| Deer Park Melbourne, Victoria |
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Kororoit Creek at Deer Park |
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Deer Park
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| Population: | 12,152 (2006)[1] | ||||||||||||
| Established: | 1870s | ||||||||||||
| Postcode: | 3023 | ||||||||||||
| Area: | 9.3 km² (3.6 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Location: | 17 km (11 mi) from Melbourne | ||||||||||||
| LGA: | City of Brimbank | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Kororoit, Derrimut | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Gorton | ||||||||||||
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Deer Park is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 17 km west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Brimbank. At the 2006 Census, Deer Park had a population of 12,152.
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The suburb was originally named Kororoit Creek, after the creek running through the suburb but was renamed after the Melbourne Hunt Club used the area to house their stock of game deer. The original Hunt Club building still stands on the Western Highway, next to the Deer Park sports oval and is now a community centre.
Following the discovery of gold in Ballarat and Bendigo, to the west, there became a great demand for explosives. Deer Park was chosen as the site of Melbourne's first explosives factory, the Albion Explosives Factory, in the 1870s.
The site was chosen for its isolation, as it was several miles from the outskirts of Melbourne. The availability of water in Kororoit Creek was also a factor.
The Post Office opened in 1878 as Kororoit Creek and was renamed Deer Park in 1889.[2]
In the 1920s suburban sprawl threatened the isolation of the factory but before a move was necessary, the sprawl was halted by the depression of the 1930s.
A fatal accident at the factory in 1923 led to production of Black powder being stopped.
In 1928, Imperial Chemical Industries of Australia and New Zealand (ICI) took control of the factory.
A new Black Powder factory was built in Deer Park in 1936 and enlarged during World War II. Charcoal from Australian timbers also began to be manufactured.
With labour shortages and a large demand for products during the post-war boom, ICI commenced housing development in Deer Park to attract workers to the area and many of the surrounding streets are named for localities in the UK, where ICI had operations.
From the early 1980s-1990s, Deer Park became a very popular location with migrants from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The suburb is serviced by a railway station on the Melton greater-metropolitan line. The electrification of the train line to Deer Park was expected to occur in the 1980s however the project has been ignored by successive State Governments. Many residents believe the delay in upgrading the train line is related to the fact that Deer Park is situated in one of the safest Labor seats in the country.
Melbourne bus routes 215, 216, 400, and 451 service the area.
The main road through Deer Park is the Western Highway, which carries traffic between Melbourne and Ballarat, Victoria's third largest city. Station Road intersects North-South with the Western Highway and is a major local route. The Deer Park Bypass, completed in 2009, allows motorists to avoid the suburban streets of Deer Park on their journey from Melbourne to Caroline Springs, Ballarat and beyond.
Currently Deer Park has one secondary college which is Victoria University Secondary College - Deer Park Campus. It has four primary schools which are Deer Park North, Deer Park West and St. Peter Chanel P.S . It has the minor and adolescent Wattle program of Western Autistic School.
Kororoit Creek is located on the northern boundary of the suburb. This area (particularly in the West) has been home to large healthy populations of native reptiles for thousands of years, including Tiger snake, Eastern Blue-tongued Lizard, Stump-tailed skink and Eastern brown snake. Unfortunately due to development these species are now rarely seen in the area.
Due to more recent development of the Cairnlea estate and improved vegetation on the banks of Kororoit Creek, native species of frogs have taken advantage and have taken up residents in the new wetlands and lakes. The Common Eastern Froglet and even the now endangered Growling Grass Frog have been seen and heard in the new wetlands and around Kororoit Creek.
On the southern outskirts of the suburb there are large farm properties which are now being developed for housing under the development names Brimbank Gardens and St Andrews Field. This area surrounds Mount Derrimut, which will be the location of the newly relocated Sunshine Golf Club.
The suburb has an Australian Rules football team competing in the Western Region Football League.,[3] a cricket club and a tennis club.
Victoria's main maximum security female prison, the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre is located in Deer Park.
Deer Park has also gained a slightly tarnished reputation, due to the maximum security prison that is located there. This myth was the subject of an advertisement by the radio station Nova 100, in which comedian Dave Hughes claimed that he had seen a car on fire on a Deer Park street. In a letter they received from a resident, they came to the said resident's house and then, whilst talking to her, the car they had arrived in was attacked by several men and a woman, though this was staged for the commercial.
Nathan Phillips (actor), Snakes on a Plane
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