VICRail & telegraph
Essendon
A stop on the road to the diggings, then the end of a private railway.
1860Private railway to Essendon opens
WHAT STARTED IT
Mount Alexander Road, the main route from Melbourne to the goldfields from 1851, ran through the district, and a town called Essendon was gazetted beside it in 1852. In 1860 a private company opened a railway from Melbourne with its terminus here.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The railway company failed and the line closed from 1864 to 1871, which slowed suburban growth while the eastern suburbs boomed. Essendon and Flemington became a borough in 1861 and Essendon a city in 1909; the Commonwealth bought land for an aerodrome in 1921.
TURNING POINTS
1860The Melbourne and Essendon Railway is formally opened on 22 October.
1861The borough of Essendon and Flemington is proclaimed.
1871Trains run to Essendon again under Victorian Railways after the private line’s closure.
1909Essendon is proclaimed a city.
1921The Commonwealth buys land for Essendon aerodrome.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A leafy middle-ring suburb of Federation and interwar houses. Its name lives on in the airport and the football club.