Maidstone is a suburb in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, north-west of Melbourne's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

, located with the City of Maribyrnong

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

. Maidstone recorded a population of 9,389 at the . The suburb predominantly consists of residential areas. A large chunk of the north-western corner encompasses a private golf club and there is a small industrial zone in the centre. Maidstone is bounded by Suffolk Street to the south, Ashley Street to the west, along Summerhill Road and Rosamond Road to the east, and along Williamson Road and Rosamond Road to the north and north-east.

History

Maidstone was established in 1858. It was given the name after the town of

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Maidstone was predominantly made up of period weatherboard, brick

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

and Californian Bungalow houses constructed between the 1920s and 1940s. Concrete houses built in the late 1940s to house the families of returned servicemen from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

are also found. From the early 1990s many old factory sites in Maidstone have been turned into new housing estates comprising hundreds of houses and townhouses. Maidstone's recent development boost, good public transport availability and close proximity to the CBD has also seen the median house price escalate dramatically over the past 10 years.

Parks and recreational spaces

* Shepherd Gardens * Maidstone Tennis Club * Medway Golf Club (private) * Suffolk Triangle Park * Drey Park * Ulmara Park * Chislon Reserve * Scovell Reserve Oval * Rogers Reserve * Dobson Reserve Oval and Playground * Cambridge Reserve * Magnolia Path * Johnson Reserve and Roberta Tennis Club (just south of Maidstone) * Martin Reserve Dog Park (south of Maidstone) * Shorten Reserve Oval (south of Maidstone) * Maribyrnong River

Features

* Maidstone Tennis Club *

Maribyrnong River The Maribyrnong River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the northwestern suburbs of Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. Course The Maribyrnong River draws its headwaters from near ...

Maribyrnong River Trail __NOTOC__ The Maribyrnong River Trail is a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians, which follows the Maribyrnong River through the north western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The path, sometimes along both sides of the river, ...

* Medway Golf Club * The Palms Bingo and Club * Highpoint Shopping Centre (just north of Maidstone) * Footscray Hospital (just east of Maidstone) * One for the Crow café

Education

Maribyrnong College Maribyrnong College, also known as Maribyrnong Secondary College, and formerly known as Maribyrnong High School, is a government-funded secondary day school that specialises in sports, located in Maribyrnong in the inner western suburbs of M ...

(est 1958), located in Maribyrnong on the border of Maidstone and Maribyrnong. * Footscray North Primary School (est 1922), located in Footscray on the border of Maidstone and Footscray. * Footscray West Primary School (just south of Maidstone) * Dobson Kindergarten * North Maidstone Preschool Play Centre * Little VIPs Childcare Centre * Australian Childcare Diary * Explorers Early Learning Maidstone * St Vincent's School

Sports and fitness

* Maidstone United Soccer Club (formally Leros United Soccer Club) (Scovell Reserve) * Sunshine George Cross Juniors Soccer Club (Dobson Reserve) * Rosamond Bowling Club * Rosamond Tennis Club (Footscray North Primary School) * Maidstone Tennis Club * Maidstone Junior Sporting Club (As above) * Footscray United Cricket Club (Scovell Reserve) * Rosamond Bowling Club * Golfers play at the course of the Medway Golf Club on Omar Street. * Genesis Maidstone Gym * FIT CENTRE * Commercial St Dance Studio * Cia Paulista Australia BJJ – Maribyrnong * Zoom Fitness 24/7 – Gym (just east of Maidstone) * Club Fitbox

Places of worship

* Our Lady's Catholic Church is a landmark building established in 1962, located on

Ballarat Road Ballarat Road (in its westernmost part the Western Highway) is a major urban arterial road in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. History Previously part of Western Highway, the road was bypassed as the main route through w ...

. * Al-Noor Mosque in Maidstone is the second oldest mosque in Melbourne and one of the oldest in Australia.
Hillsong Church
* New Apostolic Church * Maidstone Church of Christ * Iglesia Ni Cristo

Transport

Tram route 57 tram provides public transport from

Flinders Street station Flinders Street railway station is a train station located on the corner of Flinders Street, Melbourne, Flinders and Swanston Street, Swanston streets in the Melbourne city centre, central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria (Austral ...

in the city to Cordite Avenue, West Maribyrnong, on the border of Maidstone, while tram route 82 tram provides public transport from

Moonee Ponds Junction Moonee Ponds Junction is a bus and tram interchange on the junction of Ascot Vale Road / Pascoe Vale Road and Mount Alexander Road in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne (Puckle Street / Dean Street also meets at the same point). It is located approximately ...

(Ascot Vale Road / Puckle Street) to Footscray (Leeds Street / Irving Street) passing through Maidstone for a segment of its journey. It is one of very few Melbourne tram routes which do not travel through the

Melbourne CBD The Melbourne central business district (also known colloquially as simply "The City" or "The CBD") is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city lai ...

. In 2022, construction of the

Maidstone tram depot Maidstone tram depot is a future depot on the Yarra Trams network in Melbourne. To be built on the corner of Hampstead and Williamson Roads, Maidstone, it will be the home depot for the G class trams. History In 2021, the Department of Transpor ...

is scheduled to commence.Maidstone home for Next Generation Trams

Department of Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

West Footscray West Footscray is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Maribyrnong local government area. West Footscray recorded a population of 11,729 at the . ...

and

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

train stations are the closest to Maidstone but many residents catch the bus to Footscray station (where trains are more frequent). A number of different

bus routes A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

pass through Maidstone. The

connects cyclists to the Footscray Road off-road path and into Docklands and the Melbourne CBD.

Flora and fauna

Many native species exist along the Maribyrnong River. Some species thrive in the area and often journey up and down river from

Brimbank Park Brimbank Park is a metropolitan regional park managed by Parks Victoria situated in the north-western Melbourne suburb of Keilor East, Victoria, Australia. History About 40,000 years ago: first signs of possible human habitation along the Mar ...

(5 km up river from Maidstone). The most abundant are; *

Rainbow lorikeet The rainbow lorikeet (''Trichoglossus moluccanus'') is a species of parrot found in Australia. It is common along the eastern seaboard, from northern Queensland to South Australia. Its habitat is rainforest, coastal bush and woodland areas. S ...

Common brushtail possum The common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula'', from the Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox", previously in the genus ''Phalangista'') is a nocturnal, semiarboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, native to Austr ...

* Black flying foxes or fruit bat

Pteropus ''Pteropus'' (suborder Yinpterochiroptera) is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names. They live in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Austra ...

Cockatoo A cockatoo is any of the 21 parrot species belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea (true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up the orde ...

Galah The galah (; ''Eolophus roseicapilla''), also known as the pink and grey cockatoo or rose-breasted cockatoo, is the only species within genus ''Eolophus'' of the cockatoo family. Found throughout Australia, it is among the most common of the c ...

Notable people

Albert Facey Albert Barnett Facey (31 August 1894 – 11 February 1982), publishing as A.B. Facey was an Australian writer and World War I veteran, whose main work was his autobiography, ''A Fortunate Life'', now considered a classic of Australian literat ...

– Author of

A Fortunate Life ''A Fortunate Life'' is an autobiography by Albert Facey published in 1981, nine months before his death. It chronicles his early life in Western Australia, his experiences as a private during the Gallipoli campaign of World War I and his return ...

and

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

veteran was born in Maidstone in 1894. He would leave Maidstone in 1898. He has a street named after him in the eastern part of Maidstone.

References

External links

Maidstone Suburb Profile

Medway Golf Club

Student Village

Rosamond Bowling Club
{{City of Maribyrnong suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Maribyrnong