Footscray, Victoria

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Footscray
Melbourne, Victoria

Paisley Street in central Footscray

Population:

11,576 (2001)

Postcode:

3011

Area:

5 km²

Property Value:

AUD $317,000^[1]

Location:

5 km from Melbourne

LGA:

City of Maribyrnong

State District:

Footscray

Federal Division:

Gellibrand

Suburbs around Footscray
Maidstone	Maribyrnong	Flemington
Footscray West	Footscray	West Melbourne
Kingsville	Seddon	Yarraville

Footscray is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Maribyrnong. Footscray is characterised by a very diverse, multicultural central shopping area, which reflects the successive waves of immigration experienced by Melbourne, and by Footscray in particular. It is a hub for Vietnamese immigrants in Melbourne. The suburb is named after Foots Cray in England.

1 People
2 Food
3 Culture
4 Art
5 Community initiatives
6 Sport
- 6.1 Cricket
7 Industry
8 Identities
9 Education
- 9.1 Public library
10 Health
11 Places of worship
12 Media
13 References
14 See also
15 External links

[edit] People

The inner western suburbs of Melbourne have traditionally been undesirable as residential areas due to the presence of heavy industry nearby. However, the affordability of housing and availability of employment opportunities in these areas have made them attractive to migrants for many years. Greek, Italian and Croatian migrants arrived in the 1950s and 1960s, followed by Vietnamese in the 1970s and 1980s. Footscray remains a magnet for migrants, most recently for migrants from North and West Africa such as Sudan, Algeria, Morocco and Ethiopia, but there has been rapid gentrification as younger people seek affordable period housing close to Melbourne city centre.

The mall area and surrounding streets still have a poor reputation as a site of illegal fire works purchases and drug deals, particularly heroin. However, the drug trade has declined in the past several years. The Victorian Government recently introduced an initiative to have all drug users banned from entering Footscray.

[edit] Food

The Footscray Market is a fresh produce and seafood market, catering particularly to the various ethnicities and local restaurants. Another large market in Footscray is Little Saigon, which opened in 1992 to cater to the growing Asian population, but now has customers from all backgrounds. Little Saigon is noisy and crowded, boasting a wide array of tropical fruits and Asian produce.

Restaurants in Footscray are mostly Vietnamese or Chinese, however there are many East African cafes and restaurants and Indian restaurants. There also exists a pub that serves modern Australian food.

[edit] Culture

Footscray streetscape showing tram terminus

Footscray has been the setting of several Australian movies, the most notable being Romper Stomper which was filmed in and around Footscray in 1992. It deals with a fictional gang of neo-Nazi skinheads and their battle against Vietnamese immigrants. Not all scenes were filmed locally. The "Footscray Railway Station" featured in the movie has a pedestrian underpass, while the real station has an overpass for foot traffic; the station used was the sports entrance of Richmond station. The film Metal Skin (1994) was also set in and around Footscray.

The Croatian Australian Association's headquarters are located in Footscray, serving the large Croatian community in the area. Other support and social groups include African, Albanian, Chinese, Filipino, Greek, Bosnian, Italian, Polish, Serbian, Spanish, Latin American and Vietnamese.

The Footscray-Yarraville City Band rehearses weekly and performs throughout the year locally, nationally and internationally. They conduct an annual Carols by Candlelight event each December, held in the Yarraville Gardens.

The Tết Lunar Year Festival is held each year in Footscray. It is a vibrant, colourful and amazing festival, featuring dancing dragons, live music, food stalls, theme park rides and fireworks in the late evening.

The Footscray Historical Society works on a number of local fronts to record and preserve the history of the area. The Society has an active membership who take part in a range of activities to assist this endeavour. Records such as rare books, business records and correspondence are held at the Society's headquarters at Ercildoune, built in 1876 as a branch of the National Bank of Australasia. The Society owns this historic building and has had the interior and exterior restored. Tours, forums and discussions are held regularly.

[edit] Art

The Footscray Community Arts Centre is an old bluestone building with an amphitheatre which is home to the Women's Circus, exhibitions, art studios and workshops and is located alongside the Maribyrnong River. Their programs include workshops for people of all ages, a Community Cultural Development Artist Residency program and ArtLife - a program for people with disabilities to participate in arts activities and develop life skills.

The Melbourne Museum of Printing located in Footscray is open for public visits, classes for students of typography and the artist's access studio. Visitors are able to see various facets of typesetting and printing, including Gutenberg's invention of movable types, typesetting (by hand) with movable types, Linotype machine (hot metal composition), Ludlow machine (hot metal for large or fancy type), engravings needed to print an illustration and stereotypes (duplicates of typesettings).

The Trocadero Art Space is a recently opened arts venue exhibiting new and contemporary art in the heart of Footscray. The space is comprised of two purpose-built interior exhibition spaces as well as an outdoor, street-exposed exhibition space.

The Snuff Puppets are a large Footscray based performance group who make oversized puppets, combining the elements of puppetry, live music, visual and physical theatre to create a notable performance. Snuff Puppets have toured all over Australia, Asia, Western and Eastern Europe.

[edit] Community initiatives

A community supermarket was established by the Bayside Dream Centre to provide groceries and other essential items to disadvantaged people within the community at affordable prices. This non-profit organisation offers this service to all people, not only health-care or concession card owners. Grasslands Grocery is another non-profit community initiative, established in March 1997. Both of these organisation are run by members of the community.

[edit] Sport

Footscray is home of the Western Bulldogs, an Australian rules football team which plays in the Australian Football League. The team was known as the Footscray Football Club until 1996, and played its home games at the Whitten Oval, which is now used only as the club's training ground.

Flemington Racecourse, the home of the Melbourne Cup, is across the Maribyrnong River to the northeast in the neighbouring suburb of Flemington, immediately opposite Footscray Park, the second largest botanical garden in Victoria.

Footscray Cycling Club promotes road racing and criterium racing, whilst more generally cyclists are represented by MazzaBUG (Maribyrnong Bicycle User Group). See also Maribyrnong River Trail.

[edit] Cricket

The Footscray Cricket Club was founded in 1883 and for the first 113 years of its existence was also situated at the Western Oval (now Whitten Oval) until 1996 when combined pressure exerted by the Footscray Football Club and state-government-appointed commissioners to the City of Maribyrnong saw the club relocated to the Mervyn G. Hughes Oval.

Until the test cricket debut of the Melbourne Cricket Club's Brad Hodge in December 2005, the Footscray Cricket Club had produced the most Test players of any Melbourne based district cricket club. Footscray's Test representatives in order of debut are Ron Gaunt, Les Joslin, Ken Eastwood, Alan Hurst, Ray Bright, Merv Hughes, Tony Dodemaide and Colin Miller.

The club won its only District First Eleven premiership under the captaincy of Lindsay James in 1979/80.

[edit] Industry

Lonely Planet headquarters in Footscray

The headquarters of Lonely Planet Publications are located in eastern Footscray on the banks of the Maribyrnong River, adjacent to the Hobsons Bay Coastal Trail.

The eastern portion of Footscray, in the fork between the Yarra River and Maribyrnong River, contains railway yards, the Melbourne Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market, and Appleton and Swanson Docks which were the site of the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute in Melbourne. In 2005, the State Government announced the closure of the Melbourne Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market to make way for an extensive redevelopment of the Port of Melbourne and the construction of new freight rail links to the area.

While many factories and warehouses are still to be found in and around the suburb of Footscray, many former industrial sites are being transformed into modern housing estates. Perhaps the largest of these is the former Footscray Ammunition Factory in a prime elevated position overlooking the banks of the Maribyrnong River with views across to Flemington Racecourse and Melbourne city centre.

[edit] Identities

There are many well known Melbourne identities who have always proudly associated themselves with the suburb of Footscray, often displaying their humble origins as a badge of honour. Former footballer and TV personality, Ted Whitten (also known universally as "Mr Football") is perhaps prime among them, although it has to be said that he was in fact recruited from nearby Braybrook.

Ernie Sigley is another former TV presenter and radio compare who associated strongly with Footscray and Maidstone. Other personalities include Merv Hughes (former cricketer), cartoonist Michael Leunig, Ray Borner (former basketballer) and the comedian Russell Gilbert.

A local furniture store owner (and TV personality of sorts), Franco Cozzo, an immigrant from Italy was well known for his TV commercials in which he mispronounced Footscray as "Food-a-scrye". Unfortunately, this had such an all pervasive influence that to this day people immediately recall this incorrect pronunciation, wittingly or otherwise.

[edit] Education

Some schools in the immediate Footscray area are:

Footscray Primary School (previously known as Geelong Road Primary School)
Footscray City Primary School (also known as Hyde Street, which offers a state curriculum and a smaller Steiner stream).
St Monica's Primary School
St John's School
St John's Primary School
Footscray City College (secondary school, previously known as Footscray Technical College).
Gilmore College (secondary school, previously known as Footscray Girls Secondary College).

There are also two campuses in Footscray of Victoria University.

[edit] Public library

Footscray Public Library is a large public library with a large range of services and facilities for members. These services include pre-school story times, orientation tours, reference and information services to assist with research needs and introduction to the internet classes. There is also a housebound service for those unable to visit the library.

Facilities include public internet access and word processing facilities, photocopiers, study carrels, local studies/family history room, conference rooms and discussion rooms, baby change room and community notice boards.

[edit] Health

The health needs of Footscray and surrounding residents are served by the Western General Hospital. The Western General is a large teaching and research hospital responsible for providing a comprehensive range of inpatient and outpatient acute health services. The hospital currently conducts research in gastroenterology, colorectal cancer, emergency care, oncology, respiratory medicine, sleep disorders, and vascular surgery.

Key services at the Western Hospital include acute medical and surgical services, intensive and coronary care, emergency services, renal services, specialist drug and alcohol services, aged care and palliative care.

The Western Region Health Centre was established in 1964. Services include an African community worker, refugee health nurse, women’s health nurse, dieticians, youth health nurse, diabetic educator, podiatrist, counsellors and physiotherapists. Visiting specialists include a general surgeon and paediatrician. Pathology services and Dental services are co-located on site.

[edit] Places of worship

There are many religious organisations and places of worship in Footscray, including Anglican, Buddhist, Catholic, Church of Christ, Agnostic, Lutheran, Orthodox and Uniting Church. There is a prayer room at the Footscray Park campus of Victoria University provided by the Islamic Society, as well as a multi-denominational prayer room on campus.

[edit] Media

Two free, weekly suburban newspapers are distributed in Footscray. The Western Times is part of the News Corporation-owned Leader Newspapers group and The Footscray Mail is part of the Fairfax Community Newspapers Victoria. Both are distributed every Wednesday.