Kingsbury 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-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

City 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. ...

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 ...

. Kingsbury recorded a population of 3,460 at the 2021 census. The suburb was named after Bruce Kingsbury VC, who died in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Residential layout

Kingsbury is an established suburb, with the majority of homes established in the 1960s from either weatherboard or brick. During the 2010s, there has been an increased number of new housing developments in the area with Kingsbury following the trend from neighbouring suburbs

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 ...

and Preston, largely due to the large block land size and close proximity to public transport and the Melbourne CBD. The suburb of Kingsbury previously had a golf course running through it before being built over in the 1960s for new housing developments. One side of Kingsbury's street names are made up of golfing terms; Green Avenue, Eagle Avenue, Flag Street, Bunker Avenue, Club Avenue, Golf Avenue and The Fairway. The other half of Kingsbury's street names reference famous poets from across the world; Lowell Avenue, Whittier Street, Scott Grove, Bradshaw Street, and Keats Avenue.

Public transport

Bus

Four

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 Kingsbury: * : Reservoir station –

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 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 ...

. * : Whittlesea –

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 ...

via South Morang station. Operated by Dysons. * :

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. Operated by Dysons. * :

Lalor Lalor is an Irish surname derived from the Irish ''Ó Leathlobhair'', from ''leath-'' “leper; weak, ailing person”. Notable people with the surname include: * Denis Lalor, athlete * Francis Ramsey Lalor (1856–1929), politician * James Fi ...

– Northland Shopping Centre via Childs Road,

Plenty Road Plenty Road is a major urban arterial road through the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from the inner suburb of Preston to the township of Whittlesea, just outside the north-eastern suburban fringe of Melbourne. The ...

and Grimshaw Street. Operated by Dysons.

Train

The nearest

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 ...

, on the Mernda line.

Tram

The suburb is also serviced by , which operates along

between Waterfront City in Docklands and

Bundoora Bundoora is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Banyule, Darebin and Whittlesea local government areas. Bundoora recorded a population of 28,068 at the ...

RMIT The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (abbreviated as RMIT University) is a public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia., section 4(b) Established in 1887 by Francis Ormond, it is the seventh-o ...

, which touches Kingsbury between Stops 56–60.

Education

There are currently two primary schools and a university in Kingsbury; Kingsbury Primary School, Our Lady of the Way Catholic Primary School and

. In 2011, Kingsbury Primary School named its new building the Isurava Centre for Learning, after the field in New Guinea in which Bruce Kingsbury fell.

Parks

Kingsbury has both reserve parkland and playgrounds available throughout. Kevin P Hardiman Reserve, which carries through it the Darebin Creek bike trail, has a children's playground. C.W Kirkwood reserve and Link Playground are also located in Kingsbury. Bundoora Park is also located in close proximity to Kingsbury. Bundoora Park is a 180 hectare parkland set in natural bushland beside the

Darebin Creek Darebin Creek is a creek that runs through the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the main watercourse of the Darebin Valley and a major tributary of the Yarra River. For tens of thousands of years it was used as a food a ...

. The public parklands at Bundoora Park provides a number of playgrounds, waterways and free BBQ facilities.

Demographics

The most common ancestries in Kingsbury were Australian 16.5%, English 13.3%, Chinese 12.5%, Italian 8.1% and Vietnamese 5.8%. 46.3% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were China (excludes SARs and Taiwan) 11.5%, Vietnam 6.2%, India 4.6%, Italy 4.3% and Malaysia 2.5%.

Religion

According to the 2006 census, the majority of Kingsbury's population are Catholics. Our Lady of the Way Catholic Church is the local Catholic centre. For other religions, the nearest Buddhist Temple is Linh Son Buddhist Temple located on Radford Road,

and the Mosque located in nearby Preston.

Projects

There is currently a bronze statue of Bruce Kingsbury located at the Kingsbury Bowls club. The statue is one of three in existence.

Sport and leisure

Kingsbury has a wide range of sporting facilities within the area and nearby. It holds two football/cricket grounds, one of which is home to the Camera Cricket Club on Dunne Street, a tennis club with four courts, basketball facilities, which is home to the 'Kingsbury Comets', a lawn bowls club and boxing gym, which is home to Brizzy Brothers boxing, which has operated in Kingsbury since 1989. Within close proximity is the Reservoir Leisure Centre, the Reservoir Community Sports Centre, which includes basketball, netball and hockey, La Trobe University Sports Centre and several other multi-purpose sporting grounds. The Kingsbury community market has been running for over 30 years every Sunday from Kingsbury Drive at La Trobe University. The market is popular for selling plants, produce, handcrafts, bric-a-brac and much more.

References

{{City of Darebin suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Darebin