Wyndham Vale 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 ...

, south-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 Wyndham The City of Wyndham is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the outer south-western suburbs of Melbourne, within the Melbourne Metropolitan Area, between Melbourne and the regional city of Geelong. It has an area of . The city had a ...

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 ...

. Wyndham Vale recorded a population of 20,518 at the . The suburb of Manor Lakes was part of Wyndham Vale until 15 April 2021, when it was officially gazetted as its own suburb.

History

The area in which Wyndham Vale is located was the home of several Aboriginal clans. It formed the boundary between three main language groups:

Wadawurrung The Wathaurong nation, also called the Wathaurung, Wadawurrung and Wadda Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin a ...

Woiwurrung The Woiwurrung, also spelt Woi Wurrung, Woiwurrong, Woiworung, Wuywurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin people, Kulin alliance. The Woiwurrung people's territory in Central Victoria (Austral ...

and

Boon wurrung The Boonwurrung people are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the c ...

. They all lived in the area now known as Wyndham Vale for thousands of years before European settlement. Following the establishment of

and the town of

Werribee Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham Local government areas of Victoria, local government a ...

in the early 1800s, Wyndham Vale became a pastoral area with many hectares of land cleared for cattle and other farming. Several large estates were built, such as the 1000-acre Cobbledink Farm, built in 1868. This remained until the late 1990s and early 2000s when the suburban development of the western suburbs of Melbourne began to rapidly expand. Today, Wyndham Vale is the location of significant population growth as new housing is constructed. This growth increased rapidly after June 2012, when Victorian Planning Minister

Matthew Guy Matthew Jason Guy (born 6 March 1974) is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party of Australia Member of the Parliament of Victoria since 2006, representing Northern Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council (2006–2014) ...

announced an increase in Melbourne's growth boundary by 5858 hectares, including extending the boundary to encompass area of Wyndham Vale.

Geography

Wyndham Vale is located on the eastern edge of the

Newer Volcanics Province The Newer Volcanics Province is a geological area which is a volcanic field, formed by the East Australia hotspot across south-eastern Australia. It covers an area of , with over 400 small shield volcanoes and volcanic vents. The area contain ...

, also known as the Western Volcanic Plain. It is relatively flat with areas of significant remnant grassland and other vegetation. Lollipop and Cherry Creeks also run through Wyndham Vale and into

Port Phillip Bay Port Phillip ( Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, narrow channel known as The Rip, and is compl ...

Education

There are several government and non-government primary and secondary schools in Wyndham Vale: * Iramoo Primary School * Riverbend Primary School * Wyndham Central College * Wyndham Christian College * Wyndham Vale Primary School * Wyndham Vale South Primary School
Manor Lakes P-12 College

Transport

Road

Several major roads service Wyndham Vale, with many having been progressively increased in size as the area becomes more developed. These include Ballan Road, McGrath Road and Bolton Road. As part of the

Regional Rail Link The Regional Rail Link (RRL) was a project to build a 47.5 kilometre length of railway through the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, the main aim of which was to separate regional V/Line Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong services from the el ...

in 2015, many new roads and bridges were also constructed. This included Armstrong Road and road bridges over the new railway line at Manor Lakes Boulevard, Greens Road and Black Forest Road.

Rail

train station was opened on 21 June 2015 as part of the

. It faces Armstrong Road with an additional exit onto Eureka Drive. It has around 600 car parking spaces, bicycle parking and bus connections into surrounding areas.

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cros ...

trains operating to

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

service the Wyndham Vale station. Electrification of the line up to Wyndham Vale was considered in design of Regional Rail Link, which has been announced by the

Victorian Government 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 ...

to be completed by 2031.

Bus

In 2015, coinciding with the opening of the

, the Wyndham

bus network A bus network is a network topology in which nodes are directly connected to a common half-duplex link called a bus. A host on a bus network is called a ''station''. In a bus network, every station will receive all network traffic, and t ...

was extensively upgraded. This became one of the most successful bus network changes in Victoria, with patronage increasing by 45% following the changes. Most bus services service Wyndham Vale Railway Station and provide access to the surrounding suburbs like Werribee and Hoppers Crossing.

Parks and recreation

Wyndham Vale Reserve
located on Honour Avenue, is the home of several sports clubs and facilities, such as the Wyndham Vale Cricket Club. The

Wyndhamvale Football Club The Wyndhamvale Football Club is an Australian rules football club which compete in the WRFL since 1989. They are based in the Melbourne suburb of Wyndham Vale. History In 1985, the club fielded a senior team in the Reserve Division of the W ...

, an

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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

football team, competes in the

Western Region Football League The Western Region Football League is an Australian rules football semi-professional league, based in the western suburbs of Melbourne, for both seniors and juniors. History The league was formed in 1931 as the "Footscray District Football L ...

. It has 2 Senior Men's Teams. The Wyndham Vale Falcons Junior Football Club has seven Junior Boys Teams and a Youth Girls Team. Their home-ground was previously also at Wyndham Vale Reserve on Honour Avenue, but has been at Wyndham Vale South Reserve on Black Forest Road (just over the border in

) since 2014.
President's Park
is a large area of parkland and recreation reserve on McGrath Road. It consists of several walking and cycling tracks, wetlands, dog off-leash areas and vegetation home to significant numbers of flora and fauna. Several sporting clubs also use facilities in the park, such as the Werribee Hockey Club and Werribee Giants Baseball Club. Wyndham Vale is located close to the site of many original ''

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian post-apocalyptic Action film, action film series and media franchise created by George Miller (filmmaker), George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It began in 1979 with ''Mad Max (film), Mad Max'', and was followed by thre ...

'' scene locations.

References

{{City of Wyndham suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Wyndham