Airport West 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, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley local government area. Airport West recorded a population of 8,173 at the . Bounded by the

Calder Freeway Calder Highway is a rural highway in Australia, linking Mildura and the Victoria/New South Wales border to Bendigo, in North Central Victoria. South of Bendigo, where the former highway has been upgraded to freeway-standard, Calder Freeway li ...

to the south, the

Tullamarine Freeway The Tullamarine Freeway (commonly referred to as "The Tulla"), is a major urban freeway in Melbourne, linking Melbourne Airport to the Melbourne City Centre. It carries up to 210,000 vehicles per day and is one of Australia's busiest freeways. T ...

to the east, and the

Western Ring Road The M80 Ring Road (also known as simply the Ring Road or by the name of its constituent parts: Western Ring Road and Metropolitan Ring Road) is a currently incomplete urban freeway ring road around Melbourne, Australia. This article will dea ...

to the north west, Airport West is so named for its position to the west of

Essendon Airport Essendon Fields Airport , colloquially known by its former name Essendon Airport, is a public airport serving scheduled commercial, corporate-jet, charter and general aviation flights. It is located next to the intersection of the Tullamarin ...

, Melbourne's first general airport now used for light planes, charter and freight since the opening in 1970 of

Melbourne Airport Melbourne Airport , colloquially known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne, and the second busiest airport in Australia. It opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is ...

, located to the north of the suburb. It has the distinction of being the only locality in Australia which does not itself contain an airport to contain the word "Airport."

History

The present Airport West post office opened on 22 November 1982. The Niddrie North office which opened in 1960 was known as Airport West between 1974 and 1982, before reverting back to Niddrie North.

Demographics

According to the : CC-BY icon

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The most common ancestries in Airport West were Australian 18.3%, English 18.2%, Italian 17.7%, Irish 8.4% and Scottish 5.6%. In Airport West, 67.2% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were Italy 7.2%, India 2.6%, England 1.5%, Greece 1.4% and New Zealand 1.1%. The most common responses for religion in Airport West were Catholic 44.6%, No Religion, so described 21.8%, Not stated 8.7%, Anglican 6.0% and Eastern Orthodox 5.0%. In Airport West, Christianity was the largest religious group reported overall (69.2%) (this figure excludes not stated responses). In Airport West, 65.9% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Italian 10.8%, Greek 3.0%, Mandarin 1.4%, Maltese 1.1% and Hindi 1.1%.

Transport

Tram route 59 travels from Westfield Airport West (at Matthews Avenue), then runs via Matthews Avenue, Keilor Road,

Mount Alexander Road Mount Alexander Road (and its northern section as Bulla Road) is a major road in Melbourne's inner northern suburbs, connecting the northern edges of the city district to just south of Essendon Airport. It was named after its original destina ...

, Fletcher Street,

Pascoe Vale Road Pascoe Vale Road is a major thoroughfare through the northern suburbs of Melbourne, connecting the outer northern fringe to the inner northern suburbs. Route Pascoe Vale Road starts at the intersection with Somerton Road in Coolaroo and runs ...

, Mount Alexander Road,

Flemington Road Flemington Road is a major thoroughfare in the inner suburbs of North Melbourne and Parkville in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs for 2 km in a northwest–southeast direction, from the southern end of Mount Alexander Road, Flemington, ...

and then terminates at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Flinders Street, at

Flinders Street station Flinders Street railway station is a train station located on the corner of Flinders and Swanston streets in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Opened in 1854, the historic station serves the entire metr ...

. The Albion-Jacana freight line passes through Airport West near its north and west boundary. A railway line to Melbourne Airport via Airport West has been proposed under

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

2008 People Plan. The currently congested

and

interchange saw a redevelopment to help traffic flow easier in 2006–2007. Seven

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 ...

operated by

CDC Melbourne CDC Melbourne is a bus operator in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It operates 55 bus routes under contract to Public Transport Victoria. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. As at 2018, CDC Melbourne was the third-largest commuter b ...

and

Kastoria Bus Lines Kastoria Bus Lines is a bus and coach operator in Melbourne, Australia. It operates five routes under contract to Public Transport Victoria. It is owned by Northern Transit Holdings, which also operates Broadmeadows Bus Service, Nationwide Tour ...

also service the suburb, and a

Night Network ''Night Network'', ''Night Time'' and ''Night Shift'' were names given to the overnight (usually between 12 and 6am) schedule of the ITV network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, with all of the co ...

also operates around the area. Tram stop 56 ( Earl St-Matthews Ave) at Airport West (2)

Commerce

Westfield Airport West is a shopping centre that was built in the northern corner of the suburb. Opening in 1976 and undergoing redevelopments in 1982 and 1999, it includes

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, f ...

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

, Coles, Woolworths,

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when ...

and a

Village Cinemas Village Cinemas is an Australian-based multinational film exhibition brand that mainly shows blockbuster, mainstream, children and family films and some arthouse, foreign language and documentary films. Since 2003, its Australian sites becam ...

complex. Other shopping areas in the suburb are also located on McNamara Avenue. The suburb contains much light industrial, manufacturing, and freight businesses due to its proximity to

and to the recently built DFO. Silver Circus, one of Australian's most popular circus is based in the area for over 40 years, though it often tours around Victoria.

Educational facilities

Airport West has one government primary school (Niddrie PS), a Catholic primary school (St. Christopher's PS) and a secondary school ( Niddrie Campus, Essendon Keilor College). There is also the Bravissimi Italian Language School.

Sport

Airport West Football Club, an Australian Rules football team, competes in the

Essendon District Football League The Essendon District Football League (EDFL) is a professional Australian rules football league competition based in Essendon, Victoria, consisting of teams based in the north-west suburbs of Melbourne. Founded in 1930, the men's competition ...

. North West Wolves play rugby league in

NRL Victoria NRL Victoria (abbreviated as NRLVic, and formerly the Victorian Rugby League) is responsible for administering the game of rugby league in the Australian state of Victoria. Victoria is an Affiliated State of the overall Australian governing body t ...

Notable people

* Ben Carroll, Victorian politician * Prof

Lynette Russell Lynette Wendy Russell, (born 27 April 1960) is an Australian historian, known for her work on the history of Indigenous Australians; in particular, anthropological history (especially during the early colonial period of Australia and the 19th ...

AM, author and academic, * Mark Thompson, VFL/AFL player and coach *

Brian Mannix Brian Mannix (born 7 October 1961 in Melbourne) is an Australian rock music singer and actor. He is best known as the lead singer of 1980s band Uncanny X-Men. Career Early life Mannix won a 'beauty contest' in his childhood after being entered ...

, singer and musician

References

{{City of Moonee Valley suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Moonee Valley