| Keilor Melbourne, Victoria |
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Brimbank Park at Keilor |
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Keilor
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| Population: | 5,670 (2006)[1] | ||||||||||||
| Postcode: | 3036 | ||||||||||||
| Area: | 16.4 km² (6.3 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Location: | 18 km (11 mi) from Melbourne | ||||||||||||
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| State District: | Keilor, Niddrie | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Gorton | ||||||||||||
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Keilor is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 18 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Brimbank and Hume. At the 2006 Census, Keilor had a population of 5,670.
Whilst most of the suburb is contained within the City of Brimbank, the northern section of Keilor, located north of the Calder Freeway, is located in the City of Hume. This section of the suburbs is located on the flood plain of the Maribyrnong River, and is home to many market gardens.
The suburb is essentially residential with large industrial developments in adjacent suburbs.
There are several shopping centres around the area including Centro Keilor and Watergardens Town Centre located approximately 5 km from Keilor.
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Keilor is a pretty little township in a basin of the Maribyrnong River. W. Watson from Scotland was the first land-holder in the district. Keilor in the early times of the gold diggings was a noted camping place for bullock teams to and from the diggins at Castlemaine and Ballarat. Caroline Chisholm was responsible for having shelter sheds erected alongside the river; a reconstructed example has been built and may be viewed. The escorts from the goldfields passed through Keilor. They camped in a paddock near Keilor. This paddock was known as Escort Paddock and the remains of an old stone building is still to be seen there. The surrounding country is known by the name of the Keilor Plains and is of basaltic formation. Spanning the river was a wooden bridge which was replaced by an iron bridge in 1868. A new bridge had been built alongside the iron bridge. Both the Anglican and the Catholic Churches built during the early settlement years have been retained for future generations to view and to enjoy. They have been heritage listed.
About 1 million years ago lava covered the previous landscape and created basalt plains. Over time, the Maribyrnong River carved itself through the basalt plains.
Australian megafauna including 3 meter high kangaroos and Diprotodons were found in the area until extinction about 13,000 years ago at the end of the ice age.
The Wurundjeri Aborigines inhabited the area for approximately 40,000 years. It is one of the oldest inhabited sites in Australia.
The first Europeans to pass through the area were Charles Grimes surveying party who followed the Maribynong River upstream in the Summer of 1803. Grimes report of the area was unfavourable. In June 1835, John Batman followed a similar route and remarked of Keilor that it was the "Most beautiful sheep pasturage I ever saw in my life".
In about 1838 the first European settlements were established by pastoralists James Watson and Alexander Hunter. James Watson is thought to have named the area after a place called Keilor in Forfarshire, Scotland where his father farmed a large property.
In the 1850s people would stopover at Keilor during their travels from Melbourne to the Bendigo goldfields. Keilor saw an influx of new settlers who intended to cash in on this new market. Keilor Post Office opened on 2 March 1854 [2] and a general store, blacksmith, hotel, police station, courthouse and bridge were all built during this time.
The area became an agricultural district and remained so until after World War II when the suburb saw a rapid increase in population due to cheap land and the establishment of large industries in surrounding suburbs.
Keilor Football Club, an Australian Rules football team, competes in the Essendon District Football League.[3]
Golfers play at the Keilor Public Golf Course on the Calder Highway in the neighbouring suburb of Keilor North.[4]
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