Alphington, Victoria

Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb
name = Alphington
city = Melbourne
state = vic


caption =
lga = City of Yarra
lga2 = City of Darebin
postcode = 3078
pop = 4483 (2006)Census 2006 AUS | id = SSC21015 | name = Alphington (State Suburb) | accessdate = 2007-09-26 | quick = on]
area = 2.8
est =
propval = $641,500 [ [http://www.domain.com.au/public/suburbprofile.aspx?suburb=Alphington&postcode=3078 Alphington] , accessed 9 August 2007]
stategov = Northcote
fedgov = Batman, Melbourne
dist1 = 8
location1= Melbourne
dist2 =
location2=
near-nw = Thornbury
near-n =
near-ne = Ivanhoe
near-w = Fairfield
near-e = Ivanhoe
near-sw = Fairfield
near-s = Kew
near-se = Kew East

Alphington is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in the state of Victoria. It is shared across the local government areas of the City of Darebin (north of Heidelberg Road) and the City of Yarra (south of Heidelberg Road). It was named after Alphinton in Devon, England. [Kennedy, B: "Australian Place Names", page 5. ABC Books, 2006]

Alphington is located 7 km north-east of the Melbourne Central Business District, and is bounded by the Yarra River in the south and the Darebin Creek in the east.

It is a primarily residential suburb consisting of mixture of 1970s brick veneer, recently-built townhouses as well as period weatherboards. There is also a major paper production plant in the suburb.

Alphington has tracts of green open space, such as the Darebin Parklands and Alphington Park. The suburb also features the Latrobe Golf Club. The area around the railway station contains a stand of River Red Gum trees, the oldest of which (closest to platform 1) likely pre-dates European settlement. These areas have been revegetated with indigenous plantings by local residents and Council beginning in the late 1990s and are now characterised by vigorous young Red Gum growth and the return of native fauna such as Tawny Frogmouths. Sightings of Echidnas have been reported. The site's proximity to Darebin Parklands increases the liklihood of such habitations into the future.

Local schools include Alphington Grammar School, Alphington Primary School, and St Anthony's Primary School, however Alphington residents north of Wingrove Street are within the zone for Fairfield Primary School.

The area is serviced by Alphington railway station, on the Hurstbridge line, and Route 508 Alphington to Moonee Ponds bus.

Alphington was originally part of the Jika Jika Parish, bounded by Rathmines Street to the west, Darebin Creek to the east, and the Yarra River to the south.

A notable location in the part of Alphington to the south of Heideleberg road is the revegetated wetlands. This area abuts the Yarra river, and includes the disused modification to the river bank once referred to as the Alphington swimming pool.

Adjacent to the wetlands to the west and near to the Chandler hiqhway bridge is the Amcor paper recycling factory. Much of the Amcor site appears disused or to function only as storage for paper recycling items. An EPA air monitoring station can be found next to the railway station just to the north. AMCOR has recently announced plans to move from the area.

The Darebin enterprise centre is located just to the north east of the train station and adjacent to the shallow valley of the Darebin Creek. There is no pedestrian access along the train bridge over the creek. Strangely, the Darebin creek bicycle path terminates beneath this same bridge - preventing what would otherwise seem to be a logical connection to the Yarra river.

Sporting Clubs

* Alphington Junior Football Club (http://www.alphingtonjfc.com/home/default.asp)

Notable residents

* Paul Licuria - AFL player (collingwood)
* Anthony Rocca - AFL Player (Collingwood)
* Lindsay Tanner - Federal MP for the Division of Melbourne
* Rick Amor - artist
* Tam Stewart - All round nice guy

Filming Locations

The main shopping strip was used to film the Australian movie, Take Away featuring Vince Colossimo and Stephen Curry [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295718/locations]

See also

* City of Northcote - the former local government area of which Alphington was a part.

References

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20040511090908/www.arts.monash.edu.au/ncas/multimedia/gazetteer/list/alphington.html Australian Places - Alphington]
* [http://dhe.darebin-libraries.vic.gov.au/OralHist.asp Darebin Historical Encyclopedia]
* [http://www.yprl.vic.gov.au/yprl/HHPIC/hh0021.html Yarra River at Alphington]