Cremorne, Victoria

Cremorne Melbourne, Victoria
Commercial shopfronts along Swan Street in Cremorne
Cremorne
Population:	1396 (2006) [1]
Established:	1853
Postcode:	3121
Area:	0.7 km² (0.3 sq mi)
Location:	2 km (1 mi) from Melbourne
LGA:	City of Yarra
State District:	Richmond
Federal Division:	Melbourne
Suburbs around Cremorne: East Melbourne Richmond Richmond Melbourne city centre Cremorne Richmond South Yarra South Yarra South Yarra

Cremorne is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra. At the 2006 Census, Cremorne had a population of 1396.

Cremorne is a small suburb in inner Melbourne bounded by the Yarra River, Punt Road, Swan and Church Streets, and divided down the middle by the railway to South Yarra. Covering only about a square kilometre, until 1999 Cremorne existed only as a locality in the larger suburb of Richmond. Cremorne's charm is in its rather chaotic mix of uses and the unique character resulting from being 'walled in' by main roads and railways on all sides. There are industrial icons such as Bryant and May, Rosella and the Nylex Clock side by side with Victorian cottages, modern townhouses, offices and light industries.

Cremorne takes its name from the Cremorne Gardens, an amusement park which occupied a riverfront location in the western half of Cremorne for a period in the mid 19th century.

History

Lithograph of Cremorne Gardens in 1862

Cremorne Gardens occupied a riverfront location in the western half of Cremorne for a period in the mid 19th century. They were established in 1853 by James Ellis who had earlier managed gardens of the same name on the banks of the Thames at Chelsea in London. They were later acquired and expanded by entrepreneur and local identity George Coppin and became one of Melbourne's major attractions at the time with patrons arriving by train or boat to see wild animals, dancers and other entertainment. They were short-lived however and by 1863 they had been sold and subdivided for housing and an asylum.

Although a largely residential area in its early history, the banks of the Yarra were home to many offensive industries such as tanneries and the Richmond Power Station which opened in 1891. Into the 20th century Cremorne became increasingly industrial. Large manufacturing complexes were built including the Bryant and May and Rosella factories. In the mid 20th century light industry flooded into Cremorne with the construction of hundreds of small to medium factories which were occupied by the rag trade, mechanics, printers and small engineering businesses.

The residential areas increasingly became slums with some areas threatened with clearance. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Cremorne became a centre for crime. Well known Melbourne criminal Dennis Allen was known to own around a dozen homes in Cremorne which were used for a variety of illicit purposes. One was demolished in 1989 by police searching for evidence in the Walsh Street police shootings. It had earlier been seized by the Australian Taxation Office. Other shadowy businesses in Cremorne Street in the 1970s included a brothel, a door-to-door business selling fraudulent oil paintings, and clothing sweatshops.

Things started to improve in the 1990s however. The inner city was desirable again and large industries found it uneconomic to operate in inner urban areas. The Richmond Power Station, Bryant and May and Rosella were all converted to office space. Tenants such as Just Jeans, Country Road, Mattel and John Wiley & Sons are just some of the companies with offices in this area. The small Victorian terraces and cottages which abound in Cremorne were snapped up in a renovation boom. Today Cremorne is a mixture of period and modern housing, cutting edge offices, art galleries, funky bars and a diminishing light industrial sector.

Streets of Cremorne

Swan Street is one of Melbourne's most popular shopping strips. Famous for the Dimmeys department store, full of discounted seconds and distressed stock, it also has an eclectic collection of restaurants and clearance shops. The street also features some fine examples of Edwardian and Victorian architecture.

Punt Road is the major north/south link in inner Melbourne and is busy 24 hours a day. Church Street is lined with furniture showrooms.

Transport

The southern border of Cremorne is the Monash Freeway. The freeway makes the Yarra River virtually inaccessible. The suburb is connected to South Yarra via three bridges, the Punt Road Bridge, Cremorne rail bridge and Church Street Bridge. Freeway exits at Church Street and Punt Road are particularly busy. Cremorne is characterised by several narrow one-way streets. Balmain Street and Cremorne Street are the main streets that pass within Cremorne.

Both Swan and Church Streets have regular tram services.

Cremorne is near the junction of the two busiest groups of railway lines in Melbourne. They form a barrier between east and west and cut Cremorne off from Richmond to the north. Cremorne has one station within its boundaries, East Richmond, however the station is bypassed by most trains. Trains on the Lilydale, Belgrave, Glen Waverley, and Alamein lines pass through it, heading towards the eastern suburbs. Some early railway maps of Melbourne show a Cremorne station, just north of the river, on the modern Caulfield group of railway lines, but it lasted little more than a year, closing in 1860. Richmond station is slightly to the north of Cremorne, Melbourne's busiest outside the central business district.

See also

• City of Richmond - the former local government area of which Cremorne was a part.

References

1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Cremorne (State Suburb)". 2006 Census QuickStats. http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation/prenav/LocationSearch?collection=Census&period=2006&areacode=SSC21199&producttype=QuickStats&breadcrumb=PL&action=401. Retrieved 2007-09-26. 

External links

• City of Yarra
• Dimmeys
• Cremorne Residents' Mural depicting the history of the Cremorne area

Coordinates: 37°49′48″S 144°59′35″E / 37.830°S 144.993°E / -37.830; 144.993