page_title: Essendon, Victoria
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Essendon, Victoria / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Earlsbrae Hall, Australia photographed in 1899. Photograph in public domain by virtue of age (
context_page_description: Essendon, is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8 km north-west of Melbourne's central business district. Its local government area is the City of Moonee Valley. At the 2016 census, Essendon had a population of 20,596.
  Essendon is bounded in the west by Hoffmans Road, in the north by Keilor Road and Woodland Street, in the east by the Moonee Ponds Creek, and in the south by Buckley Street.
context_section_description: Essendon and the banks of the Maribyrnong River were originally inhabited by the Wurundjeri clan of the Woiwurrung speaking people of the Kulin nation.
  In 1803 Charles Grimes and James Fleming were the first known European explorers into the Maribyrnong area.
  Essendon was named after the village of Essendon in Hertfordshire, England.  Richard Green, who arrived in Victoria in the 1850s and settled near Melbourne, was a native of Essendon, Hertfordshire, where his father Isaac Green was either owner or tenant of Essendon Mill, and he bestowed the name of his native village on the district in which he had made his new home.
  In 1851 the gold rush opened up the Moonee Ponds District with miners travelling along Mount Alexander Road to Castlemaine.
  Essendon Post Office opened on 18 August 1856.
  In 1862 169 residents sought the formation of the Borough of Essendon and Flemington.
  On 9 January 1871, the Victorian Railways services began between Essendon and Melbourne, following an unsuccessful private railway operating from 1860 until 1864.
  In the 1880s, the local Council resisted industrial development in the form of cattle saleyards and brickworks, out of concern for pollution of the Maribyrnong River. Instead it embarked on a program to create, in its upper reaches, a playground for rowers, fishermen and swimmers.
  In 1890, a large mansion was built in the town. It was designed by eminent architect R.A. Lawson and built at a cost of £35,000. Originally known as Earslbrae Hall, it was the home of Collier McCracken, a member of a local brewing family. The building now houses Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School.
  In 1906 the North Melbourne Electric Tramway and Lighting Company opened its electric tramway system linking Essendon with the city. The company also supplied electric power to the neighbouring suburbs from its power station on Mount Alexander Road, near the intersection with South Street.
caption: Bill Prescott designed the Grecian temple-style mansion Earlsbrae Hall with Frederick Grey in 1890.
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