page_title: Preston, Victoria
section_title: Urban growth
hierarchical_section_title: Preston, Victoria / History / Urban growth
caption_attribution_description: English: Typical street in Preston, Victoria.
context_page_description: Preston is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 9 km north from the Melbourne central business district. Its local government area is the City of Darebin. At the 2016 Census, Preston had a population of 32,851.
context_section_description: Urban growth accelerated in Preston during the 1920s, thanks largely to the establishment of a direct rail link between Collingwood and Flinders Street in 1904 (later electrified in 1926), and a building of a tram line to the Melbourne central business district in 1920. The Preston Workshops would later be built in 1925 by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board. The reticulation of electricity took place in 1914, with the building of Preston's sewers taking place between 1909 and 1915. 1915 also saw the establishment of the West Preston Primary School, which by 1927 had grown to accommodate more than 1,000 students. West Preston Primary School would later be joined by a primary school in Preston East in 1927, and later by a girl's high school in 1929. By 1922, Preston had been formally recognised as a Borough, two months later it had become a Town, and finally by 1926, Preston had been proclaimed a City.
  With the 1930s and the Great Depression came economic hardship for Preston. However, capital works projects, which included the designation of new parks and reserves and the paving of roads, helped attract new residents to the area. Preston bucked the economic status quo by recording rapid growth between the period 1933 and 1947, with the population growing by some 40%. This growth also resulted in the establishment of a technical school in 1937, which would later become a campus of the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE. A notable highlight for Preston residents during the era of depression was VFL legend Roy ("Up There") Cazaly's coaching of the local football team.
  Two World Wars provided Preston with two awardees of the Victoria Cross – the Empire's highest military award for valour; Bruce Kingsbury and William Ruthven, both of whom lent their name to future localities.
  The post war period would also see Preston experience rapid growth. Between 1947 and 1954 the population grew by 37% topping 64,000. A 15-year joint vision between the Preston and Northcote Councils would later culminate in 1958 with the construction of the Preston & Northcote Community Hospital (PANCH). This period also saw the construction of some 2,600 Housing Commission of Victoria dwellings which continued up to 1966, by which time said dwellings accommodated approximately 11% of Preston population.
  The acquisition of former Housing Commission land by the Myer Emporium led to the opening of the Northland Shopping Centre in 1966.
  Currently, the suburb of Preston exists to the south of the original Preston municipal area. Suburbs which were once part of this include: Reservoir, Ruthven, Keon Park and Kingsbury.
caption: Houses along Gower Street
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