Coburg North 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 Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, north of Melbourne's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center 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 wit ...

, located within the Cities of

Darebin The City of Darebin () is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of and in June 2018 Darebin had a population of 161,609. Municipal offices are located at 350 High Street, Preston. ...

and

Merri-bek The City of Merri-bek () is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. It comprises the inner northern suburbs between 4 and 11 kilometres from the Melbourne central business district, Melb ...

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 ...

s. Coburg North recorded a population of 8,327 at the 2021 census. Although most of Coburg North is within the City of Merri-bek, a handful of properties on Elizabeth Street, Coburg North's eastern boundary, are located in the City of Darebin. The suburb lies north of

Coburg Coburg ( , ) is a Town#Germany, town located on the Itz (river), Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Ernestine duchies, Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only ...

, and has the same postcode (3058). The majority of Coburg North is zoned residential, though there are some industrial pockets. The major commercial strip on

Sydney Road Sydney Road (in its northernmost part also known as the Hume Highway) is a major urban arterial in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Geography Sydney Road starts at the northern end of Royal Parade at the boundary of Par ...

is primarily automotive-related businesses. Merlynston has a small shopping strip with some cafes. The rest of the suburb is reliant on corner shops for everyday needs.

History

Coburg North Post Office opened on 1 August 1857 and closed in 1980.

Housing

A large number of the houses in the area have two bedrooms and are made of brick, some with a

weatherboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of those terms, is wooden siding (construction), siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Cla ...

extension. These were constructed in bulk by the

Housing Commission of Victoria The Housing Commission of Victoria (often shortened to Housing Commission, especially Colloquialism, colloquially) was a Government of Victoria body responsible for public housing in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1938, and was aboli ...

, and most follow a standard design and layout. The weatherboard extension appears to be standard feature on houses of this period, and can take the form of a third bedroom, extended kitchen or laundry, or a standalone shed. Some houses share a common wall as a duplex unit. After the closure of the

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

Factory in 2005, the land began was developed into a A$250 million housing site for 1000 people.

Local industry

Industry in Coburg North is concentrated in the area bounded by Gaffney Street, Sydney Road, Shorts Road and Sussex Street. A notable and major industry in the suburb used to be a factory owned by Kodak, on two sites either side of the

Edgars Creek Edgar's Creek is a minor creek tributary of the Merri Creek in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung/ or ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most ...

, used for photographic paper manufacture and film processing. With the popularity of digital photography, Kodak has closed the factory.

Geography

Geographical features in North Coburg include: * The Coburg Olympic Pool *

Merlynston Creek Merlynston Creek is a tributary of Merri Creek in Melbourne's northern suburbs, in Victoria, Australia. The creek originates in an industrial area in the National Boulevard Reserve, north of Upfield railway station in the north of Campbellfield ...

Merri Creek Merri Creek is a waterway in southern parts of Victoria, Australia, which flows through the northern suburbs of Melbourne. It begins near Wallan and flows south for 70 km until joining the Yarra River at Dights Falls. The area where th ...

* Village Coburg Drive-In * Coburg Lake * Cash Reserve * Richards Reserve (where the Velodrome is) * Parker Reserve (Baseball Diamond) with two cricket fields next to it * Harold Stevens Athletics Track * Cox Reserve * Hosken Reserve * Sanger Reserve Increased urban consolidation has added to 1-in-100 year flash flooding risk in Coburg North along the course of

, according to the

State Emergency Service The State Emergency Service (SES) is the name used by a number of separate civil defence organisations in Australia that provide assistance during and after major incidents. Specifically, the services deal with floods, storms and tsunamis, b ...

(SES). The State Emergency Services says flooding has occurred along the creek path through Coburg North historically in 1891, 1916, 1934, 1954, 1974, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1989, 2003, and 2011.

Educational facilities

Coburg North has one State primary school (Coburg North Primary School), with buildings by

Percy Everett Sir Percy Winn Everett (22 April 1870 – 23 February 1952) was an English editor-in-chief for the publisher C. Arthur Pearson Limited and a Scouter who became The Boy Scouts Association's Deputy Chief Scout.T. C. Sharma, ''Scouting As A Co ...

, a former chief architect of the Public Works Department of Victoria (PWD). Coburg North Primary (No 4543) was built in 1937 in a restrained

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

mode in cream brick and is Heritage listed by Merri-bek City Council. Other schools in Coburg North are the Australian International Academy, an Islamic school which offers primary and secondary schooling across two campuses, and Mercy College, an all girls Catholic high school.

Transport

Bus

Five

bus routes A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used in ...

service Coburg North: * :

–

Reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

via Elizabeth Street. Operated by

Ventura Bus Lines Ventura Bus Lines is a large bus and coach operator in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, operating a fleet of more than 950 buses on 141 bus routes. History Early history Ventura was founded in December 1924 by Henry Cornwall. The name and co ...

. * : Campbellfield Plaza Shopping Centre – Coburg via

Fawkner Fawkner is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of City of Hume, Hume and City of Merri-bek, Merri-bek ...

. Operated by

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

. * : Upfield station – North Coburg via Somerset Estate (Campbellfield). Operated by Broadmeadows Bus Service. * :

Glenroy station Glenroy Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Western Australia. It is situated approximately north of Fitzroy Crossing and east of Derby in the Kimberley region. History The property was established in the ear ...

– Coburg via Boundary Road and

. Operated by

Dysons Dyson Group of Companies, operating as Dysons, is a bus and coach operator in Victoria, Australia. The oldest of its subsidiary companies is L.C. Dysons Bus Services, which was founded in June 1952 and is based in Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora ...

. * :

Macleod MacLeod, McLeod and Macleod ( ) are surnames in the English language. The names are anglicised forms of the Scottish Gaelic ', meaning "son of Leòd", derived from the Old Norse ''Liótr'' ("ugly"). One of the earliest occurrences of the surnam ...

– Pascoe Vale station via

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...

. Operated by Dysons.

Cycling

Upfield-Bike-Path-and-railway-line-looking-south-towards-Tinning-Street

Cyclists can access the Upfield Bike Path and the

Merri Creek Trail __NOTOC__ The Merri Creek Trail is a shared use path for cycling, cyclists and pedestrians that follows the Merri Creek through the northern Suburb, suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. History The first section of the Trail was opened in 1985 by ...

, off-road bike paths that traverse Coburg North from north to south. In addition, there are marked bike paths along Boundary Road and Gaffney Street to the west of their intersections with Sydney Road. Merri-bek Council recommends a cycling route between the Upfield and Merri Creek bike paths via Gould Street and Shorts Road, and then on towards Glenroy via Pascoe Vale. This recommended route however has no infrastructure to support it. Elsewhere, there is little provision for cycling or bike routes in the suburb.

Train

Two

railway stations A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing such a ...

service Coburg North:

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

and Merlynston, both located on the

Upfield railway line The Upfield line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's fifth-shortest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from Flinders Street station in centra ...

Tram

Tram route travels along Sydney Road from the terminus at Bakers Road, Coburg North to Flinders Street station in the city.

References

External links

Australian Places – Coburg North
{{City of Merri-bek suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Merri-bek Suburbs of the City of Darebin