West Footscray, Victoria Explained

Type:suburb
West Footscray
City:Melbourne
State:vic
Lga:City of Maribyrnong
Alternative Location Map:Australia Victoria metropolitan Melbourne
Coordinates:-37.809°N 144.874°W
Postcode:3012
Pop:11,729
Elevation:35
Area:3.8
Stategov:Footscray
Fedgov:Gellibrand
Fedgov2:Maribyrnong
Dist1:8
Location1:Melbourne
Near-Nw:Braybrook
Near-N:Maidstone
Near-Ne:Footscray
Near-W:Braybrook
Near-E:Footscray
Near-Sw:Tottenham
Near-S:Kingsville
Near-Se:Seddon
Local Map:yes
Zoom:12

West Footscray is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 7km (04miles) west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Maribyrnong local government area. West Footscray recorded a population of 11,729 at the .

History

West Footscray Post Office (listed in reference as Footscray West) opened on 15 April 1914.

Demographics

The most common ancestries in West Footscray were English 16.2%, Australian 15.9%, Vietnamese 7.8%, Irish 6.7% and Scottish 5.2%.

In West Footscray, 53.4% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were Vietnam 8.0%, India 5.9%, Italy 1.9%, China (excludes SARs and Taiwan) 1.8% and England 1.7%.

51.7% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Vietnamese 10.4%, Italian 3.2%, Greek 2.0%, Cantonese 1.8% and Telugu 1.6%.

The most common responses for religion in West Footscray were Catholic 25.0%, No Religion 24.3%, Buddhism 8.4%, Anglican 6.1% and Islam 5.6%.[1]

Medicine

Culture

The Whitten Oval in West Footscray is the home training ground of the AFL team Western Bulldogs, and was their home ground before they moved to Marvel Stadium.

Barkly Village is a section of Barkly Street in West Footscray that hosts many local and ethnic grocers, stores and shops. The area has a long history of multiculturalism and includes many stores owned and operated by Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Anglo, Thai and Italian Australians. There is a particularly large Indian grocery store, "Bharat Traders", located here as well as independent supermarket Sims, at the end of the "Barkly Village" section of the street. Also along this strip is the Melbourne Chinese Bible Church.

Construction of the new West Footscray Community Centre has been completed. It incorporates a local library, replacing the former West Footscray Library on the same site. The site is a part of the "Barkly Village" strip.

The suburb has its own #wefo hashtag on Twitter

The Footscray YMCA is located on Barret Reserve, Essex Street. 10th Footscray Scout, open to all youth aged 6–26, share the reserve with the YMCA meeting in a their hall on Graham St.

The 2nd Footscray Scout Group is located at Gaudion Reserve, Barkly Street. The group has a website and is open to youth aged 7 to 26 years. It is part of Kariwara District.

Shorten Reserve on Essex Street is home of the Druids Cricket Club and the West Footscray Roosters, a local Australian Rules Football team.

Johnson Reserve on Essex Street is home to a local Soccer team, and League games are regularly played on Sunday afternoons. The North Footscray Devils are also located there and North Footscray and West Footscray are usually locked in battle.

The Women's Circus is based in West Footscray in the Drill Hall.

Phat Quang Temple, a Vietnamese Buddhist temple, is located in the suburb.[2]

Education

There are three kindergartens:

There are two primary schools in the West Footscray area:

There is another Catholic School, Corpus Christi Catholic School located in the southern "Kingsville" part of the suburb.

The Western Scout centre is a training centre for the adult volunteers of Scouts Australia and one of six such sites in Melbourne. Their office in the new complex at 77 Ashley Street includes equipment donated by the Footscray Rotary Club.

Transport

The following bus routes that pass through West Footscray;

West Footscray has two railway stations on the Sunbury line; West Footscray and Tottenham. West Footscray was completely rebuilt and moved 200 metres west of the original station location as part of the Regional Rail Link, with the new station opening on 14 October 2013. As part of Metro Tunnel works, a third platform was built on the Cross Street side of the station to allow services to terminate. Work commenced in 2018 and was completed in 2020.

Sport

The suburb has two Australian Rules football clubs competing in the Western Region Football League, West Footscray Football Club and North Footscray Football Club. The Druids Cricket Club is also based in West Footscray, playing at Shorten Reserve.

The Footscray United Soccer Club plays at Hansen Reserve.[3]

Environmental issues

In 2018, a big industrial fire started in a warehouse storing chemicals illegally resulting in environmental and health damages. It took up to 16 days to end the fire.[4]

The fire caused consequences to the health of local residents in the few weeks after the fire.[5] Firefighters were also concerned about the long term effect of the chemicals on their health.[6]

Within hours of the fire, dead fish and other wildlife were found dead around Stony Creek.[7]

After investigation, it was found that the storage of chemical was linked to ones found be stored illegally at Lemon Springs in Kaniva.[8]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. [Australian Bureau of Statistics]
  2. Web site: THÀNH VIÊN GIÁO HỘI. The Unified Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation of Australia – New Zealand . 14 July 2021.
  3. Web site: Footscray United Soccer Club Directory Listing - Maribyrnong City Council . www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20151119143912/http://www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au/Directory/Agency.aspx?Mkey=401&S3Key=103 . 2015-11-19.
  4. Web site: Ilanbey . Chris Vedelago, Cameron Houston, Sumeyya . 2019-11-07 . What happened to us in West Footscray? Firefighters call for answers after toxic fire . 2024-02-12 . The Age . en.
  5. News: Smith . Rohan . 20 September 2018 . Residents still struggling three weeks after West Footscray factory fire . 8 April 2019 . News.com.au.
  6. Web site: Ilanbey . Chris Vedelago, Cameron Houston, Sumeyya . 2019-11-07 . What happened to us in West Footscray? Firefighters call for answers after toxic fire . 2024-02-12 . The Age . en.
  7. News: Fox Koob . Simone . Cunningham . Melissa . Emery . Sarah . Preiss . Benjamin . Towell . Noel . 31 August 2018 . Scores of dead fish, eels wash up after Melbourne factory fire . 20 September 2018 . . Melbourne.
  8. News: Ilanbey . Sumeyya . Vedelago . Chris . Cooper . Adam . 2 January 2019 . New toxic factories and West Footscray factory fire link to same man . 8 April 2019 . The Age.