North Melbourne is one of the city's most dynamic and complex areas. Its residences are a mix of established and new housing, with commercial, industrial, retail and community facilities scattered throughout.
Its proximity to the city centre has meant that since the 1980s the area has slowly become gentrified. Shopping strips such as Errol Street (where the North Melbourne Town Hall is located) have become more popular. The North Melbourne Town Hall itself is the home of Arts House, and becomes the hub of the annual Melbourne Fringe Festival.
North Melbourne retains some of its public housing and a strong migrant mix, with recent families arriving from African countries such as Somalia and Eritrea.
Audit and mapping exercise
Until 1 July 2008, North Melbourne was shared between the Local Government Areas of the City of Moonee Valley and the City of Melbourne, but is now entirely within the City of Melbourne.
As a result of the boundary change, the City of Melbourne undertook an audit and mapping exercise of existing community infrastructure in North Melbourne (3051) and Kensington (3031) in October 2008. The audit and map assisted Council to plan future grant funding, service provision and capital works and also provided input to a review of the City of Melbourne’s Community Infrastructure Plan for the entire municipality, carried out in 2009/10.
For the purpose of the audit community infrastructure was defined as services, programs, facilities, initiatives and processes that support and respond to life stages such as families and youth, and specific needs like disability and disadvantage, social isolation, community strengthening and wellbeing.
Community Infrastructure Audit report (PDF, 620kb)
Community Infastructure Audit report (Text only, 1MB)
Community Infrastructure Audit – service listing (PDF, 138kb)
Community Infrastructure Audit – service listing (Text only, 341kb)
Kensington and North Melbourne audit map (PDF, 1.5MB)
For more information, please contact the Social Planner of the Community Development Branch on (03) 9658 9986.
Further information
Map of Carlton, North Melbourne and Parkville (PDF, 963kb)
For further research on the City of Melbourne, visit Statistics.
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