Braybrook is an inner suburb in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, west of Melbourne's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

, located within the

City of Maribyrnong The City of Maribyrnong () is a local government area within the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Australia. It comprises the inner western suburbs between 5 and 10 kilometres from Melbourne city centre. It was formed in 1994 from the merger of ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

. Braybrook recorded a population of 9,682 at the . Braybrook is bounded in the west by Duke Street, in the north by the

Maribyrnong River The Maribyrnong River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the northwestern suburbs of Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria. Course The Maribyrnong River draws its headwaters from near Mount Macedon within ...

, in the east by Ashley Street, and in the south by the

Sunbury railway line The Sunbury line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's fifth longest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from Flinders Street station in central ...

and Sunshine Road.

History

Braybrook Post Office opened on 1 December 1860. Braybrook is primarily an industrial suburb.

Today

Approximately midway between the former Councils of Footscray and

Sunshine Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrared (typically per ...

in the heart of the western suburbs before the more recent

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...

and due west from the

CBD along

Ballarat Road Ballarat Road is a major urban arterial road in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia. Route Ballarat Road commences at the interchange with Western Highway (Victoria), Western Freeway ...

, Braybrook is starting to resemble a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

due to a recent expansion of the western suburbs of Melbourne which are far less populated than the east. Historically this is due to stigma, but the western suburbs are expanding now due to prime location and rising fuel prices. Some gentrification has occurred in the past decade with many former factory sites developed for modern housing projects (townhouses etc.). More and more first home buyers and developers are focusing on Braybrook and neighbouring

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

and

West Footscray West Footscray or "Wefo" is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 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 ...

, but traces of its industrial past may be still evident. Braybrook has been ranked 95 out of top 314 most liveable suburbs in Melbourne in the "2011 Liveability Stakes" by ''The Age'' and ''The Melbourne Magazine''.Liveability
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People

The suburb has produced a number of famous sporting and show business personalities. 1960s pop singer

Yvonne Barrett Yvonne Frances Barrett (19462 September 1985) was an Australian pop singer. She reached the top 60 Kent Music Report singles chart with her cover versions of " You're the One"/"Little People", in October 1965. She released other singles in ...

resided with her family in Dodds Street. Barrett was murdered in 1985, with her funeral service held at Braybrook's Christ The King Catholic church in Churchill Avenue. 1970's Pop sensation

Jamie Redfern Jamie Redfern (born 9 April 1957) is an English-born Australian television presenter and personality and pop singer. Redfern was an original cast member of children's variety show, ''Young Talent Time'' from April 1971 to early 1972, before leav ...

also lived in the area. Ray "Screamy" Eames, the drummer from popular Melbourne pub-rock act The Blue Echoes lived in Braybrook. High-profile Australian rules footballers

Doug Hawkins Douglas James Hawkins (born 5 May 1960) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented and in the Australian Football League (AFL). He also enjoyed a brief career in media and ran for the Senate, as a member of Palmer United Party, in ...

Ted Whitten Edward James Whitten Sr. Order of Australia, OAM (27 July 1933 – 17 August 1995) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Footscray Football Club in the Victorian Football League (1897–1989), Victorian Football League (VFL). Bo ...

and

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop compositio ...

played for the Braybrook Football Club.

Education

Kindergarten/ day care services

* ABC Goodstart Early Learning (1 Vine Street) * Cherry Crescent Pre-school (Cherry Crescent) * Kids Heaven Family Day Care Services (5/6 South Road) * Little Champs Day Care (97A-101 Hargreaves Crescent) * Shifa Family Day Care (Office D4 67 Ashley Street)

Schools

* Dinjerra Primary School, located on South Road. * Rosamond School, located on the old Braybrook Primary School site on the corner of Ballarat Road and Errol Street. * Braybrook College, a public secondary school, located on Ballarat Road. * Caroline Chisholm Catholic College, located on Churchill Avenue. * Christ the King Primary School, located on Riley Court. * Braybrook contains the main campus of WELS (Western English Language School) which is located on South Road. * Braybrook Primary School (former), which was 120 years old and located on Ballarat Road was closed and amalgamated with Sunshine East Primary and Sunvale Primary in 2007. The old buildings burned down in 2010. The buildings have since been demolished and the site allocated to the relocated Rosamond School.

Transport

* Six

bus routes A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used in ...

operate around Braybrook **Route 215 Caroline Springs to Highpoint via Ballarat Road. **Route 216 Burnside to Brighton Beach via Sunshine, South Road, Footscray, Melbourne CBD and Prahran. **Route 219 Sunshine Park to Gardenvale via Sunshine, South Road, Footscray, Melbourne CBD and Prahran. **Route 220 Sunshine to Gardenvale via Ballarat Road Footscray, Melbourne CBD and Prahran. **Route 408 St. Albans to Highpoint via Sunshine and Churchill Avenue. **Route 410 Sunshine to Footscray via Ballarat Road or Churchill Avenue. * The area is served by rail, with

Tottenham Tottenham (, , , ) is a district in north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, ...

and

the closest railway stations to Braybrook. * Braybrook is also a home to Britz Melbourne (campervan hire), located in the Central West Business Park.

Community infrastructure

Community Centre

The Braybrook Community Centre is located at 107–139 Churchill Avenue, Braybrook. The centre offers children's facilities, crafts, English as a second language (ESL) classes, computer and Internet facilities, playgroups, health and wellbeing classes and financial counselling. It also offers rooms and halls for hire. Cohealth is housed within the centre and offers general medical practitioners, optometry, physiotherapy, podiatry, social work, occupational therapists, speech pathology for children, pharmaceutical program and a women's and children's health nurse.

Other community facilities

The Community Hub at 19 Hargreaves Crescent is a base for the Neighbourhood Renewal Team and the Braybrook and Maidstone Neighbourhood Association to collaborate with local residents to bring about change. Local residents are welcome to visit and learn more about Neighbourhood Renewal and the Association. The Hub will be home to the Braidstone Bulletin – a local community newsletter and will have small meeting rooms available for local groups. The Catholic parish of Christ the King, Braybrook was established in 1952, from sections of

and West Footscray parishes. In 1958, the parish transferred from its temporary centre in Rupert Street to its present location on 65–67 Churchill Avenue, with the opening of the Catholic Centre.

Attractions

* Maribyrnong River *

Maribyrnong River Trail __NOTOC__ 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, Victoria, Australia. The path, sometimes along both sides of the river, ...

234 Fun Galore Family Entertainment Complex
(Previously known as Fun City Go Karts),

Commerce and shopping

There is a local

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

called Central West Plaza, located on the corner of Ashley Street and South Road on the border of West Footscray. It was built on the grounds of a former

RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the governor-general of Aus ...

base and the shopping centre has a general aviation theme, including a

WW2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising ...

Vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

fighter plane Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the a ...

on display at the Ashley Street entrance. This was moved from the office complex development adjacent in 2003. There is another major shopping centre on the corner of Ashley Street and

, Braybrook Shopping Centre. It has 24 hour Derrimut Gym and Rabbit Hole Kids playcentre. KFL supermarket recently took over Woolworths whom left in 2021. Most retail businesses in the area are still located in

strip malls A strip mall, strip center, strip plaza or simply plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America and Australia where the stores are arranged in a row, with a footpath in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have l ...

and small individual shops on Ballarat Road. The strip malls are on South Road, Churchill Avenue and Ballarat Road. A large number of fast food restaurants are on the Braybrook section of Ballarat Road. Braybrook is near Barkly Village, a section of Barkly Street in West Footscray that hosts many local and ethnic grocers, stores and a Sims Supermarket. Australia's first

Masters Home Improvement Masters Home Improvement was an Australian home improvement chain operated by two retailers; Woolworths and Lowe's. It was established as a way for Woolworths to enter the hardware retail market, which has been historically dominated by Bunning ...

store was located on Ballarat Road, however it closed in 2016 when the chain went out of business. The site, since its opening in 2019, is a Home Consortium shopping centre, featuring a

TK Maxx TK Maxx is a discount clothing and homewares retailer, founded in 1994. It is currently based in Watford, England. It is owned by American retailer TJ Maxx, who could not trade under the initials "TJ" in the United Kingdom due to the British d ...

fashion outlet and a

Coles supermarket Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty. Ltd., doing business as Coles, is an Australian supermarket, retail and consumer services chain, headquartered in Melbourne as part of Coles Group. Founded in 1914 in the suburb of Collingwood by Sir George ...

Sport

Braybrook Sporting Club has

Australian Rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

football teams competing in the

Western Region Football League The Western Football Netball League (WFNL) is a semi-professional Australian rules football and netball league, based in the western suburbs of Melbourne. History The league was formed in 1931 as the Footscray District Football League (FDFL). ...

. The Braybrook Club has produced a number of high-profile Australian rules football stars, including 1982 Brownlow Medalist

( Footscray,

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...

and St Kilda football clubs),

(Footscray Football Club) and

(Footscray and

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of City of Fitzroy, Fitzroy, the club is base ...

Football Clubs) There are also: *

Melbourne Knights FC Melbourne Knights Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in the suburb of Sunshine North, Victoria, Sunshine North, Melbourne. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, t ...

Junior Football Club (Dobson Reserve) * Rosamond Bowling Club * Leros United Soccer Club (Scovell Reserve) * Rosamond Tennis Club (Footscray North Primary School) * Maidstone Junior Sporting Club (also at Footscray North Primary School) * Footscray United Cricket Club (Scovell Reserve)

References

{{City of Maribyrnong suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Maribyrnong