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Brunswick Today

Melbourne is widely regarded as one the most liveable cities on the planet. With its easy paced lifestyle and inner suburbs loaded with character, it is plain to see why it has earned this tag. One of Melbourne's most identifiable features is its willingness to embrace a wide variety of cultures, giving an already diverse city a distinctive multicultural flavour.
(Extract from www.csbackpackers.com.au/melb)

Brunswick is an inner-northern suburb of Melbourne and one of the municipal areas of Moreland. The suburb's southern border is defined by the expanses of Royal Park which hosts the Mt Royal and the Royal Children's hospitals, the Melbourne Zoo and Melbourne University which, of course, are just a brisk walk from the famous Fitzroy Gardens and the heart of Melbourne. The Moreland municipality is a diverse community with 36% of residents born overseas and 45% speaking a language other than English in the home. This multicultural diversity adds a great deal of colour to the annual Sydney Road Street Party and Brunswick Music Festival which are held in March. After a long battle by conservationists, Brunswick is on the verge of gaining its own distinctive arts and cultural precinct on the old Hoffman's Brickworks site. Art is also a focal point in the open space redevelopment of the Brunswick Town Hall which is now home to The Counihan Gallery.
(Extract 2006 www.travelmate.com.au)

Discover the exploding fashion industry in Sydney Road Brunswick that includes fashion houses, factory outlets and young talented designers. Eclectic, glamorous, sassy, funky and with a vintage feel, describes some of the local and international designers on show at the Victoria Street stage at the 2007 Sydney Road Street Party. Gowns from Mariana Hardwick factory outlet and Croce Colosimo Couture will also pace the catwalk in true splendor.

Eating at the marvellous array of world food restaurants along Sydney Road is a great way to kick off a night of music. With so many cultural delights to choose from, you can enter into any part of the world. Very affordable main courses and banquets that will have your tummies and your pockets, still full! You can visit the website www.sydneyroad.com.au to view all the restaurants, cafes and bars along the strip. It's a great place to promenade and discover the treasures along the way.
(Editorial extract: Sydney Road Brunswick Association 2007)

Middle Eastern Bakery Tours Rise to the occasion and experience a variety of Turkish pides, flat breads, spinach, cheese and spicy meat pizzas, kahak, and mouth watering baklavas. Mmm, what a treat! Join our visitors from over the river, interstate and absolutely all over the world to explore the warmth of Sydney Road's bakery delights, exploring 5 traditional Middle Eastern bakeries with a mix of modern technology and Sydney Road's culture. Each have their own techniques of bread-making and individual stories, making these tours unique and are a fine example of Melbourne's remarkable food diversity. Tours run in March and the 2007 host and tour guide is comedian and writer Catherine Deveny.
(Editorial extract: Sydney Road Brunswick Association 2007)


Brunswick Early Days
From the 1840s the settlement started to grow. The Retreat Inn, Brunswick's oldest hotel opened in 1846, and provided a popular stopping place for travellers. However it was still an isolated rural community with a dirt track for a main road, until everything changed with the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851 and the quickest way to the goldfields in Ballarat and Bendigo was through Brunswick. A camp was set up opposite the Methodist Church where people on the way to the fields could rest and organise themselves for their journey. Next to the church was a 'Rag fair' where clothes and goldfield equipment were sold. More shops and hotels opened, including the Brunswick Hotel in 1852 and the Edinburgh Castle and the Sarah Sands both in 1854. Gold fever caused a rush of settlers to Australia. The settlers needed houses once they had tried their luck on the fields, and suitable clay had been discovered in Brunswick by John Glew in 1849.

The natural deposits of clay for bricks and bluestone for houses and roads meant Brunswick's quarrying industry was born. The Cornwell works began in 1861 and John Barry and Jenkin Collier launched the Hoffman brickyard in 1863, which eventually employed 800 people. By 1865, most of the population of 3000 was involved in brickmaking and bluestone 'dressing'.

The first schools in the area were run by individuals in private homes. The Methodists opened a school in 1849 that combined with a Presbyterian one to become Central Brunswick State School 1213 in 1877. A Catholic school began in a back room at the Brunswick Hotel in 1860. This became St Ambrose Primary School. The Mechanics Institute opened in 1868 providing a library book service, but a fee had to be paid. A free service started in 1926 and the library moved to the town hall facing Sydney Road in 1976, then to its present location in the large hall in Dawson Street in 1992. The Campbell Turnbull library in Melville Road opened in 1982.

In 1884 the railway line came to Brunswick, and the first cable tram in 1887. (In 1916 electric trams began in Lygon Street and replaced horse drawn buses.) In April 1888 Brunswick was proclaimed a Town with a population of 14,792. By 1891 there were as well as the brickworks, nail and rope factories, two banks, three schools, two newspapers, five railway stations, a Mechanics Institute and three fire brigades! Electricity supply began in 1914.

After the First World War new industries developed creating more employment, hosiery and textile companies such as Prestige, Holeproof and Peerless. By 1928 the population had reached 55,799. Brunswick Town Hall held the best dances in the north, and there were many theatres showing films. The 1930s saw the decline of the brick and clay industries as much of the clay and bluestone had been used up. Many of the quarries were filled in and became parks and reserves. Migration from European countries after the Second World War saw thousands of people come first from Italy, then Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and other countries.

Extract from History of Moreland - Fact Sheet 2 - compiled by Moreland Libraries