| Kensington Melbourne, Victoria |
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The corner of Bellair Street and Macaulay Road, the commercial heart of Kensington opposite the main railway station |
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Kensington
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| Population: | 8676 (2006) [1] | ||||||||||||
| Postcode: | 3031 | ||||||||||||
| Area: | 3.9 km² (1.5 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Location: | 4 km (2 mi) from Melbourne | ||||||||||||
| LGA: | City of Melbourne | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Melbourne | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Melbourne | ||||||||||||
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Kensington is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Melbourne. At the 2006 Census, Kensington had a population of 8676.
Kensington was once home to one of Victoria's major abbatoirs and livestock saleyards, as well as an army ordnance depot, and has a strong working-class history. These areas have experienced significant urban renewal since the 1970s and while it retains some industrial sections, Kensington is now primarily residential suburb in nature.
Kensington was named after Kensington in London.
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The commercial and social heart of Kensington is the Macaulay Road shopping strip, which turns the corner into Bellair Street, opposite Kensington railway station. This short but lively strip has a number of cafes, restaurants and pubs, as well as local supermarkets, newsagents, post office and the Macaulay credit co-operative.
Kensington falls within the electorate of 'Melbourne' at federal level (currently held by the Green's Adam Bandt) and 'Melbourne' at state level (currently held by the ALP's Bronwyn Pike), as well as the City of Melbourne at local level.
The suburb is fairly typical of an inner-city suburb of Melbourne in that it is historically a safe ALP seat, but now with Greens majority.
The suburb contained one polling booth at the 2007 Federal Election, the booth of 'Kensington' at Kensington Primary School. The ALP won a majority of the primary vote itself (53.23%), with the Greens winning 22.28% and the Liberals winning 20.75%. In a two-horse race between the two most preferred parties, the vote was split 57.91% for the ALP's Lindsay Tanner and 42.09% for the Greens' Adam Bandt (putting the suburb in the "fairly safe ALP" category). On a "two-party preferred" contest between Labor-Liberal, the vote was split 75.21% for the ALP and 24.79% for the Liberals (putting the suburb in the "safe ALP" category).[2] Clearly, as in other inner-city suburbs, the greatest contest to the ALP comes from the Greens (rather than the Liberals, as in most other parts of the country).
Kensington's housing is primarily medium density, a diverse mix of public housing, townhouses and Victorian era semi-detached and terraced housing and flats. The largest housing estate is Kensington Banks a redevelopment of the old saleyards. There are several Housing Commission of Victoria public housing estates comprised a mixture of 12-storey high-rise towers and low-rise walk-up flats which date to the 1960s. The walk-up blocks have been redeveloped by developer Becton into a mixture of private apartments, townhouses and public housing units.
Kensington has a government primary school (Kensington North Melbourne PS), a Catholic primary school (Holy Rosary) and a government secondary school (Kensington Community High School).
The major recreational area is J.J. Holland Park, adjacent to South Kensington railway station, which has three ovals, a BMX track, children's play areas, a public swimming pool and a community centre. The Kensington Banks redevelopment has provided a second major public park on the Maribyrnong River frontage, with tennis facilities and walking tracks from the river that continue through the estate following the line of the old stockroute, lined with historic peppercorn trees. The new residential areas have been planned around a series of smaller-scaled open spaces, one of which is notable as the Women's Peace Park, to the west of Epsom Road. The open space spine formed by the stockman's route passes under Epsom Road and continues up to Racecourse Road.
Princes Highway (Smithfield Road) is the major road and is located to the north. Epsom Road and Kensington Road runs north east and south east respectively, forming a junction with Macauley Road, the main arterial which links Kensington central to Melbourne in the east. Another main road Stubbs Street runs along the industrial western banks of the Maribyrnong.
Kensington is serviced by three railway stations:Kensington on the Craigieburn railway line to the north-western suburbs, South Kensington on the three lines serving the western suburbs (The Sydenham, Werribee and Williamstown lines) and Macaulay on the Upfield line serving the northern suburbs. The No. 57 tram serves the northern edge of Kensington on Racecourse Road.
There are two bus services: the 402 along Macaulay and Kensington Roads, and the 404 along Smithfield and Epsom Roads.
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