Thomastown is a suburb of

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 ...

, 16 km driving distance (14km line of sight) approximately 30 minutes 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

City of Whittlesea The City of Whittlesea is a local government area located in the outer northern suburbs of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covers an area of , and in June 2023, it had an estimated population of 245,029 and is one ...

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 ...

. Thomastown recorded a population of 14,234 at the . Thomastown is known for sharing its area with Westgarthtown, a historical

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), downward movement of a structure's foundation *Settlement (finance), where securities are delivered against payment of money *Settlement (litigatio ...

History and development

Thomastown came into existence in 1848 when the John Honniball Thomas and Mary née Hartnell family bought 106 acres, the land north of Melbourne for

market gardening A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to s ...

. Two years later,

William Westgarth William Westgarth (15 June 1815 – 28 October 1889) was a Scottish-born merchant, historian, statistician and politician in Australia. Westgarth was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, and, later, the Victorian Legislative Counci ...

bought land north of Thomas' holding, which he made way for

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 ...

settlers A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

. Thomastown Post Office opened on 9 June 1862. The Thomastown area attracted many

farmers A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mi ...

and much

horse-racing Horse racing is an equestrianism, equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all spor ...

until

World War II 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 ...

. In 1889, the Epping railway line opened and

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

production and distribution grew during the 1930s when a German dairying family formed the Pura Dairy, ultimately to expand into Preston and became Metropolitan Dairies Pty. Ltd. In 1947, a

housing co-operative A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity which owns real estate consisting of one or more residential buildings. The entity is usually a cooperative or a corporation and constitutes a form of housing tenure. Typically hous ...

was formed 2 km. north in the suburb of

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 ...

. Soon, residential development began at Thomastown. While

settlers already call this area home, more settlers moved in, mostly

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

, Macedonians and

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

. In 1961 St. Clare's Primary School opened, followed by Thomastown Secondary College and then Thomastown West Primary School.

Modern Thomastown

Thomastown has a strip

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

in High Street parallel to the

Thomastown Railway Station Thomastown Railway Station serves the town of Thomastown in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is a station on the Dublin to Waterford Intercity route. History The station opened on 12 May 1848 upon the opening of the Waterford and Kilkenny Railw ...

, a shopping centre corner of Edgars Road and Main Street and shops on Settlement Road and Dalton Road, plus various shopping strips east of the train station. Thomastown Secondary College is located on Main Street, adjacent to Thomastown West Primary School, Thomastown Recreational and Aquatic Centre (TRAC) and Thomastown Library which is managed by

Yarra Plenty Regional Library Yarra Plenty Regional Library (YPRL) provides a public library service to the local government municipalities of the City of Banyule, Shire of Nillumbik and City of Whittlesea in the northeast of Melbourne, Melbourne Australia and located on the ...

. Thomastown East has a grid street configuration, predating the later configuration in Thomastown West which protects residential streets from through traffic. On the south of Thomastown there are numerous factories and an

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

terminal station, near the

Metropolitan Ring Road The M80 Ring Road (also known simply as the Ring Road or by the names of its constituent parts; the Western Ring Road and the Metropolitan Ring Road) is a partially complete urban freeway ring road around Melbourne, Australia. This article wi ...

/ Northern Ring Road. There is also the

Hume Freeway The Hume Highway, including the sections now known as the Hume Freeway and the Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city National Highway (Australia), national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in ...

, which is west of Thomastown. The Galada Tamboore Path to the west and the Metropolitan Ring Road Trail to the south provide facilities for recreational and commuting cyclists.

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 ...

and the

Edgars Creek Trail __NOTOC__ The Edgars Creek Trail is a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians in the suburb of Thomastown, an inner northern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. It leads to the historic village of Westgarthtown. Following the Path The path is ...

runs along a linear park which is next to a reserve with ovals. Each year around March the community unite for the annua
Whittlesea Community festival
a festival that showcases local culture through live entertainment, food stalls, hand made crafts and fireworks finale. The festival is held at the Barry Road parklands in Thomastown. Thomastown is also the home to

Select Harvests Select Harvests is Australia's largest almond grower and processor, and is the third largest grower worldwide. It manages almond orchards in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, and is also involved in the manufacture of a variety of f ...

corporate offices and one of its two almond processing plants.

Thomastown Mosque The Thomastown Mosque (), is a mosque located in Thomastown, a northern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The mosque is situated opposite the railway line and Thomastown railway station. Associated with the Turkish Australian communit ...

was built (early 1990s) by the Turkish Australian community and is located opposite the train station.

Thomastown railway station

Thomastown railway station opened on 23 December 1889. It was originally a single platform railway station located on High Street between Main Street and Spring Street. Thomastown railway station is directly linked to the City via the Mernda line. In 2011, the station was upgraded. A second platform, 310 parking spaces for cars, and a pedestrian overpass to cross over to the second platform were all added as were lifts for the disabled and new

Myki Myki ( ), stylised as myki, is a reloadable credit card-sized contactless smart card ticketing system used for electronic payment of fares on most public transport services in Melbourne and regional Victoria, Australia. Myki replaced the Me ...

card systems which replaced the old ticket system.

Sport

Thomastown has 5 sporting ovals scattered to each side of Thomastown. These include the Nick Ascenzo Park located off Boronia Street, Thomastown East Recreational Reserve located off Rowen Street, HR Uren Reserve located next to Victoria Drive, West RGC Cook Reserve located on Robinvale Avenue and Main Street Recreational Reserve which is located next to Edgars Creek and TRAC. There is also a Thomastown Football Club, an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

team, which competes in the

Northern Football League The Northern League is a British men's association football, football league in North East England, north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Footb ...

Notable people

* Kris Pavlidis – First Greek female Mayor of the City of Whittlesea, long-serving councillor, community advocate, speaker and social worker.

Books on Thomastown

Jones, Michael ''Nature's Plenty: a history of the City of Whittlesea'', Sydney, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 1992

References

External links

Australian Places – ThomastownWestgarthtown – Historical site situated in ThomastownThomastown 3074 Original PageThomastown Neighbourhood House
{{Authority control Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Whittlesea Hume Highway