Caroline Springs 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 ...

, 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 Melton The City of Melton is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, on Melbourne's western rural–urban fringe. It covers , and in June 2018, Melton had population of 156,713. It is governed by the Melton City Council. The seat of local g ...

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 ...

. Caroline Springs recorded a population of 24,488 at the 2021 census. Caroline Springs has been developed on

greenfield land Greenfield land is a British English term referring to undeveloped land in an urban or rural area either used for agriculture or landscape design, or left to evolve naturally. These areas of land are usually agricultural or amenity properties b ...

since 1999 by Delfin, in partnership with the original landowners. Centrally located, just north of

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 the town square and main shopping centre, known a
CS Square
and a man-made lake known as ''Lake Caroline''. At the time of development, it was one of Melbourne's fastest growing suburbs and Delfin anticipated the population to be in excess of 25,000 people by 2015. The Caroline Springs Post Office opened on 8 August 2005.

Developments

A$40 million five-star hotel owned by the

Mercure Hotels Mercure is a French midscale hotel brand specialized in traditional hotels managed by committed hoteliers, and owned by Accor. Created in 1973 in France, the brand was acquired by Accor in 1975. The Mercure brand appears on 899 hotels in 61 countr ...

group opened in August 2009. A new hotel and entertainment complex name
WestWaters
on the edge of Lake Caroline is now open. On 4 April 2019, construction on the extension of CS Square was officially opened. The expansion made way for a new

Woolworths supermarket Woolworths Supermarkets (colloquially known in Australia as "Woolies") is an Australian chain of supermarkets and grocery stores owned by Woolworths Group. Founded in 1924, Woolworths today is Australia's biggest supermarket chain with a mar ...

, multiple new retail stores and an expanded car park.

Flora and fauna

runs through the centre of the suburb. The creek has been home to healthy populations of native animals for thousands of years, including the Tiger snake, the

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 ...

, the

Common snakeneck turtle The eastern long-necked turtle (''Chelodina longicollis'')Kennett, R., Roe, J., Hodges, K., and Georges, A. 2009. ''Chelodina longicollis'' (Shaw 1784) – eastern long-necked turtle, common long-necked turtle, common snake-necked turtle. ''In'': ...

, the

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 ...

and

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

. Unfortunately due to development over the past 15 years, these species are now rarely seen in the area. Due to development of large lakes and wetlands, species of frogs have reclaimed the area. The Common Eastern Froglet, the Eastern Banjo Frog 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 lakes, wetlands and in Kororoit Creek. Many species of birds are also returning to the creeks and lakes. There are also a few kangaroos, several located in the endangered grassland bordered by Holland Way and College Street. These can usually be seen from the steel board walk or 4m viewing platform. It is expected that the Kororoit Creek Trail will eventually be linked up to Caroline Springs providing cyclists with an off-road path all the way to

Sunshine Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when th ...

and onto the Melbourne CBD.

Transport

The suburb's main form of transport is the car and is a largely car-dependent community. It was planned under the concepts of

street hierarchy The street hierarchy is an urban planning technique for laying out road networks that exclude automobile through-traffic from developed areas. It is conceived as a hierarchy of roads that embeds the link importance of each road type in the netwo ...

and has just one main arterial, Caroline Springs Boulevard, which feeds into both the

Deer Park Bypass The Western Highway is the Victorian part of the principal route linking the Australian cities of Melbourne and Adelaide, with a length of approximately of single carriageway, then of dual carriageway known as the Western Freeway. It is a pa ...

and the Western Highway in the south and connects to Melbourne via either 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 ...

or the

Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...

Caroline Springs railway station Caroline Springs railway station is located on the Serviceton line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the western Melbourne suburb of Ravenhall, and opened on 28 January 2017. History The ''Victorian Transport Plan'', released in 2008, propo ...

was one of a number of new train stations proposed under the 2008

Victorian Transport Plan The Victorian Transport Plan is a now defunct transport planning framework for the state of Victoria, Australia announced on 9 December 2008 by then Premier of Victoria, John Brumby. The plan was submitted to the Government of Australia for fund ...

. The station opened in January 2017.

Sport

Caroline Springs is currently represented in a number of local and regional sports. Caroline Springs Hockey Club is one of the newest members in the local sports community. Founded in 2016, "The Springers" compete in the

Hockey Victoria Hockey Victoria (HV) is the governing body for the sport of field hockey in Victoria, Australia. It is responsible for the administration of intrastate competitions, state representative teams, officials and the financial position of the sport. It ...

Pennant and Metro competitions.New hockey club in Caroline Springs
/ref>

References

External links

Caroline Springs Residents Association
{{Shire of Melton suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Melton Populated places established in 1999 1999 establishments in Australia