South Melbourne, Victoria

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South Melbourne Town Hall with the colours of the Swans Australian Football League club are draped from the tower with respect to the former South Melbourne team competing in the 2006 AFL Grand Final.

Population:

8790 (2006)^[1]

Established:

1840s

Postcode:

3205

Area:

2.5 km² (1.0 sq mi)

Property Value:

AUD $600,000 ^[2]

Location:

3 km (2 mi) from Melbourne

LGA:

City of Port Phillip / City Of Melbourne

State District:

Albert Park

Federal Division:

Melbourne Ports

Suburbs around South Melbourne:
Docklands	Southbank	Southbank
Port Melbourne	South Melbourne	Melbourne
Albert Park	Albert Park	Melbourne

South Melbourne is an inner-southern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the City of Port Phillip. Historically, it was known as Emerald Hill.

The suburb is notable as it was one of the first of Melbourne's suburbs to adopt full municipal status and is, along with Fitzroy, one of Melbourne's oldest suburbs.

1 History
2 Features
3 Sport
4 Gallery
5 Famous former residents
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] History

Before European settlement, the area now called South Melbourne featured a single hill (where the Town Hall now stands) surrounded by swamps. The Hill was a traditional social and ceremonial meeting place for Aboriginal tribes.

The area was first settled by Europeans in the 1840s and became known as Emerald Hill. During the Victorian Gold Rush of 1851 a tent city, known as Canvas Town was established. Land sales began in 1852 and independence from Melbourne was granted when Emerald Hill was proclaimed a borough on 26 May 1855^[3].

The new municipality developed rapidly, and by 1872 Emerald Hill was proclaimed a town. The South Melbourne Town Hall was built during this time, and designed in suitable grandeur to evoke the city's booming status. In 1883 Emerald Hill became a city, changing its official name to South Melbourne.

South Melbourne experienced a decline in the 1950s as Melbourne sprawled outwards. Like many other Melbourne inner city suburbs, during the 1960s the Victorian Housing Commission stepped in and erected several high-rise public housing towers, the tallest and largest of which, Park Towers is in South Melbourne. The result was an injection of migrants adding to the multicultural flavour of the area.

In the 1980s, South Melbourne experienced one of Melbourne's biggest waves of gentrification. Many of the terrace homes were restored and renovated and a new middle class moved in. As a result of the development of Southbank in the 1990s, Clarendon Street has become one of the highest rental yielding commercial streets in the entire city of Melbourne, attracting many of the residents from the apartment buildings to shop.

[edit] Features

The main commercial district is centred around Clarendon Street and includes the vibrant South Melbourne market.

The town hall precinct is home to some of Melbourne's best examples of Victorian architecture.

In recent years, South Melbourne has seen an increase in population density due to apartment development in nearby Southbank, Victoria, where development has spilled over from the Melbourne CBD. To the east, towards St Kilda Road complex are many high rise office buildings.

The South Melbourne market is bordered by Cecil Street, York Street, and Coventry Street.

South Melbourne features some of the television production studios of Seven Local TV. These studios were previously the Seven Network's HSV-7 studios; Seven moved to Melbourne Docklands in 2003 selling their previous studios but continued to tape some of the programmes there, leasing the facilities from the new owners. The internationally exported Kath & Kim was filmed in the studio and does broadcasts for Wheel Of Fortune (filmed in Sydney's Epping studios) and Deal Or No Deal (filmed in the Docklands studios).

[edit] Sport

Old Lake Oval grandstand, adjacent to today's Bob Jane Stadium

It was once home to the South Melbourne Swans team which played in the Victorian Football League (VFL/AFL), which played out of the Lake Oval (now Bob Jane Stadium) in nearby Albert Park before relocating to Sydney in 1982 in a radical move which eventually spawned the national Australian Football League. The Swans, whose red and white were based on the colours of the South Melbourne coat of arms still retain a strong and loyal supporter base in the area, with approximately 7,000 Melbourne based members (a similar number to when the team were based permanently in Melbourne). They have tasted recent premiership success in 2005 after a 72 year drought. The club maintains a local office on Albert Road and retains links to the local community.

South Melbourne FC is regarded as one of Australia's most successful football (soccer) club with four national titles to their name. They currently play in the Victorian Premier League at Bob Jane Stadium, a rectangular stadium built on Lake Oval, the former home ground of the South Melbourne Swans. Historically, they have been known as South Melbourne Hellas, a tribute to the migrant Greek founders of the club, and traditionally played at Middle Park.