Delacombe is a large and rapidly growing industrial/residential suburb on the south west rural-urban fringe of

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

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 ...

. The population at the was 5,408 making it the fifth most populated in the Ballarat urban area. Delacombe forms a large part of the Ballarat West Growth Area where suburban development is encouraged by the

City of Ballarat The City of Ballarat is a local government area in the west of the state of Victoria, Australia. It covers an area of and, in June 2018, had a population of 107,325. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is primarily urban with the v ...

and

State Government of Victoria The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...

. Much of the city's planned

subdivision Subdivision may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Subdivision (metre), in music * ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009 * "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2) * ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005 * "Subdivisions" (song), by Rus ...

for new housing estates is happening in

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 ...

in and around the suburb and it is predicted to be home to over 12,000 residents in 2030. The suburb is built upon the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

of the Winter Creek. Its tributaries are stormwater drains, including the Banyule. It is one of the few Ballarat suburbs with its own shopping centres and a future activity centre for the suburb is planned by the City of Ballarat. It was named in 1965 after the then incumbent

Governor of Victoria The governor of Victoria is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the Australian state of Victoria. The governor is one of seven viceregal representatives in the country, analogous to the governors of the other states, and the ...

, Sir

Rohan Delacombe Major General Sir Rohan Delacombe, (25 October 1906 – 10 November 1991) was a senior British Army officer. He was the last British Governor of Victoria, Australia from 1963 to 1974. Early life Delacombe was born in St. Julian's, Malta, on 25 ...

.pg17. The Age. October7, 1965

History

Delacombe was originally part of Ballarat West and situated in the

Shire of Grenville The Shire of Grenville was a local government area southwest of the regional city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The shire covered an area of , and existed from 1861 until 1994. History Grenville was first incorporated as a road distric ...

. The first development was a factory producing

guncotton Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

for

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Over the decades, industry expanded in the area. In 1965 the Department of Crown Lands proposed it be named in honour of then governor Rohan Delacombe and the naming was passed by the shire. As Ballarat's urban area expanded, the first residential subdivisions occurred in the following decades and the primary school opened in 1981. During the 2011 Victorian floods, flash flooding caused the Banyule drain overflowed on more than one occasion, causing flooding to homes. The floods spurred implement stormwater upgrades and a flood strategy from the City of Ballarat including the creation of artificial wetlands.

Urban form and housing

The majority of Delacombe's residential areas have been developed 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 netw ...

with light industry and commercial areas centred on the main streets with

single-family detached home A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelling ...

s along branching

cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac (, from French for 'bag-bottom'), no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one inlet or outlet. The term "dead end" is understood in all varieties of English, but the official terminology ...

s. The

Delacombe Town Centre Delacombe is a large and rapidly growing industrial/residential suburb on the south west rural-urban fringe of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The population at the was 5,408 making it the fifth most populated in the Ballarat urban area. Delaco ...

shopping centre is located on the south-western edge of Delacombe. It was opened on 31 August 2017.

Education

* Lumen Christi Catholic school which is located at 111 Whitelaw Ave, Delacombe Vic 3356 * Delacombe Primary School which is located at 110-120 Greenhalghs Rd, Delacombe Vic 3356

Transport

The main form of transport in Delacombe is the private

motor car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

and it can be classed as a car dependent suburb and over 50% of all households with more than two vehicles. The suburb is serviced by Ballarat taxis and the Route 25 bus service operates to the city. A branch of the disused Cattleyards freight railway line terminated in Delacombe and was proposed by the

Victorian Greens The Australian Greens Victoria, commonly known as the Victorian Greens or just as The Greens, is the Victorian state member party of the Australian Greens, a green political party in Australia. History Early years The Australian Greens Vict ...

transport policy as the site of a potential railway station, however the line was demolished in 2010. The nearest railway station is

Wendouree Wendouree () is a large suburb on the north western rural-urban fringe of the city of Ballarat, in Victoria, Australia. It is the second most populated suburb in the City of Ballarat with a total of 10,376 inhabitants at the . It is named af ...

5 km to the north.

Parks and open space

While there is still much greenfield land in Delacombe, currently the Delacombe Sports Centre is set aside as a public recreation space. The Delacombe wetlands are currently under construction. Storm water from the recent housing developments will create this into a vibrant flora and fauna area.

References

{{Ballarat_suburbs Suburbs of Ballarat