Heidelberg West is a suburb of

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,

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 ...

, 10 km north-east 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 Banyule

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 ...

. Heidelberg Heights recorded a population of 5,252 at the 2021 census.

Suburb

Heidelberg West contains ''The Mall'', an open style shopping centre constructed during the 1950s. The first store opened in The Mall was Dad's Fruit Shop which opened on 4 October 1956 one week before the Olympic Games of the year. The proprietors were Hyman Wisel & David East. The centre is to be redeveloped as a part of the urban renewal plan. Another shopping strip is situated at the end of Bell Street. Darebin Creek, and its surrounding parklands act as Heidelberg West's main public open space. The urban parts of Heidelberg West consist mostly of medium to low-density housing and development. A mobile library service managed by

Yarra Plenty Regional Library Yarra Plenty Regional Library (YPRL) provides a public library service to the local government municipalities of the City of Banyule, Shire of Nillumbik and City of Whittlesea in the northeast of Melbourne Australia and located on the lands of ...

visits Heidelberg West every Friday morning.

History

The Heidelberg West Post Office opened on 14 May 1923, and was renamed Heidelberg Heights around 1950. The current office on Oriel Road opened in 1952. The Heidelberg Military Hospital office opened in 1941 and was renamed to Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in 1947. In 1956, Heidelberg West became the site of the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The ina ...

athlete's village. The village was converted into a Housing Commission of Victoria estate following the conclusion of the games, and in recent years has had properties sold into private hands. In 2006 the suburb was selected for

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

by the

State Government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

because of its low socio-economic profile.

Education

Heidelberg West hosts the following educational facilities: * Audrey Brooks Pre-School * Olympic Village Primary School * Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE
St Pius X Primary School
Banksia Secondary College and Bellfield Primary School, which was located on Banksia Street, and Haig Street Primary School, in Heidelberg Heights, were the primary education facilities for the area. Both schools have now been closed due to not having enough enrolled students.

Health care facilities

* Banyule Community Health *Bellfield Medical Centre * Repatriation campus of the

Austin Hospital The Austin Hospital is a public teaching hospital in Melbourne's north-eastern suburb of Heidelberg, and is administered by Austin Health, along with the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital and the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre. History The ...

Recreation

Heidelberg West Football Club Heidelberg West Football Club is an Australian rules football club in Heidelberg West, Victoria, currently competing in Division 3 of the Northern Football League The Northern League is a men's football league in north east England. Having ...

, an

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

team, competes in the

Northern Football League The Northern League is a men's football league in north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Football League. It contains two divisions; Division ...

. It plays its home games at Heidelberg Park in neighbouring

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

. * Olympic Colts Cricket Club affiliated with the North Metro Cricket Association and resides at Olympic Village Reserve, Catalina Street, West Heidelberg. Formed in 1991/92 from the merger of Olympic Youth Cricket Club and Heidelberg Colts Cricket Club. * Heidelberg United Football Club moved into the training facility in 1979 and still resides there today. The Heidelberg United Football Club competes and plays out of the stadium arena in the Victorian Premier League. * The Heidelberg West Cricket Club currently competes in the North Metro Cricket Association based at Heidelberg Park. Led by fearless leader James McLean and a sensational individual display by local legend Joel Kannegiesser (aka Moon) they won the 2012/13 Quick Shield Gold Grand Final.

References