Fairfield is an inner 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, north-east 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 and Yarra

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. Fairfield recorded a population of 6,535 at the 2021 census. Fairfield is bounded by Grange Road to the east, the

Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, (Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower st ...

to the south, Darebin Road to the north and Northcote to the west.

History

Fairfield gets its name from "Fairfield Park", an estate that was subdivided from large tracts of land that was brought by Charles Henry James, a land speculator. The name was alleged to have come from

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Fairfield Post Office opened on 21 February 1887. It has since relocated. In 1962, Fairfield was part of the former City of Heidelberg. In that year, the suburb, along with Alphington, became part of the

City of Northcote The City of Northcote was a Local government in Australia, local government area about northeast of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1883 until 1994. His ...

, which in 1994, became part of the City of Darebin.

Commerce and culture

Fairfield is predominantly residential, with a small north-eastern pocket remaining a light industrial area. A three-storey hotel, the Grandview Hotel, was completed in 1888, with its licence was granted by the Licensing Court on 15 August in that year. It has been known for hosting live music, and in the 1970s the Aboriginal country music band, the Country Outcasts, featuring Harry & Wilga Williams, had a residency there. The Station Street shopping district currently has 89 businesses operating within it, with 23 cafes/bars/restaurants and 17 food and wine specialists. Adjacent to the

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, facing north-east, is the Fairfield Industrial Dog Object, a tall

animatronic An animatronic is a puppet controlled electronically to move in a fluent way. Animatronics are the modern adaptation of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films, video games and in theme park attractions. Anim ...

wooden dog.

Demographics

In the 2021 census, the most common ancestries were English 33.3%, Australian 28.0%, Irish 16.0%, Scottish 11.7 and Italian 10.2%. 73.8% of people were born in Australia with other common countries of birth being England 3.2%, Greece 2.6%, Italy 1.8%, and New Zealand 1.4%. Most common languages, other than English spoken at home are Greek 5.5%, Italian 2.8%, Mandarin 1.1%, Spanish 1.1% and Vietnamese 1.0%. Fairfield has significant

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

communities, with 10.3% and 8.8% of residents of the City of Darebin (which Fairfield is contained within) being of those ancestries respectively. There are also strong numbers of Chinese, Dutch,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and Indian residents in the suburb.

Education

* Fairfield Primary School * St Anthony's Primary School * Melbourne Polytechnic has a campus on the site of the former Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, specialising in visual arts, music, horticulture, and jewellery manufacture.

Sporting clubs

* Fairfield Bowling Club plays

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

at Gillies St. * Fairfield Cricket Club *

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

teams Fitzroy City and Yarra Jets play home matches at Fairfield Park. * Golfers play at the course of th
Yarra Bend Golf Club
on Yarra Bend Road. * Fairfield is home to the Darebin International Sports Centre, which played host to events during the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

Transport

Bus

Six bus routes service Fairfield: * :

Melbourne CBD 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 ...

( Queen Street) –

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 ...

( Bundoora Campus). Operated by Kinetic Melbourne. * : Alphington station – Moonee Ponds Junction via Northcote and Brunswick. 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 ...

. * : Essendon station – Ivanhoe station via Brunswick West, Moreland station, Thornbury and Fairfield. Operated by Kinetic Melbourne. * : Heidelberg station –

Queen Victoria Market The Queen Victoria Market (also known colloquially as the Vic Market or Queen Vic) is a major landmark and public marketplace in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Covering over , it is the largest open air ...

via Clifton Hill, Carlton and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

. Operated by Dysons. * : Northcote – Regent station via

Northland Shopping Centre Northland Shopping Centre is a major shopping centre in Preston, Victoria, Preston, approximately 11 km north of the Melbourne central business district in Victoria, Australia. It is the largest predominantly single-level shopping centre in ...

. Operated by Dysons. * : Hawthorn station – Fairfield via

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...

. Operated by Dysons.

Train

Fairfield is serviced by Fairfield station, which is on the Hurstbridge line.

Gallery

File:Fairfield boathouse.jpg, Fairfield Boathouse File:Fairfield Pipe Bridge 2009.JPG, Fairfield Pipe Bridge in

Yarra Park Yarra Park (35.469 hectares) is a public park that is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct, a sporting precinct in Victoria, Australia. Located in Yarra Park is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and numerous sporting fields ...

File:Fairfield dog.jpg, Fairfield Industrial Dog Object, Station Street, Fairfield File:St Joseph's Melkite Catholic Church.JPG, St Joseph's Melkite Catholic Church, Fairfield File:Station St, Fairfield, Vic.jpg, Station St is the main shopping hub in Fairfield File:Fairfield Railway Station, Vic.jpg, Fairfield railway station as viewed from the pedestrian overpass at dusk

References

External links

{{Authority control Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Yarra Suburbs of the City of Darebin