Cairnlea is a suburb in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, north-west of Melbourne's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre 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 with the "city ...

, located within the

City of Brimbank The City of Brimbank is a local government area located within the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It comprises the western suburbs between 10 and 20 km west and northwest from the Melbourne city centre. The City has ...

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 State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

. Cairnlea recorded a population of 10,038 at the 2021 census. The former

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...

site became open grassland after European settlement but later, from 1939, it was a

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

s manufacturing site. The site closed in the 1990s.Vines, G & Ward, A. ''Draft Albion Explosives Factory Heritage Study''

Melbourne's Living Museum of the West Melbourne's Living Museum of the West is an ecomuseum and community social history museum in Melbourne's western suburb of Maribyrnong. It was established as part of Victoria's sesquicentenary (150 year anniversary) in 1984, along with the Chil ...

, for the Ministry of Planning and Environment, 1988. The suburb is a new estate, and has only been developed since 1999, with development of the new suburb to finish in mid-2005. The suburb features several man-made lakes and has implemented a suburb-wide stormwater recycling system that feeds all the lakes. By 2011 Cairnlea is projected to have 3,000 residential blocks and to have a population of more than 10,000. It covers bounded by Station Road, the Western Highway and the

Western Ring Road The M80 Ring Road (also known as simply the Ring Road or by the name of its constituent parts: Western Ring Road and Metropolitan Ring Road) is a currently incomplete urban freeway ring road around Melbourne, Australia. This article will deal ...

. Some have been set aside for public open space. Part of that process has seen two endangered species (the Plains Rice-flower and the

Striped Legless Lizard The striped legless lizard (''Delma impar'') is a species of lizards in the Pygopodidae family endemic to Australia. As of 2015 it is threatened with extinction, with few habitats left. The lizard is up to 30 cm in length.Department of Envi ...

) having reserves and management plans set up for their preservation.

Facilities

Education

Cairnlea Park Primary School

Economy

The Cairnlea Shopping Centre provides a number of small shops, a super-clinic, a

Coles supermarket Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd, trade name, trading as Coles, is an Australian supermarket, retail and consumer services chain, headquartered in Melbourne as part of the Coles Group. Founded in 1914 in Collingwood, Victoria, Collingwood ...

(6 AM - 10 PM) and a number of food and dining outlets. It is located at the intersection of Cairnlea Drive and Furlong Road at the heart of the district.

Attractions

* The Black Powder Mill * Cairnlea Community Hub * Cairnlea Town Centre * The Victorian Croquet Club *

Cairnlea FC Albion Rovers FC is a football (soccer) club based in Cairnlea, Victoria, Australia. The club was formed by the amalgamation of Royal Park Soccer Club and Albion Rovers Soccer Club in 1985. Since this time, the club has enjoyed success playing ...

* Iramoo

Flora and fauna

Kororoit Creek The Kororoit Creek is a perennial stream, watercourse of the Port Phillip catchment, rising in the outer north western suburbs of Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. Location and features The Kororoit Creek r ...

is located on the southern border of the suburb and Jones Creek on the Northern Border. The creeks have been home to healthy populations of native reptiles for thousands of years, including Tiger snake,

Eastern Blue-tongued Lizard The ''Tiliqua scincoides scincoides,'' or eastern blue-tongued lizard, is native to Australia. It is unique due to its blue tongue, which can be used to warn off predators. In addition to flashing its blue tongue, the skink hisses and puffs up its ...

and

Eastern brown snake The eastern brown snake (''Pseudonaja textilis''), often referred to as the common brown snake, is a species of highly venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is native to eastern and central Australia and southern New Guinea. It was ...

. Unfortunately, due to development over the past 20 years, these species are now rarely seen in the area. Due to development of lakes and wetlands, species of frogs have reclaimed the area. The

Eastern Banjo Frog ''Limnodynastes dumerilii'' is a frog species from the family Limnodynastidae. The informal names for the species and its subspecies include eastern or southern banjo frog, and bull frog.Waite, Edgar R. (1929): ''The reptiles and amphibians of ...

Common Eastern Froglet The common eastern froglet (''Crinia signifera'') is a very common, Australian ground-dwelling frog, of the family Myobatrachidae. Distribution The common eastern froglet ranges from southeastern Australia, from Adelaide to Melbourne, up the ea ...

and even the now endangered

Growling Grass Frog The growling grass frog (''Ranoidea raniformis''), also commonly known as the southern bell frog, warty swamp frog and erroneously as the green frog, is a species of ground-dwelling tree frog native to southeastern Australia, ranging from sout ...

have been seen and heard in the new wetlands and in

. Some species of birds are also returning to the creeks and lakes, such as pelicans and cormorants. *

Brimbank Park Brimbank Park is a metropolitan regional park managed by Parks Victoria situated in the north-western Melbourne suburb of Keilor East, Victoria, Australia. History About 40,000 years ago: first signs of possible human habitation along the Marib ...

Kororoit Creek Trail __NOTOC__ The Kororoit Creek Trail is a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians, which follows the Kororoit Creek in the inner western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The interrupted upper section is located in Burnside and Dee ...

References

{{City of Brimbank suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Brimbank