Caroline Springs is a suburb in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

, west of the

Melbourne central business district The Melbourne central business district (colloquially known as "the City" or "the CBD", and gazetted simply as Melbourne) is the city centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As of the 2021 census, the CBD had a population of 54,941, and is ...

, located within the

City of Melton The City of Melton is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, on Melbourne's western rural–urban fringe. It covers , and as of the , Melton had a population of 178,960. It is governed by the Melton City Council. The seat of local ...

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 ...

. Caroline Springs recorded a population of 20,365 at the 2021 census. Caroline Springs has been developed on

greenfield land Greenfield land is a British English term referring to undeveloped land in an urban or rural area either used for agriculture or landscape design, or left to evolve naturally. These areas of land are usually agricultural or amenity properties ...

since 1999 by Delfin, in partnership with the original landowners. Centrally located, just north of Kororoit Creek, is the town square and main shopping centre, known as CS Square, and a man-made lake known as ''Lake Caroline''. At the time of development, it was one of Melbourne's fastest growing suburbs and Delfin anticipated the population to be in excess of 25,000 people by 2015. The Caroline Springs Post Office opened on 8 August 2005.

Developments

A$40 million five-star hotel owned by the

Mercure Hotels Mercure is a French midscale hotel chain owned by Accor. Created in 1973 in France, the brand was acquired by Accor in 1975, and subsequently became a major part of the company's midscale hotel portfolio, alongside Novotel. As of 2021, Mercure op ...

group opened in August 2009. A new hotel and entertainment complex named WestWaters on the edge of Lake Caroline is now open. On 4 April 2019, construction on the extension of CS Square was officially opened. The expansion made way for a new Woolworths supermarket, multiple new retail stores and an expanded car park.

Flora and fauna

Kororoit Creek runs through the centre of the suburb. The creek has been home to healthy populations of native animals for thousands of years, including the

tiger snake The tiger snake (''Notechis scutatus'') is a large and highly venomous snake of southern Australia, including its coastal islands and Tasmania. These snakes are often observed and locally well known by their banding, black and yellow like a ti ...

, the eastern blue-tongued lizard, the common snakeneck turtle, the eastern brown snake and

kangaroos Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey ...

. Due to development over the past 15 years, these species are now rarely seen in the area. Due to development of large lakes and wetlands, species of frogs have reclaimed the area. The common eastern froglet, the eastern banjo frog and even the now endangered growling grass frog have been seen and heard in the new lakes, wetlands and in Kororoit Creek. Many species of birds are also returning to the creeks and lakes. There are also a few kangaroos, several located in the endangered grassland bordered by Holland Way and College Street. These can usually be seen from the steel board walk or 4m viewing platform. It is expected that the Kororoit Creek Trail will eventually be linked up to Caroline Springs providing cyclists with an off-road path all the way to

Sunshine Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrared (typically per ...

and onto the

Transport

The suburb's main form of transport is the car and is a largely car-dependent community. It was planned under the concepts of

street hierarchy The street hierarchy is an urban planning technique for laying out road networks that exclude automobile through-traffic from developed areas. It is conceived as a hierarchy of roads that embeds the link importance of each road type in the ne ...

and has just one main arterial, Caroline Springs Boulevard, which feeds into both the Deer Park Bypass and the Western Highway in the south and connects to Melbourne via either the Western Ring Road or the

Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...

Caroline Springs railway station Caroline Springs railway station is a regional railway station on the Ararat line, part of the Victorian railway network. It serves the western suburb of Ravenhall, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Caroline Springs station is a ground leve ...

was one of a number of new stations proposed under the 2008

Victorian Transport Plan The Victorian Transport Plan was a transport planning framework for the state of Victoria, Australia announced on 9 December 2008 by then Premier of Victoria, John Brumby. The plan was submitted to the Government of Australia for funding appro ...

. The station opened in January 2017.

Sport

Caroline Springs is currently represented in a number of local and regional sports. Caroline Springs Hockey Club is one of the newest members in the local sports community. Founded in 2016, "The Springers" compete in the Hockey Victoria Pennant and Metro competitions.

References

External links

Caroline Springs Residents Association
{{Shire of Melton suburbs Populated places established in 1999 Suburbs of the City of Melton Suburbs of Melbourne 1999 establishments in Australia