Sunbury ( , ) is a satellite town of Victoria,

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 ...

, north-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 Hume

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 ...

. Sunbury recorded a population of 38,851 at the . Statistically, Sunbury is considered part of

Greater Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung/ or ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most-populous city in Australia, after Sydney. The city's name generally refers to a metropolitan area also known ...

, as per the

Victorian Government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as the Victorian Government, is the executive government of the Australian state of Victoria. As a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, the State Government was first formed in 1851 when Vic ...

's 2009 decision to extend the urban growth boundary in 2011 to include the area in the Melbourne Urban Area as the north-western fringe of the

area, giving its land urban status and value.

History

The Sunbury area has several important Aboriginal archaeological sites, including five earth rings, which were identified in the 1970s and 1980s, and believed to have been used for ceremonial gatherings. Records of

corroboree A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the ...

s and other large gatherings during early settlement attest to the importance of the area for Aboriginal people of the

Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Aboriginal peoples, Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language, Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of ...

tribe. One Indigenous name for the area of unknown language and meaning is 'Koorakoorakup'. Sunbury was first settled in 1836, by George Evans and William Jackson. It was Jackson and his brother, Samuel, who named the township Sunbury, after

Sunbury-on-Thames Sunbury-on-Thames, known locally as Sunbury, is a town on the north bank of the River Thames in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, England, southwest of central London. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, in 1965 Sunbury and other su ...

, in

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

when it was established in 1857. The Post Office opened on 13 January 1858. Sunbury's connection with the history and development of Victoria is influential because of its most famous and powerful citizen, "Big" Clarke. In 1837, Clarke came to the area, and gained vast pastoral licences encompassing Sunbury, Clarkefield and Monegeetta. His role as one of the biggest

pastoralists Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anima ...

in the colony, and his power and position within the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Victorian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House, Melbourne, Parliament ...

, were highly significant in the early years of Victoria. During the early decades of self-government in the Colony of Victoria there was a continual struggle in parliament, between the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council for ascendancy and the control of government. It was Council members, such as Clarke, who attempted to negate what they saw as the excesses of manhood suffrage,

republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology that encompasses a range of ideas from civic virtue, political participation, harms of corruption, positives of mixed constitution, rule of law, and others. Historically, it emphasizes the idea of self ...

and

Chartism Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of ...

, as embodied in the Assembly, in order to protect their own position. "Big" Clarke, as a member of the so-called bunyip aristocracy, also helped to frustrate legislative measures involving opening land to small farm selectors. ''

Melbourne Punch ''Melbourne Punch'' (from 1900, simply titled ''Punch'') was an Australian illustrated magazine founded by Edgar Ray and Frederick Sinnett, and published from August 1855 to December 1925. The magazine was modelled closely on '' Punch'' of Lon ...

'' depicted Clarke in anti-

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not Land ownership and tenure, own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estima ...

cartoons, such as "The Man in Possession" In 1859, "Big" Clarke was involved in a scandal around the discovery of gold on his holdings in Deep Creek. Shares in the Bolinda company soared and Clarke sold his shares at the peak of the rush, before the fraud was exposed. The gold assay was actually 'salted', possibly via a shotgun blast of golden pellets into the samples. Clarke claimed the rich assay was proved when washed in a soup bowl. The ever-barbed ''Melbourne Punch'' explained how the fraud worked in a cartoon of a chipped Chinese Willow Pattern plate titled "The Soup Plate". In 1874, Clarke's son

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

built a mansion on an estate named "

Rupertswood Rupertswood is a mansion and country estate located in Sunbury, 50 km north-northwest of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It known for being the birthplace of the Ashes urn, which was humorously presented to English cricket captain Ivo ...

", after his own son, Rupert. The estate had access to a private

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

. Though the station was constructed in the late 19th century, the Clarkes did not pay the railways for its construction until the 1960s. (Rupertswood railway station was closed as a result of the

Regional Fast Rail project The Regional Fast Rail project (or RFR project) was a rail transport project undertaken by the Government of Victoria (Australia), State Government of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, between 2000 and 2006 aimed at improving rail servi ...

and is now only a disused platform). The Clarkes also had a connection to the Kelly Gang story via their police connection with Superintendent Hare. The younger William was the president of the

Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Groun ...

, and it was through that position that the touring

English cricket team The England men's cricket team represents cricket in England, England and cricket in Wales, Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Maryleb ...

came to spend the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

of 1882 at Rupertswood. On Christmas Eve, the English team played a social game of cricket against a local team. Lady Clarke took one or more bails, burnt them, and put the ashes in a small urn, wrapped in a red velvet bag, which she presented to the English Captain, Ivo Bligh. She proposed that the ashes be used as a perpetual trophy for matches between the two countries.

The Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, ...

has since become one of the world's most sought-after sporting trophies. In 1922, the Clarke family sold the property to H V McKay, the owner of the Sunshine Harvester Works, who died in 1926. His estate sold the property in 1927 to the

Salesian The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...

Catholic order. Until recently, the mansion and surrounding property were used for educational and agricultural purposes, and as a boarding school for students undertaking both academic and agricultural endeavours. The school, known as Salesian College, Rupertswood, is still located on the property. The mansion has been restored, and is used for weddings and other formal functions. In the early 1970s, the area, which was then still largely rural, became famous in Australia as the site of the Sunbury Pop Festival, which was held annually from 1972 to 1975.

Culture

Sunbury's residents represent diverse cultural backgrounds, and include a major working-class sector, dependent on proximity to major manufacturing and transport hubs, such as

Melbourne Airport Melbourne Airport , known locally as Tullamarine Airport, is an international airport serving Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operating 24/7 service, 24 hours a day with on-site parking, shopping and dining, Melbourne Airport is the List of th ...

which is only from the township. A recent trend for people who work in the Melbourne CBD to trade longer commute times for a more economic lifestyle (due to cheaper housing), has seen the population of Sunbury grow in number, with numerous new housing estates ringing the borders of the established township. Sunbury's population was recorded as being 25,086 in the 2001 census, and is estimated at 34,000 in , making it the 38th largest urban centre by population in Australia.

Transport

Bus

Ten bus routes service Sunbury: * : Sunbury station – Diggers Rest station. Operated by Sunbury Bus Service. * : Westfield Airport West – Sunbury station via

. Operated by CDC Melbourne. * : Sunbury station – Mount Lion. Operated by Sunbury Bus Service. * : Sunbury station – Moonee Ponds Junction via Diggers Rest. Operated by Sunbury Bus Service. * : Sunbury station – Wilsons Lane. Operated by Sunbury Bus Service. * : Sunbury station – Rolling Meadows. Operated by Sunbury Bus Service. * : Sunbury station – Killara Heights. Operated by Sunbury Bus Service. * : Sunbury station – Jacksons Hill. Operated by Sunbury Bus Service. * : Sunbury station – Canterbury Hills. Operated by Sunbury Bus Service. * Lancefield – Sunbury – Clarkefield via

Romsey Romsey ( ) is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is situated northwest of Southampton, southwest of Winchester and southeast of Salisbury. It sits on the outskirts of the New Forest, just over northeast of ...

and Monegeetta. Operated by

Dysons Dyson Group of Companies, operating as Dysons, is a bus and coach operator in Victoria, Australia. The oldest of its subsidiary companies is L.C. Dysons Bus Services, which was founded in June 1952 and is based in Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora ...

Train

Sunbury station is connected by Metro services to Melbourne on the Sunbury Line and by

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates Regional rail, regional passenger rail and Intercity bus service, coach services in the Australian state of Victoria (state), Victoria. It provides passenger train services on five Commuter rail, ...

services on the Bendigo line to both Melbourne and country Victoria. V/Line services are not as frequent as those on the metropolitan Metro service – an approximate hourly frequency is provided by V/Line on weekdays, although on weekends service levels can be as infrequent as once every 80 minutes. The State Government electrified the tracks between Sunbury and

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne un ...

in a $270 million investment, bringing more frequent passenger services to the town – these Metro services started operating on 18 November 2012.

Education

Victoria University Jacksons hill sunbury

Primary schools * Sunbury West Primary School * Sunbury Primary School * Sunbury Heights Primary School * Killara Primary School * Kismet Park Primary School * St Anne's Primary School * Our Lady of Mount Carmel Primary School * Goonawarra Primary School * Holy Trinity Primary School Secondary schools and high schools * Sunbury Downs College (formerly Sunbury Post Primary School) * Sunbury College (formerly Sunbury Secondary College, Sunbury High School) * Salesian College Others * Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Special School

Sport

Sunbury is represented in the following sporting leagues: *

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

** Sunbury Little Athletics Centre Inc *

Australian rules football 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 ...

** Sunbury Football Netball Club (

Ballarat Football League The Ballarat Football League (BFL) is an Australian rules football competition that operates in the Ballarat region of Victoria (state), Victoria. The competition formed in 1893 as the Ballarat Football Association and was renamed Ballarat F ...

) **Sunbury Kangaroos Football Netball club ( Essendon District Football League ) ** Sunbury Kangaroos Junior Football Club ( Riddell District Football League) �
club official website
** Rupertswood Football Club ( Essendon District Football League) �
club official website
** East Sunbury Sporting Group – Seniors and juniors Football Club (Essendon District Football League) �
club official website
*

Bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The playin ...

** Australian Bandy League is based here. *

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

** Sunbury Badminton Club Inc *

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

** Sunbury Titans Baseball club *

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

** Sunbury Basketball Association **

Big V The Big V is a semi-professional basketball league in Victoria, Australia, comprising both a men's and women's competition. History The Big V Conference was established in 2000 and joined the Australian Basketball Association (ABA). The ABA ...

Basketball *

Bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

** Sunbury Bicycle User Group *

Cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

** Sunbury Cricket Club, Clarke Oval ** Gisborne and District Cricket Association ** East Sunbury Cricket Club ** Sunbury Kangaroos Cricket Club ** Sunbury United Cricket Club ** Rupertswood Cricket Club *

Dancing Dance is an art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements or ...

** Roselind Calisthenics ** Classique School of Dance ** Flash Dance Performing Arts ** Sunbury school of Calisthenics ** Hotpink Dance Centre ** Shirley Rogers Academy of Dance ** Concept Performing Arts *

Girl Guides Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) are organisations within the Scout Movement originally and largely still for girls and women only. The Girl Guides began in 1910 with the formation of Girlguiding, The ...

** Sunbury Leadbeater Guides (Age 5–7 years) ** Sunbury Sugarglider Guides (Age 5–7 years) ** Sunbury Wongguri Guides (Age 7–11 years) ** Sunbury Kamballa Guides (Age 11–14 years) ** Sunbury Bluebell Guides (Age 14–17 years) *

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

** Golfers play at the course of the Goonawarra Golf Club at Francis Boulevard, Sunbury. ** Sunbury Golf Range located just off Sunbury Road on the way to Melbourne Airport. *

Horse riding Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding ( Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...

** Sunbury Pony Club ** Sunbury Riding Centre *

Lawn Bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

** Royal Victorian Bowls Association – Metro ** Sunbury Bowling Club **Victorian Ladies' Bowls Association *

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

** Sunbury Tigers (Victorian Rugby League) �
club official website
** Junior Side (Melbourne Junior Rugby League) *

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

** Sunbury United (Victorian State League 2) ** Sunbury United Junior Football Club *

Softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

** Sunbury Softball Association *

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

*
Sunbury Amateur Swimming Club
** Aqua Wolves Swimming Club *

Table Tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

** The Sunbury & District Table Tennis Association �
club official website
*

Tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

** Sunbury Lawn Tennis Club ** Mt. Carmel Tennis Club

Politics

Sunbury is represented by Cr Trevor Dance, Cr Jarrod Bell and Cr Steve (Jack) Medcraft in the Jacksons Creek Ward of the City of Hume. At State level, Sunbury is in the

Electoral district of Sunbury The electoral district of Sunbury is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly in Australia. It was created in the redistribution of electoral boundaries in 2013, and came into effect at the 2014 state election. It is a new ...

, represented by

Josh Bull Joshua Michael Bull (born 4 April 1985) is an Australian politician. He has been a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the states and territories of Australia, state lower house of ...

. Federally, Sunbury is located in the Division of Hawke, represented by Sam Rae.

Events

In 2023, Sunbury was the

epicentre The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Determination The primary purpose of a s ...

to a magnitude-4 earthquake, which was felt by residents from Tasmania to New South Wales.

Notable people

* Mark Blicavs –

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 ...

footballer * Sara Blicavs – WNBL player and Australian Opals player * Matthew Egan – Australian rules footballer * Cameron Guthrie – Australian rules footballer * Zach Guthrie – Australian rules footballer * Mark Johnson – Australian rules footballer * James Kelly – Australian rules footballer *

Jamie Maclaren Jamie Maclaren (born 29 July 1993) is an Australian professional association football, soccer player who plays as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker for Indian Super League club Mohun Bagan Super Giants, Mohun Bagan and the Austr ...

– Australian Soccer player, striker for

Melbourne City FC Melbourne City Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region, South-Eastern region of Melbourne, Victoria. They compete in the A-League Men, the Australian soccer ...

, Hibernian F.C. and

* Shirley McKerrow – politician, first woman elected Federal President of any Australian political party * Nathan Phillips – actor * David Schwarz – Australian rules footballer * Cassi Van Den Dungen – model, runner-up in 2009 on Australia's Next Top Model * Cameron Wight – Australian rules footballer * Linden Hall – athlete

Historical bibliography

* O'Brien, Antony. ''Shenanigans on the Ovens Goldfields: the 1859 election'', Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2005. (details on the Bolinda Company gold scam and 'Big'Clarke's role in Upper House) * Serle, Geoffrey. ''The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victoria, 1851-1861'', Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1963. (gold, squatters and government) * Spreadbrough Robert and Anderson, Hugh. ''Victorian Squatters'', Red Rooster, Ascot Vale, 1983. (detailed maps of squatters runs in the district) * Turner, Henry Giles, ''A History of the Colony of Victoria: from its discovery to its absorption in the Commonwealth of Australia, Vols 1 & 2'', Melbourne, 1904.