Northcote

Residential suburb of Melbourne, Australia, situated approximately 8km north of the city centre. Bounded by the Merri Creek to the West and Darebin Creek to the East. The name is believed to have been given by Surveyor General Sir Andrew Clarke, after Stafford Henry Northcote, a barrister and co-author of the Northcote-Trevelyan report.

Prior to the 1880s, Northcote was a rural area, consisting of orchards, preserving factories, farms, and the Yarra Bend metropolitan lunatic asylum.

Throughout the 1870s, industries slowly began moving to the area, including slaughtering yards, piggeries and claypits.

Northcote lagged behind in the 1880s land-boom of Melbourne, most likely due to the lack of fast, reliable public transport. Cable trams began running up High Street in 1890. The train line was connected in 1891, but passengers had to travel through Fitzroy North, Carlton North, through Flemington, to Spencer Street Station. The connection of the Epping Line with Clifton Hill (creating a shorter route) was made in 1901. The St. Georges Road tram line was opened in 1920.

With public transport came people, and during the 1890s, Northcote's population doubled, from 7000 to 14,000. The Northcote Football Club was formed, the Fitzroy Racecourse (near Croxton Station, nowhere near Fitzroy) hosted pony racing, and one of Australia's first picture theatres opened.

John Cain, a fruitpicker from Goulburn Valley, began selling fruit and rabbits on the streets, before opening a fruit shop on High Street. In 1915, after joining the Labor Party, he was elected to the Northcote council. Two years later, he entered State Parliament lower house, and eventually became Premier of Victoria in 1943.

Italian and Greek migrants began to settle in Northcote during the 1950s. By 1961, 9.5% of the population was Italian. Evidence of this still exists today, with many Greek residents and businesses in the area.

The New Northcote Brick Company sold its quarry to the council, which turned the site into a tip. The unquarried land became Northcote Plaza shopping centre. The tip was later filled in and the shopping centre expanded. This drew customers away from the traditional shopping hub of High Street, leading to a high amount of shop-front vacancies, a trend still in place today.

As gentrification spread through the nearby working-class inner-city suburbs of Fitzroy, Collingwood, and Carlton, Northcote became an attractive option for students, artists, and the working class. Today, there exists healthy populations of lesbians, anarchists, and aboriginies.