Thomastown is a suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, 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 commercial and business centre 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 with the "city ...

, 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 2018, it had a population of 223,322. History What became ...

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 State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

. Thomastown recorded a population of 20,234 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), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building * Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...

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 ...

. 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 Coun ...

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

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

settlers A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

. 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 equestrian performance sport, 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 sports, as its basic pr ...

until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1889, the Epping railway line opened and

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

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, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinc ...

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 * John Lalor ...

. Soon, residential development began at Thomastown. While German settlers already call this area home, more settlers moved in, mostly

Italians , flag = , flag_caption = The national flag of Italy , population = , regions = Italy 55,551,000 , region1 = Brazil , pop1 = 25–33 million , ref1 = , region2 ...

Yugoslavs Yugoslavs or Yugoslavians ( Bosnian and Croatian: ''Jugoslaveni'', Serbian and Macedonian ''Jugosloveni''/Југословени; sl, Jugoslovani) is an identity that was originally designed to refer to a united South Slavic people. It has ...

and

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

. 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 (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

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. Unlike most other railway stations on the network, tickets are not available for purchase at Tho ...

, 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 Australia and located on the lands of ...

. 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 that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

terminal station, near the

Metropolitan Ring Road The M80 Ring Road (also known as simply the Ring Road or by the name of its constituent parts: Western Ring Road and Metropolitan Ring Road) is a currently incomplete urban freeway ring road around Melbourne, Australia. This article will dea ...

/ Northern Ring Road. There is also the

Hume Freeway Hume Highway, inclusive of the sections now known as Hume Freeway and Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of the route f ...

, 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. Edgars Creek has a catchment on the basalt plains in Wollert and flows south through the suburbs of Epping, Thomastown and Reservoir, t ...

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 corporate offices and one of its two almond processing plants.

Thomastown Mosque , native_name_lang = , image = Thomastown Mosque.jpg , image_upright = 1.20 , alt = , caption = , map_type = Australia Melbourne , map_size = 260 , ...

was built (early 1990s) by the

Turkish Australian Turkish Australians ( tr, ) or Australian Turks ( tr, ) are Australians who have migrated from Turkey or who have Turkish ancestral origins. Turks first began to emigrate to Australia from the island of Cyprus for work in the 1940s, and the ...

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 ...

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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

team, which competes in the

Northern Football League The Northern League is a men's football league in north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Football League. It contains two divisions; Division ...

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