Footscray, Victoria

Footscray 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. Footscray recorded a population of 17,131 at the .

Footscray is characterised by a very diverse, multicultural central shopping area, which reflects the successive waves of immigration experienced by Melbourne, and by Footscray in particular. Once a centre for Greek, Italian and former Yugoslavian migrants, it later became a hub for Vietnamese and East African immigrants in Melbourne. It has recently begun to undergo rapid development and gentrification, and ''Time Out'' magazine placed Footscray at 13th in its '50 Coolest Neighbourhoods in the World' for 2019, reflecting its evolving reputation, citing in particular its diverse array of international cuisine, bars and nightlife, as well as its arts scene.

Footscray is named after Foots Cray, on the River Cray in London, England.

History

Footscray is part of the City of Maribyrnong and was built largely on the traditional lands of the Kulin nation.

For thousands of years, Footscray was the meeting place of the lands of the Yalukit-willan, the Marin-balluk and the Wurundjeri. Koories stalked game, collected food and fished along the river junction, estuaries, swamps and lagoons. Within Melbourne's western region, the Marin-balug and Kurung-jand-balug clans of the Woiwurrung cultural group, and the Yalukit willam clan of the Boonwurrung cultural group shared the luscious resources around the Maribyrnong Valley.

The first European to visit the area was Charles Grimes in 1803. A park, where he landed, is named after him at Napier St.

In 1839 a punt ( cable ferry) was built on the Maribyrnong River, it was the only connecting link between Melbourne and Geelong, Ballarat, Castlemaine and Bendigo. The Punt Hotel opened three years later and was the first building in the area. During the first decade drovers transporting cattle and sheep provided the only business at the hotel. After 1851, when gold was discovered out west, the pub did a roaring trade with diggers. Part of the old pub still stands and it has been renamed The Pioneer. ''(Ref: Charlie Lovett's Footscray)''

The Post Office first opened on 12 October 1857.

Footscray was declared a municipality in 1859 with a population of 300 and 70 buildings. Around the same year the first bridge was built across Saltwater (now Maribyrnong) River.'' (Ref: Charlie Lovett's Footscray)''

Between 1881 and 1891 Footscray's population more than tripled from almost 6,000 to 19,000.'' (Ref: Charlie Lovett's Footscray)''

Footscray developed into an industrial zone in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the manufacturing industry beginning to decline in the 1960s and 70s.

The Footscray Magistrates' Court closed on 1 February 1985.

People

Footscray was home to the Aboriginal Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung tribes of the Kulin nation.

In 2011, Footscray's 13,193 residents came from 135 countries.

In 2006 less than half the population (41.1%) was born in Australia, the main countries of overseas origin are Vietnam, China, India, United Kingdom and Italy. In the 21st Century, Maribyrnong of which Footscray is a part, saw a major increase in residents from Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, including a large proportion of refugees.

Footscray has Victoria's fourth-highest proportion of residents born in South-East Asia (13.9%).

As of 2013, the average age of people living in Footscray was 33.

Maribyrnong Council predicts a population boom will more than double Footscray resident numbers from 14,100 to 30,500 by 2031, requiring about 7000 new dwellings.

Politics

Footscray falls within the federal electorate of Gellibrand (currently held by Tim Watts from the ALP) and the state electorate of Footscray (currently held by the ALP's Katie Hall), and the City of Maribyrnong at local level ( 2020 election: 3 Labor, 1 Independent, 2 Green, 1 Socialist councillors). The suburb's historical voting patterns have been fairly typical of a working-class suburb with a high migrant population. Footscray is a very safe state ALP seat, 65% of the vote went to Labor at the 2014 State election.

Consistent with other inner-city electorates in Melbourne, and other state capitals, voter support for the Australian Greens has increased in recent years; the Greens received 17 per cent of the primary vote in Footscray at the 2014 State Election. One third of voters at the Central Footscray booth voted for the Australian Greens in the 2010 Federal election, almost doubling the Greens vote in one election cycle.

At the Federal Election of 2010, the ALP won Gellibrand, which includes Footscray, with 59% of the vote. The Lib/Nat parties got 23%, whilst The Greens saw a swing of +6% with 15% of the vote.

Janet Rice of The Greens was elected to Maribyrnong Council in 2003, re-elected in 2005 and then elected mayor in 2006. Whilst Mayor, Janet had a Mayoral bike instead of a car.

The first Vietnamese woman mayor was Mai Ho, from 1997 to 1998. Mai Ho arrived in Australia in December 1982 with two small daughters and sixteen dollars. By 1997 she was Mayor of Maribyrnong. Twelve months later her daughter, Tan Le, was voted Young Australian of the Year.

Food

In 2013, there were over 130 restaurants in Footscray, including; 30 Vietnamese, 20 Indian, 17 Chinese and several others featuring African, Australian, Indonesian, Italian, Thai, Turkish and Japanese cuisines. Subway and Nandos are the only multi-national corporate food outlets in central Footscray.

Notable restaurants include the Station Hotel, the winner of radio 3AW's "Pub of the Year" award.

The Footscray Market is a large indoor fresh produce and seafood market, with 33 food stalls and 50 general stalls, catering particularly to the various ethnicities and local restaurants. It is located opposite Footscray railway station