Braybrook 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 metro ...

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 country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, 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 Maribyrnong The City of Maribyrnong is a local government area within the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Australia. It comprises the inner western suburbs between 5 and 10 kilometres from Melbourne city centre. It was formed in 1994 from the merger of th ...

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 ...

. Braybrook recorded a population of 9,682 at the . Braybrook is bounded in the west by Duke Street, in the north by the Maribyrnong River, in the east by Ashley Street, and in the south by the

Sunbury railway line The Sunbury railway line is a suburban electric railway in Melbourne, Australia. It has 15 stations, in Myki ticketing Zones 1 and 2. It is the electrified section of the Bendigo railway within metropolitan Melbourne. Prior to the line extensi ...

and Sunshine Road.

History

Braybrook Post Office opened on 1 December 1860. Braybrook is primarily an industrial suburb.

Today

Approximately midway between the former Councils of Footscray and Sunshine in the heart of the western suburbs before the more recent

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...

and due west from the

CBD along Ballarat Road, Braybrook is starting to resemble a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

due to a recent expansion of the western suburbs of Melbourne which are far less populated than the east. Historically this is due to stigma, but the western suburbs are expanding now due to prime location and rising fuel prices. Some gentrification has occurred in the past decade with many former factory sites developed for modern housing projects (townhouses etc.). More and more first home buyers and developers are focusing on Braybrook and neighbouring

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...

and

West Footscray West 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. West Footscray recorded a population of 11,729 at the . H ...

, but traces of its industrial past may be still evident. Braybrook has been ranked 95 out of top 314 most liveable suburbs in Melbourne in the "2011 Liveability Stakes" by The Age and The Melbourne Magazine.Liveability
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People

The suburb has produced a number of famous sporting and show business personalities. The late 1960s pop singer Yvonne Barrett resided with her family in Dodds Street. Yvonne Barrett was murdered in 1985, with her funeral service held at Braybrook's Christ The King Catholic church in Churchill Avenue. 1970's Pop sensation

Jamie Redfern Jamie Redfern (born 9 April 1957) is an English-born Australian television presenter and personality and pop singer. Redfern was an original cast member of children's variety show, ''Young Talent Time'' from April 1971 to early 1972, before leav ...

also lived in the area. Ray "Screamy" Eames, the drummer from popular Melbourne pub-rock act The Blue Echoes lived in Braybrook. High-profile Australian rules footballers

Doug Hawkins Douglas James Hawkins (born 5 May 1960) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented and in the Australian Football League (AFL). He also enjoyed a brief career in media and ran for the Senate, as a member of Palmer United Party, i ...

Ted Whitten Edward James Whitten Sr. OAM (27 July 1933 – 17 August 1995) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Footscray Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Born and raised into a working-class family in Footscray, Wh ...

and

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop music, pop composition, ex ...

played for the Braybrook Football Club.

Education

Kindergarten/ day care services

* ABC Goodstart Early Learning (1 Vine Street) * Cherry Crescent Pre-school (Cherry Crescent) * Kids Heaven Family Day Care Services (5/6 South Road) * Little Champs Day Care (97A-101 Hargreaves Crescent) * Shifa Family Day Care (Office D4 67 Ashley Street)

Schools

* Dinjerra Primary School, located on South Road. * Rosamond School, located on the old Braybrook Primary School site on the corner of Ballarat Road and Errol Street. * Braybrook College, a public secondary school, located on Ballarat Road. * Caroline Chisholm Catholic College, located on Churchill Avenue. * Christ the King Primary School, located on Riley Court. * Braybrook contains the main campus of WELS (Western English Language School) which is located on South Road. * (formerly) Braybrook Primary School, which was 120 years old and located on Ballarat Road was closed and amalgamated with 2 other area schools (Sunshine East Primary, Sunvale Primary) at the end of 2007. The old buildings were burnt down (Arson) on 28 August 2010. The buildings have since been demolished and the site allocated to the relocated Rosamond School.

Transport

* Six

bus routes A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

operate around Braybrook **Route 215 Caroline Springs to Highpoint via Ballarat Road. **Route 216 Burnside to Brighton Beach via Sunshine, South Road, Footscray, Melbourne CBD and Prahran. **Route 219 Sunshine Park to Gardenvale via Sunshine, South Road, Footscray, Melbourne CBD and Prahran. **Route 220 Sunshine to Gardenvale via Ballarat Road Footscray, Melbourne CBD and Prahran. **Route 408 St. Albans to Highpoint via Sunshine and Churchill Avenue. **Route 410 Sunshine to Footscray via Ballarat Road or Churchill Avenue. * The area is served by rail, with

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...

and Sunshine the closest railway stations to Braybrook. * Braybrook is also a home to Britz Melbourne (campervan hire), located in the Central West Business Park.

Community infrastructure

Community Centre

The Braybrook Community Centre is located at 107–139 Churchill Avenue, Braybrook. The centre offers children's facilities, crafts, English as a second language (ESL) classes, computer and Internet facilities, playgroups, health and wellbeing classes and financial counselling. It also offers rooms and halls for hire. Cohealth is housed within the centre and offers general medical practitioners, optometry, physiotherapy, podiatry, social work, occupational therapists, speech pathology for children, pharmaceutical program and a women's and children's health nurse.

Other community facilities

The Community Hub at 19 Hargreaves Crescent is a base for the Neighbourhood Renewal Team and the Braybrook and Maidstone Neighbourhood Association to collaborate with local residents to bring about change. Local residents are welcome to visit and learn more about Neighbourhood Renewal and the Association. The Hub will be home to the Braidstone Bulletin – a local community newsletter and will have small meeting rooms available for local groups. The Catholic parish of Christ the King, Braybrook was established in 1952, from sections of Sunshine and West Footscray parishes. In 1958, the parish transferred from its temporary centre in Rupert Street to its present location on 65–67 Churchill Avenue, with the opening of the Catholic Centre.

Attractions

* Maribyrnong River *

Maribyrnong River Trail __NOTOC__ The Maribyrnong River Trail is a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians, which follows the Maribyrnong River through the north western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The path, sometimes along both sides of the river, ...

234 Fun Galore Family Entertainment Complex
(Previously known as Fun City Go Karts),
The Ashley Hotel

Commerce and shopping

There is a local

shopping centre A shopping center ( American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known colle ...

called Central West Plaza, located on the corner of Ashley Street and South Road on the border of West Footscray. It was built on the grounds of a former

RAAF "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

base and the shopping centre has a general aviation theme, including a WW2

Vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

fighter plane Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domination o ...

on display at the Ashley Street entrance. This was moved from the office complex development adjacent in 2003. There is another major shopping centre on the corner of Ashley Street and Ballarat Road, "Braybrook Plaza." Most retail businesses in the area are still located in

strip malls A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...

and small individual shops on Ballarat Road. The strip malls are on South Road, Churchill Avenue and Ballarat Road. A large number of fast food restaurants are on the Braybrook section of Ballarat Road. Braybrook is near Barkly Village, a section of Barkly Street in West Footscray that hosts many local and ethnic grocers, stores and a Sims Supermarket. Australia's first Masters Home Improvement store was located on Ballarat Road, however it closed in 2016 when the chain went out of business. The site, since its opening in 2019, is a Home Consortium shopping centre, featuring a

TK Maxx TK Maxx is a subsidiary of the American apparel and home goods company TJX Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts. The stores operate throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands, ...

fashion outlet and a Coles supermarket.

Sport

Braybrook Sporting Club has

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 teams competing 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 ...

. The Braybrook Club has produced a number of high-profile Australian rules football stars, including 1982 Brownlow Medalist

( Footscray,

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...

and St Kilda football clubs),

(Footscray Football Club) and

(Footscray and

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the V ...

Football Clubs) There are also: *

Melbourne Knights FC Melbourne Knights Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in the suburb of Sunshine North, Victoria, Sunshine North, Melbourne. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, t ...

Junior Football Club (Dobson Reserve) * Rosamond Bowling Club * Leros United Soccer Club (Scovell Reserve) * Rosamond Tennis Club (Footscray North Primary School) * Maidstone Junior Sporting Club (also at Footscray North Primary School) * Footscray United Cricket Club (Scovell Reserve)

References

{{City of Maribyrnong suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Maribyrnong