other sites on the airport with the notable exceptions of the Victoria Police Air Wing and Executive Airlines.
On 31 January 1945, a heavily-modified Stinson Model A registered VH-UYY and named Tokana, operated by Australian National Airways, departed from Essendon Airport for the daily flight to Kerang. On board were eight passengers and two pilots. About twenty minutes later the aircraft broke up in mid-air, killing all on board. The aircraft had suffered fatigue failure of its left wing. The accident investigators believed this was the first crash of an aircraft due to metal fatigue.
Maribyrnong River at West Essendon
The Maribyrnong River Trail is a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians, which follows the Maribyrnong River through the north western suburbs of Melbourne. The path, often on both sides of the river, follows the meandering of the Maribyrnong River through a valley cut in the basaltic plateau in Keilor East at Brimbank Park, then across a floodplain to its entry into the Yarra River at Docklands. Combined with the Taylors Creek Trail this trail makes for an easy ride linking together the Footscray Road off-road path, Docklands and the Melbourne City Centre.
Starting at the north end of Brimbank Park, the gravel trail winds its way through the trees along the valley on the east side of the Maribyrnong River and the western end of the park. It passes under the towering EJ Whitten Bridge. Near the bridge base a steep path loops up to the same level as the bridge platform, where it connects to the Western Ring Road Trail. The path then proceeds through fantastic riverside parkland alongside suburbs such as North Sunshine and Maidstone before reaching Canning Reserve in Avondale Heights.
More >>
This is an aviation museum, but with one difference - there are no aircraft! Instead, the Museum houses a collection of national importance that traces the development of Australia's civil aviation airways system through innovation and technical development from it's beginnings in the 1920s to today. The story is told through artefacts and photographs, and illustrates how Australia has often played a leading role internationally in aviation development.
Location: rear of Building 44, Edgar Johnston Lane, Essendon Airport, Essendon. Open Tuesdays. Contact: (03) 9374 3905.
This excellent museum houses the only collection identifying the development of commercial aviation in Australia and tells the complete story of the growth of domestic and international aviation of Australia's major airlines. Trans-Australia Airlines, the main airline featured, began operations in 1946, first as Trans-Australia Airlines, then as Australian Airlines from 1986, and continues to the present day (since 1993) as the domestic operations of Qantas.
The Museum's collection consists of over 130,000 items - from the first credit card issued in 1947 to the simulated cockpit of the Airbus A300B4 (and Boeing 727-200 and DC9-30), along with the internal workings of a Rolls-Royce Dart engine - every uniform style from 1946 to 1996, and 30,000 photographs from day one.
Open Tuesday to Thursday 10am - 2pm. Entry by suggested donation. Location: Qantas EP Building, 7 York Street, Airport West
Contact: (03) 9280 8113.
The northbound Albury Express passes the Essendon signalbox, circa 1949
Essendon and the banks of the Maribyrnong River were originally inhabited by the Wurundjeri clan of the Woiwurrung speaking people of the Kulin Aborigines.
In 1803 Charles Grimes and James Fleming were the first known European explorers into the Maribyrnong area. Essendon was named after the village of Essendon in Hertfordshire, England. Richard Green, who arrived in Victoria in the 1850s and settled near Melbourne, was a native of Essendon, Hertfordshire, where his father Isaac Green was either owner or tenant of Essendon Mill, and he bestowed the name of his native village on the district in which he had made his new home.
In 1851 the gold rush on the Central Victorian bgoldfields opened up the Moonee Ponds District with miners travelling along Mount Alexander Road through the area to Castlemaine. Essendon Post Office opened on 18 August 1856, and within six years, its 169 residents sought the formation of the Borough of Essendon and Flemington. On 9 January 1871, Essendon was permanently linked by rail to Melbourne, following an unsuccessful private railway operating from 1860 until 1864.
In the 1880s, the local Council resisted industrial development in the form of cattle saleyards and brickworks, out of concern for pollution of the Maribyrnong River. Instead it embarked on a program to create, in its upper reaches, a playground for rowers, fishermen and swimmers. In 1890, a large mansion was built in the town. It was designed by eminent architect R.A. Lawson. Originally known as Earslbrae Hall, it was the home of Collier McCracken, a member of a local brewing family. The building now houses Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School.
In 1906 the North Melbourne Electric Tramway and Lighting Company opened its electric tramway system linking Essendon with the city. The company also supplied electric power to the neighbouring suburbs from its power station on Mount Alexander Road, near the intersection with South Street.
