Brunswick West is a residential suburb 6 km. north of Melbourne. It lies between the Moonee Ponds Creek and central Brunswick with the Royal Park lands at its southern border.
It was the last area to be settled residentially in the former Brunswick municipality, being somewhat remote from north-south public transport services. Settlement in fact predated the opening of the Melville Road tram line in 1925-7. The area’s first primary school, west of Hoffman’s brickyard, opened in 1888.
An early, although unsuccessful, residential subdivision was in the north-west, at the Hopetoun Estate in 1892. Ten years later the area came under a State Government Closer Settlement Scheme, attracting about 200 residents. It was named Moonee Vale. The south-west was more attractive, being closer to Melbourne and less flood prone. Subdivision lots were larger than in Brunswick central and Brunswick East, and the predominant house design was the Californian bungalow.
Little or no shopping was developed apart from two small areas along the Melville Road tram route (1926). Schools, however,were plentiful: Brunswick North, originally Moonee Vale (1925), Brunswick South West (1927) and Brunswick North West (1929).
The last area to be subdivided into its present allotments was the Closer Settlement area at Moonee Vale, during the 1940s and early 1950s. Cream bricks and flats dot the postwar landscape.
Brunswick West has an array of linear parks along the Moonee Ponds Creek, but some of them must be reached by crossing the Tullamarine Freeway along the creek valley. There are two small reserves along an unused railway reservation and the large Dunstan Park with ovals.
Brunswick West has higher median house prices than the easterly parts. The prices have also risen faster than the metropolitan average, reflecting the suburb’s gentrification during the late 1980s and the 1990s. In 1987 Brunswick West’s median house price was a shade under metropolitan Melbourne’s, and in 1996 it was 144%.
Further Reading:
- Blake, Alison M.T., (ed.), “Three ConservationStudies in Brunswick”, Footscray Institute of Technology, 1989.
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