Westgarth, Victoria

Westgarth is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is in the Local Government Area of the City of Darebin. It is situated c.4 or 5km from Melbourne's central business district, just north of Clifton Hill, and a few hundred metres south of Northcote, with which it shares the 3070 postcode. Merri Creek forms its western border, and to the east lies Fairfield.

Westgarth is regarded as part of Northcote for administrative purposes, although it retains its own geographically distinct commercial centre.

History

File:Map Melbourne MKL1888.png

Melbourne in 1888. Westgarth is the southern part of Northcote

Westgarth High Street, 2004

Westgarth Cinema, 2004

Fruit Pedallers organic shop, 2004

Before European occupation, the area was home to the Wurundjeri people. Land c.2km to the south, where Merri Creek meets the Yarra, was an early site of colonial contact, briefly home to the Native Police Corps in 1842, and a school for Aboriginal children until 1851. Land sales occurred in the Northcote area first occurred in 1840, and land was purchased in the area then known as Northcote-by-the-Merri but not immediately developed. Three of the buyers later had streets named after them - Cunningham, Urquhart and Walker. As Northcote, Victoria developed in the mid to late 1800s, Northcote-by-the-Merri became known as Northcote South. Land was gazetted for development in 1853, but development was relatively slow. All Saints Anglican church dates to 1860 (present building, 1870), and the Bridge Hotel to 1864. The suburb derives its present name from 1906-10, when the station was renamed after William Westgarth (1815-89)[1], a Scottish merchant, politician and historian important to Melbourne's early history. He had owned land locally before returning to Britain in the 1850s.

Westgarth's development accelerated - along with that of many other Melbourne suburbs - in the boom of the 1880s. As the children of the Gold Rush generation formed their own families, Melbourne's population swelled. The Victorian Parliament reacted by using railway lines to open up new housing areas. The railway line from Clifton Hill to Alphington was opened in 1884, and the railway station was linked to Melbourne via a western loop in 1888. A tram line down High St. was opened in 1886, faltered, and then reopened permanently in 1901. Building continued through the Edwardian era and into the 1920s. The present commercial and shopping strip along High St. dates to the early 1900s, and Westgarth Primary School to 1925, when it opened as Westgarth Central School.

The art deco Westgarth Theatre, the suburb's best-known landmark, opened in 1920. It was apparently "decorated" (but not designed) by the architect of Canberra, Walter Burley Griffin.

The 1960s and 1970s saw an influx of southern European immigrants to the area, in common with other City of Darebin suburbs. By the 1970s the Westgarth Theatre catered largely to a Greek-speaking cinema audience. Westgarth school photos and class lists from the 1970s are dominated by Greek names and faces. That influence began to fade in the 1980s, with the arrival of a new generation of Westgarth residents with higher incomes and education levels. The process of gentrification accelerated through the 1990s, fuelled by the suburb's central location, attractive streets and housing stock, and its proximity to pricer inner-city suburbs including Fitzroy, Clifton Hill and North Fitzroy. The Westgarth Theatre became an art-house movie venue in 1986 when the Valhalla Cinema relocated after the demolition of its original premises in Richmond. Ten years later, it became the Westgarth Cinema. A number of industrial buildings along High St. were converted to residential use in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Westgarth Primary School's original building was demolished in 1990 and replaced by an open-plan building.

Westgarth today

File:Entrance clarke 1.jpg

Westgarth Primary School, 2006

Today, Westgarth retains its southern European presence, with many children of the 1960s and 1970s immigrant wave now living in the area. But the area also houses a wide variety of other cultural and language groups. Gentrification has brought back some of the children of Melbourne residents who moved to middle and outer suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s. The area is now known for its local artists, and a lesbian community has also been associated with Westgarth for some years.

The Westgarth Cinema remains the centre of the small commercial strip at the southern end of High Street, which is now populated by bohemian fashion outlets, cafes and other retail businesses. The strip remains noticeably less developed than its counterparts in Clifton Hill and Fairfield, arguably due in part to the traffic intensity of the relatively narrow High Street. New development has been rare, although new businesses open every few months. Retaining the "village" feel of Westgarth, against mounting commercial pressures to redevelop Victorian heritage buildings and development sites, was the aim of the "Save Westgarth Village" campaign. The lack of local retail businesses means most Westgarth residents currently travel to other suburbs for groceries and many other needs.

The Westgarth Cinema was one of the last two remaining single-screen venues in Melbourne, until being redeveloped in 2006. After years of uncertainty about its commercial survival, the family owners sold the Westgarth Cinema to Palace Cinemas in 2005, while retaining ownership of the building. Although many original features have been preserved, it is now a multiplex with a 300-seat cinema downstairs and two 150-seat cinemas upstairs.

The train line through Westgarth station is now part of the Hurstbridge line, following an easterly route into the city. A second, proximate station on the Epping line, Rushall, is accessed via a pedestrian and cyclist bridge over the Merri Creek (the bridge connects through to an east-west cycle route along Linear Park, one of the nicest such parks in Melbourne). The High Street tram line is now Melbourne tram route 86.

Westgarth Primary School remains the area's main school. It now caters to approximately 400 students in grades from preparatory to year six. The Jika Jika Community centre is the main meeting place for local events and activities.

External links

• Westgarth entry in the Australian Places project
• Westgarth Primary School, Clarke St.
• Jika-Jika community centre, Plant and Union Streets
• Map of surroundings, from Multimap
• Satellite photo from maps.google.com
• William Westgarth
• Friends of Merri Creek

References

• Ellender, Isabel and Peter Christiansen. 1999. People of the Merri Merri. The Wurundjeri in Colonial Days. ISBN 0957772807
• Lemon, Andrew. 1983. The Northcote Side of the River. City of Northcote in conjunction with Hargren Publishing Company.
• Various authors, 1992. Westgarth Memories. Published by Westgarth Primary School.
• Frost, Lionel. 1990. Australian Cities in Comparative View. McPhee Gribble. ISBN 0 86914 187 2

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