A to Z Melbourne: C

CAIRNLEA
Cairnlea is 17 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Brimbank. At the 2006 Census, Cairnlea had a population of 6070. The former Albion site became open grassland after European settlement but later, from 1939 to the mid 1980s, it was a defence manufacturing site. The suburb is a new estate, and has only been developed since 1999, with development of the new suburb to finish in mid-2005. The suburb features several manmade lakes and has implemented a suburb-wide stormwater recycling system that feeds all the lakes. Formerly there was a large government explosives factory on the site of the estate, however this factory closed in the 1990s.

CALDER PARK
Calder Park is 22 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Brimbank. Wedged between the Calder Freeway, and the Bendigo rail line, Calder Park is a somewhat abnormal suburb in that no residential dwellings are constructed within its bounds, the only structure being a chapel situated adjacent to the Calder Park Raceway. This is located in the northern half of the suburb, with the southern half comprising open fields, adjoining neighbouring Taylors Lakes. Calder Park takes its name from Calder Highway (now Freeway).


Camberwell

CAMBERWELL
Camberwell is a residential suburb 9 km east of Melbourne, between Hawthorn and Burwood. Until the 1850s the area was occupied for grazing, being described as "light sandy country, timbered with gum and oak," Roads were rudimentary, but at one point three roads intersected, and in 1853 an inn was erected at one of the corners. Its owner recollected that several roads converged at Camberwell Green, London, and he called it the Camberwell Inn The Intersection, known as the Burke Road or Camberwell Junction. is on the western boundary of Camberwell, all the district adopted the name of the inn.
Immigrants and former gold diggers took up farms in the Camberwell area, producing hay, fruit and vegetables. In the 1860s there were two small settlements, one around tile inn and the Anglican church and another to the east at Hartwell about 2 kin. away. The district's first school (1858) and post office (1862) were at Hartwell, but the school closed when one was opened in 1867 a few hundred metres from the junction. By the 1870s Camberwell's neighbour, Hawthorn, had a substantial population, but Camberwell remained an area of small farms with a few sites for fine residences at its more elevated northern end. It was at that end in 1882 where the railway was extended from Hawthorn to Camberwell. The railway was aligned to service the adjacent land with a prospect back to the city; it was eventually excavated through the hill in a deep cutting. 'Prospect Hill' was swiftly subdivided and marketed during the 1880s and 90s driven by the typical desire of the time to recreate an English landscape.
A year after reaching Camberwell the line was extended to Lilydale. In 1891 a north-south railway line from Oakleigh to Fairfield was opened, crossing the earlier one at East Camberwell. It was the unsuccessful Outer Circle line, The railway lines attracted land subdivision in a landscape that was picturesque and free of industry. The Burke Road shopping centre between the junction and the railway station began in the 1880s, Residential land was generously proportioned, relatively cheap and within convenient commuting distance of Melbourne. The shopping centre which developed along the 500 metre north/south strip of Burke Road adjacent to the station has long been one of the most economically vibrant of suburban shopping areas in Melbourne. The precinct contains about 2.5 kilometres of small grain retail frontage with a broad mix of shops, a lively vegetable market, supermarket, large retail store, proliferating cafes and cinema complex.

CAMPBELLFIELD
Campbellfield, a residential and industrial suburb 17 km. north of Melbourne, is situated east of Broadmeadows. It is on the Hume highway and its eastern boundary is the Merri Creek. Two families named Campbell, apparently unrelated, bought farm properties in the area in the 1840s. The land was lightly wooded, easy for grazing, and close to the Merri Creek. Other settlers of Scots descent brought a strong Presbyterian tradition to the area. The Scots church was built on Sydney Road in 1842, and replaced by the present bluestone structure in 1855 (on Register of the National Estate and Victorian Heritage Register). A primary school was opened in 1846, and the site remained in use until disturbed by the widening of the Hume Highway in 1961.
By the 1860s Campbellfield had a village on the Sydney Road with three hotels and a disused flour mill. The flat country of Campbellfield was suited to pastoral pursuits and remained unaltered until the late 1880s when there was the prospect of a railway line from Coburg to join the main line to Seymour at Somerton. Campbellfield remained a village patronised by small farmers. It had two hotels, a store, bakery, confectioner and a smithy. The hotels and the Presbyterian and Methodist churches constituted the social centres, apart from sports matches in a paddock (c.1900). In 1951 the Housing Commission took control of land in Broadmeadows and Campbellfield for a housing estate, and in 1956 commenced the disposal of a large wedge north of the village between the railway line and the highway, for the Ford motor car factory.

CANTERBURY
Canterbury is an older residential suburb 10 km. east of Melbourne, noted for spacious residences. It adjoins Camberwell on its east and north , and its early settlement and subdivision into market gardens and orchards accompanied Camberwell's. Canterbury was named after Viscount Canterbury, Governor of Victoria, 1866-73. Before being named Canterbury the area was part of Balwyn. When the railway was extended from Hawthorn to Camberwell in 1882. and to Canterbury and beyond the following Veal residential subdivisions were stimulated The Canterbury landscape was undulating, elevated to the east and, with the West Creek, pleasantly well watered The late 1880s saw hood land prices and speculative profit. Melbourne merchants and professionals built in Canterbury and commuted by train to Melbourne By 1891 nearly all of Canterbury was subdivided for housing. but still mostly not built on A shopping strip was built along Maling Road beside the railway station.


Carlton

CARLTON
Carlton is a residential, commercial and educational area adjoining the northern boundary of central Melbourne at Victoria Street. The subdivision and settlement of Carlton came later than that of Fitzroy and Collingwood.. By the gold rush, 1851, two thirds of those suburbs were subdivided, often in a haphazrd way calculated to maximize profit on the resale of land. When Robert Hoddle, Government surveyor, came to survey Carlton in 1852, care was taken to lay out streets in an orderly grid, with reserves for open space and religious institutions. His survey was bounded by Royal Parade, Grattan Street, Nicholson Street and Victoria Street, but with the University provided for in a reserve north of Grattan Street. The churches' precinct was in Queensberry Street, between Lygon and Rathdowne Streets (Anglican, Free Gaelic and Wesleyan), and one block north in Pelham Street (Catholic). There were no school or hospital reserves, but Lincoln Square, Argyle Square and Carlton Gardens were shown. The two squares provided a distinctly English tone for the new suburb.
Carlton, thought to have been named after the residence of the Prince of Wales, was relatively elevated, and attracted several notable homes. Justice Redmond Barry lived in Rathdowne Street, equidistant between the City Court and the University of which he was the first Chancellor in 1955. By 1860 Carlton had five schools of which one, in Faraday Street, was a National School (1858), and ran continuously until 1972. In 1878 eight hectares were set aside in the Carlton Gardens for a building for Melbourne's International Exhibition in 1880-1. The international event was Melbourne's sixth exhibition, and its grandest. The building with its prominent dome became the venue for exhibitions, motor shows, home shows, the first federal Parliament and countless public examinations for secondary and tertiary students. In 1887-8 tram lines were opened along Swanston Street, Elgin Street, Rathdowne Street and Nicholson Street.

CARLTON NORTH
Carlton North is a residential suburb 4 km. north of Melbourne. In 1853 both the Melbourne General Cemetery and a penal stockade came to Carlton North. Melbourne's first cemetery at the Flagstaff Gardens was over-full by 1849, and a 8 ha. site was laid out to the north. By 1853 the very obvious increase in population persuaded the Government to also close Melbourne's second cemetery (now the Queen Victoria Market site), to all except those claiming a grave or vault there. The 8 ha. site in Carlton North was doubled and the resulting Melbourne General Cemetery was laid out by the Government Botanist, Ferdinand von Mueller. The stockade (called the Collingwood Stockade, as Carlton was not named in 1853), was opened beside a bluestone quarry. These sites are now the Lee Street primary school and the Canning Street neighbourhood reserve respectively. Carlton North's geological structure fortunately had the basaltic land ending just east of the cemetery, which is on mudstone or sandstone. Carlton (south of Grattan Street) was subdivided and the stockade made an asylum for the next seven years. Carlton North was subdivided in 1869 between Princes and Fenwick Streets. The final subdivision was at Princes Hill, north of the cemetery, in 1876-9. The settlement was almost all residential, brick, and much of it two storeyed or terraced. The standard was a step up from many of the timber cottages in Carlton.

CARNEGIE
Carnegie is a residential suburb 12 km. south-east of Melbourne on the railway line between Caulfield and Oakleigh. The area was originally known as Rosstown after William Ross, an entrepreneur who constructed a railway line through the area from Oakleigh to Elsternwick. In May, 1909, the railway station was renamed Carnegie, allegedly with the support of residents and the progress associations who thought it would be an inducement to obtain funds from the American Carnegie Foundation for a library. Neither did the funds appear nor is there contemporary documentary evidence of the idea, but no better explanation has been given. A large part of pastoral Carnegie was the Leman Swamp, a place for peat extraction and, in 1874, a proposed site for sugar beet processing which needed a reliable water supply. By 1876 Ross, who was the promoter of the sugar beet industry, owned or leased all the land presently known as Carnegie. The Rosstown Hotel was operating by 1882 and the primary school opened in 1887. By the turn of the century estates were being opened up in the vicinity of the railway station.

CAROLINE SPRINGS
Caroline Springs is 25 km west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Melton. At the 2006 Census, Caroline Springs had a population of 10,880. Caroline Springs is a large residential suburb that was launched in 1999 by the Urban Land Corporation. Developed by Delfin, the suburb's popularity was spurred by an extensive advertising campaign promoting the lifestyle benefits of the area. Caroline Springs has now met its neighbouring suburb, Taylors Hill to the north.

CARRUM SWAMP
This former swampland is occupied by Bangholme, Braeside, Carrum Downs, Chelsea Heights, and Keysborough. Parts of Aspendale, Patterson Lakes and Seaford are also on the former swamp. Carrum Swamp's waters came from the Dandenong Creek (with headwaters in the moist Dandenong Ranges, and the Eumemmerring Creek with headwaters at Narre Warren. The swamp occupied 5,260 ha., extending almost from Mordialloc to Frankston, and had a water catchment of 737 sq. km. In its natural state it was covered with dense ti-tree, and it had ineffective outlets to Port Phillip Bay by the Mordialloc Creek and the Kananook Creek. The land was, however, useful for Summer pasture, and sections were purchased on the 1850s.
An early squatting party in the area called its station Garen Gam, thought to be Aboriginal for boomerang. Another rendering of the Aboriginal words is Karrum Karrum. An 1864 map made by the Hydrographic Office called the swamp Garrum, which would also be a probable forerunner of Carrum. An alternative but unlikely source of the name is an ancient English settlement called Carrum in Arthurian legends.

CARRUM DOWNS
Carrum Downs is a residential area 34 km. south-east of Melbourne adjoining the bayside suburb of Carrum. Most of the area is on the former Carrum Swamp. Carrum Downs was a farming area until the 1980s, with the social centre bring the primary school which was opened in 1909. In 1945 the Anglican Church's Brotherhood of St. Laurence began the building of an elderly person's community about 300 metres from the school. The Carrum Downs village added married and single persons' cottages and hostel accommodation, set in a mostly heath or bushland environment.
The main residential area is south of the Brotherhood village, with sites for three primary schools and a drive-in shopping centre (1994) with forty shops. There are several neighbourhood reserves and a linear park along Boggy Creek. In the north of Carrum Downs, beyond the school, is the part of the South Eastern Purification Plant for the treatment of sewage, around which several farms continue to function.

CAULFIELD
Caulfield, a residential area with a prominent metropolitan racecourse, is on Dandenong Road, 10 km. from Melbourne. Until 1994 Caulfield was also a municipal city. The origin of the name is uncertain, although John Caulfield, a builder who arrived in Melbourne in 1837, has been suggested as a source. The name Caulfield was in use on maps around 1857, generally in the vicinity of the present racecourse. In 1859 horse racing was held on a rough bush track and the Melbourne Hunt Club held occasional meetings in Caulfield. A racecourse was laid out on the site where the Hunt Club kennel was kept. In 1876 the Victorian Amateur Turf Club was formed and obtained the site for its metropolitan race course. The first Caulfield Cup was run in 1879.
Land survey maps for the Caulfield district were published in 1853, and the first sale of Crown allotments was in 1854. The Caulfield Roads District was proclaimed in 1857. In 1860 a shirt-lived school was established by four church congregations, and in 1864 a school was opened which became the Caulfield primary school. In 1865 the population of the district was estimated at 508.


Chadstone Shopping Centre

CHADSTONE
Chadstone, a residential suburb 13 km. south-east of Melbourne, is best known for having metropolitan Melbourne's largest super-regional shopping centre. The name comes from Chadstone Road, which was laid out in 1912-13 in Malvern East. The road name probably came form the Chad stone church, north of Malvern Hills, England. The stone church came about by St. Chad ordering the seventh century King Wulf to build a stone churchto expiate his guilt for murdering his two Christian sons.
Chadstone was an early postwar suburb bounded by Belgrave Road, Dandenong Road, Warrigal Road and Gardiners Creek. Because of changes to postcode boundaries "Chadstone" doubled in area by extension east of Warrigal Road to Huntingdale Road by the early 1980s. Within a decade the Chadstone postcode was restricted to east of Warrigal Road., absorbing areas previously better known as Holmsglen and Jordanville. The original Chadstone was thus put in the Malvern East postcode, satisfying many residents who preferred the cachet of Malvern being applied to their houses, with implications for improved values.

CHATHAM
Chatham is a railway station located in the suburb of Surrey Hills, on the Lilydale and Belgrave railway lines. Chatham station opened on April 1, 1927, with the current island platform only. Platform 3 was provided in the 1970s, with services on the third track from East Camberwell extended through the station to Box Hill in 1971.

CHELSEA HEIGHTS
Chelsea Heights is a residential suburb 30 km. south-east of Melbourne, inland from and adjoining the bayside suburb of Chelsea. The name Chelsea was proposed by a local resident for the new railway station when it was opened on the Caulfield to Frankston line in 1882. Chelsea Heights is situated on an ancient coastal sand dune, which was formerly surrounded by the Carrum Swamp. Parts of the area were leased for grazing - particularly during the Summer - in the 1850s, and one settler gave his address as the Islands of Wannark Laddin, a name which persisted at least until 1866 when it was printed on a hydrogrpahic map of Port Phillip Bay. The so-called islands were the dunes raised above the lower swamp lands.
In 1890 a primary school was opened in the area - then called Carrum North - because children had otherwise to wade through swamp to reach Mordialloc. In 1912 the area was subdivided and named Chelsea Heights. Its census population the year before was 230. In 1964 the school's name was changed from Carrum North to Chelsea Heights, which roughly corresponds with the time when the subdivisions were attracting residential development. A kindergarten, infant-welfare centre sand shops were opened.

CHELTENHAM
Cheltenham is a residential suburb 18 km. south-east of Melbourne adjoining the bayside suburbs of Beaumaris and Mentone. Its name came from the Cheltenham Inn, opened by Charles Whorral from Cheltenham, Gloustershire, England, in 1853 in the place known as Two Acre Village (1852). The land-owner, Josiah Holloway, who subdivided the land into two-acre lots formed a northwards track, now Chesterville Road, from the Brighton Road (now Nepean Highway). By 1865 Cheltenham had two hotels, a mechanics' institute, a post office and coach or omnibus services to Brighton, Mornington and Melbourne. The lightly timbered and grassed countryside was much cultivated by farmers and market gardeners, and the district's estimated population was 250 persons. Cheltenham's position on the railway line after 1881, as well as on Nepean Highway, brought a steady gain in population.

CHIRNSIDE PARK
Chirnside Park, formerly West Lilydale or a part of Mooroolbark, is a suburb 33 km. east of Melbourne. The original settlement of Chirnside Park was centred on the Mooroolbark Park homestead and grazing property which had a succession of owners from 1845 until 1921 when it was purchased by George Chirnside. The Chirnside family sold Werribee Park, the headquarters of its empire, transferring their stud herds and contents of the Werribee mansion to Mooroolbark Park. George Chirnside died in 1941 without a direct male descendant, and trustees and later a company held the property. In 1956 Community Centres Pty. Ltd. obtained Lillydale shire's approval for subdivision of the land, and five years later gained the title. The company in conjunction with the estate agents Willmore and Randell named the subdivision Chirnside Park in 1962, which included a country club based around the Mooroolbark homestead. The country club includes an extensive golf course.

CHRISTMAS HILLS
Christmas Hills is a rural locality 37 km north-east of central Melbourne, between Kangaroo Ground and Yarra Glen.. It was occupied for grazing by 1842 and a shepherd named David Christmas became lost. He was found at a rise which became known as Christmas Hill, and the name was given to the district. Unlike neighbouring areas Christmas Hills did not have goldmining or significant amounts of agricultural land, although the One Tree Hill on its western side was a mining site. Nevertheless it helped numerous settlers who earned income from firewood as their selections were cleared. In 1884 a primary school was built, and three years later the district's population was boosted by a temporary workforce employed on building an aqueduct from the Watts River weir to Preston reservoir.

CLARINDA
Clarinda is a residential locality in Clayton South, 17 km. south-east of Melbourne. As a locality Clarinda predates Clayton South, a Presbyterian church being opened there in 1886. At that time the pace was known as Bald Hills, a name preserved to the present day in the Bald Hills reserve.
Clarinda, predominantly an elevated sandy location, provided a view of Port Phillip Bay. It had a mixture of market gardens (on the better soil) and open heath lands. When a primary school was opened in the church in 1899 within a year it was renamed Bayview, to avoid confusion with Bald Hills in the Ballarat area. The name was finally changed to Clarinda in 1912. The census population in 1933 was 189. Clarinda continued to be a market gardening area with the typical post office, school and church until the mid 1950s when residential housing began to be built. A golf links was overtaken by housing. Additions were made to the school in 1953 and 1957.

CLAYTON
Clayton is a residential and industrial suburb 18 km. south-east of Melbourne on the Oakleigh to Dandenong railway line. The area was first occupied for farming purposes in the 1850s. The first township was on Dandenong Road where Clayton North is now situated. The construction of the railway line about one kilometre south of Dandenong Road in 1878 prompted the start of a second township where the line crosses Clayton Road. The origin of the name, however, is from a property near the station, Clayton Vale, owned by John Clayton during the 1860s-70s. In 1862 a primary school was opened at the corner of Dandenong Road and Clayton Road, to serve the whole of the Clayton district. It was renamed Clayton North in 1954 when another primary school was opened closer to Clayton central. Clayton's rural lands and relative proximity to Melbourne attracted two institutions at the turn of the century: the Talbot Colony for Epileptics on land later occupied by Monash University, Clayton North, and a Women's Convalescent Home. Apart from that the community consisted of farms, three hotels, two churches, a tennis court and a few shops. Market gardens, fruit growing and a municipal abattoir were the leading industries.

CLEMATIS
Clematis is a small township in the Dandenong Ranges, 42 km. east-south-east of Melbourne and 6 km. east of Belgrave. The first significant settlement at Clematis was O'Connor's Paradise Hotel (1880) at the junction of Wellington and Belgrave-Gembrook Roads. The place was known as Paradise until confusion with a place of the same name near St. Arnaud caused residents to change to Clematis, an endemic creeper plant, in 1921. The Paradise Hotel remains a landmark. Clematis was the third stopping place on the Belgrave to Gembrook narrow-gauge railway, now the "Puffing Billy" scenic railway.


Clifton Hill

CLIFTON HILL
Clifton Hill is a residential suburb 4 km north-east of Melbourne, separated from Collingwood by Alexandra Parade and the Eastern Freeway. An early landowner, better known in Richmond, was John Docker, who owned Clifton Farm in 1841. A land speculator, John Knipe, later named the area Clifton Hill.
The Melbourne City Council operated a basalt quarry in Clifton Hill, between Yambla Street and the Merri Creek, in the 1850s, continuing until the 1950s. Most of the other land was held by the Crown for agistment purposes, and Government land sales began in 1864. Residential settlement ended the use of Clifton Hill for the burial of sewage in the 1870s. It was the more salubrious part of Collingwood council's area, having elevated land with larger houses and two reserves. Mayors Park and Darling Gardens. It had about seven houses per acre compared with fifteen per acre in Collingwood, south of Alexandra parade. Most were red brick and terra cotta tile compared with weatherboard and iron roofs in Collingwood. The railway line connected Collingwood and Heidelberg until a link between Princes Bridge and Collingwood was opened in 1901. Of more commercial significance was the cable tram (1887), which brought the Smith Street shops within easier reach. A local shopping strip grew along the tramline in Queens Parade.

CLYDE / CLYDE NORTH
Clyde is 48 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Clyde North is 46 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Casey. Clyde North is centred around Berwick - Cranbourne Road and was the original Clyde township before it moved to the area around the railway station to the south. Clyde Post Office opened on 25 January 1864. In 1915 it was renamed Clyde North, when Clyde Railway Station office was renamed Clyde.


Sydney Road, Coburg

COBURG
Coburg, a residential suburb 8 km. north of Melbourne, was also a municipality from 1874 to 1994. In 1837 the government surveyor, Robert Hoddle, surveyed the Coburg area between the two creeks, subdividing it into allotments of between 53 ha. and 287 ha. A village reserve was marked out where the former Pentridge Gaol and Coburg cemetery are now situated. Among the first purchasers were John Pascoe Fawkner (a Melbourne "founder"), Faquhar McCrae (magistrate and speculator) and Arundel Wrighte (squatter and speculator). Fawkner had two lots, totalling 517 ha. A road to Sydney was marked out along the western side of the village reserve.
Some allotments near the Sydney Road were subdivided as small farms, and the village reserve was named Pentridge in 1840, probably after Pentridge, Dorset. A Sydney Road Trust was formed in 1840, principally involving McCrae and Fawkner who were antagonistic to each other. McCrae built La Rose (now Wentworth House, at 22 Le Cateau Street), in 1843. In addition to the Pentridge village there were villages called Bolingbroke to the west and Newlands to the north. In 1850 the Port Phillip authorities chose Pentridge as a site for a penitentiary, sufficiently remote form Melbourne and on a road with nearby road-making materials to keep the felons employed. In 1859 the Pentridge District Road Board was formed, changing its name to Coburg on 21 January, 1869. The change came from residents wanting to dissociate their place name from the gaol, and Coburg was chosen because of the Royal visit by Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe Coburg. By 1870 there were 1,300 people in Pentridge village and surrounds and 645 in the gaol (including warders and their families).
Coburg was proclaimed a shire on 24 December, 1874. The most populous trade or profession was warder (80), followed by 60 farmers or market gardeners, 54 quarrymen and 28 retailers. Market gardens were near the Merri Creek and most farmers grew hay for Melbourne's increasing numbers of horses. In 1884 the railway line from Melbourne to Coburg was opened, the station being close to the village. A tram service to Moreland, south of Coburg village, began in 1887. The transport links provoked a boom in residential land subdivisions, predominantly in the south of the shire.

COBURG NORTH
Coburg North, a residential area 10 km. north of Melbourne, contains the localities of Batman, Merlynston and Newlands. Coburg North comprised two allotments, each of about one square mile, in the subdivision made in 1839 by the government surveyor, Robert Hoddle. They were divided by the Merri Creek, the western part being quickly subdivided into twenty-five acre blocks for resale. The eastern part became the site of the Coburg district's second village, Newlands, over the Merri Creek from the Pentridge village. The Newlands section was favoured by frontages to the Merri Creek and to its tributary, Edgars Creek. It was distant from rail and tram services and retained a community of market gardeners, dairymen and poulterers until the second world war. The farms were also a source of pollution of the recreational lake reserve on the Merri Creek, which was closed to swimming in 1932 when a child died from an infected cut.

COCKATOO
In the steep foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, 48 kilometres east of central Melbourne, lies the township of Cockatoo. In the 1850s, prospectors searching for gold bestowed the name Cockatoo Creek, supposedly because of large numbers of cockatoos there. When land was selected in the 1870s, the name was retained. The country was mountainous and heavily timbered, making clearing difficult. A store was opened in 1895 to serve the scattered community.
In the late 1890s, a narrow gauge railway was constructed from Ferntree Gully, thirty four kilometres east of Melbourne, to Gembrook, a further six kilometres east of Cockatoo. Three sawmills were soon established in the Cockatoo area, transporting their timber out by rail. The Belfry Mill built a wooden tramline to the Cockatoo railway siding. Around the turn of the century, the locality was known as Devon. In July 1901, the original name, Cockatoo Creek, was restored, due to pressure from local residents. The Railways Department shortened this to Cockatoo and it gradually came into general use.

COLDSTREAM
Coldstream is 36 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Yarra Ranges. At the 2006 Census, Coldstream had a population of 2403. The township developed around the railway station after the railway arrived in 1888, the Post Office opening on 7 February 1889. In 1909, Dame Nellie Melba bought Coombe Cottage at Coldstream. The house is located at the current juncture of Maroondah Highway and Melba Highway (named in her honour) and is now the home of Melba's granddaughter.


Collingwood

COLLINGWOOD
Collingwood, an industrial and residential suburb, is 3 km. north-east of Melbourne. It was named after Admiral Lord Collingwood, who fought at Trafalgar. Along with Fitzroy, Collingwood was subdivided in 1838 into allotments each of about 12 ha. At that time both districts were generally known as Collingwood, although the Fitzroy part was differentiated by being known as upper Collingwood or Collingwood west. It was the elevated part, as the land falls away to a plain about 200 metres east of Smith Street, otherwise known as the Collingwood flat. Stormwater drained from the elevated part along today's Alexandra Parade and thence south-east from Smith Street to near the Victoria Park football ground into the Yarra River. The entry to the Yarra was a swampy area.
Buyers of the 12 ha. allotments set about further subdividing them for resale, and by 1854 nearly all but the swampiest parts were cut up. Settlement intensified after the gold rushes, and the area was exempt from building control laws, which encouraged the concentration of cheap houses on small blocks of land. The flat topography made subdivision easy. Increasing urbanisation in elevated Fitzroy increased stormwater run-off, and east Collingwood was frequently flooded. The impervious subsoil caused stagnant sheets of water. Calls for drainage were neglected by Melbourne City Council, which had jurisdiction over Collingwood. On 24 April, 1855, Collingwood became a municipality. It was called East Collingwood until 1873, when it was proclaimed a town. The Yarra River on Collingwood's east attracted industry. In 1840 John Dight hewed out a mill race through the basalt rocks in the river near where the Merri Creek joins it. He operated a mill for flour making, with varying success. A more productive use was harnessing the water for wool washing.

COODE ISLAND
Coode Island, an almost uninhabited industrial area, is 4 km. west of Melbourne. It was formed in 1886 when canal was cut through the Sandridge swamp to provide a straightened stream for the Yarra River. The boundaries were the canal on the south, the Maribyrnong River on the west and the Yarra meander on the north and east. Its area was 97 ha. It was named after Sir John Coode, an English harbour engineer who was engaged by the Melbourne Harbor Trust to select the optimum route for the canal as part of the Port of Melbourne.
Coode chose the canal route so as to avoid dangerous tidal ebbs and inflows that would occur along one that went straight from the Yarra River docks to Hobsons Bay. Inflows endangered flood-prone land upstream as far as Gardiners Creek, by the banking up of stream waters. The route also ensured that the Yarra waters would discharge into the river mouth, scouring the bay and reducing silt deposition. The meander was known as Fishermens Bend or Humbug Reach (1887). Later "Fishermens Bend" came to be applied to the land opposite Coode Island, on the other side of the canal, and even to Sandridge Beach, Port Melbourne west, which became Garden City.
By 1909 the marshy surface of Coode Island was being filled for reclamation. Its chief use was as a quarantine station for stock, and buildings were erected there in the event of the need for a bubonic plague sanitarium. Much of the native vegetation had been replaced by exotics, probably from abandoned ships' ballast. By the late 1930s the meander was almost abolished and the "island" joined to West Melbourne, but the name continued to be used. In 1929 the construction of Appleton Dock on the south-east corner of Coode Island was begun. Swanson Dock was excavated out of the island near its south-west corner when containerized cargo services began in the 1960s.

COOLAROO
Coolaroo is a residential and industrial suburb 18 km. north of Melbourne, west of the Ford motor car factory, Hume Highway, and between Broadmeadows and Somerton. The name is thought to be derived from an Aboriginal word for brown snake. Coolaroo was part of a large area acquired by the Housing Commission in 1951 for a housing estate. Construction in the Coolaroo area began in 1966 and the first primary school was opened the next year. A later State primary school has become St. Marys Coptic Orthodox College. Couurage Breweries Ltd. opened a brewery in 1968. It later became a Tooth Brewery and then a factory for Australian Consolidated Hosiery. Larger factories to the north include Pratt Industries. When Coolaroo was first laid out it extended westwards to include the area now named Meadow Heights. Its western boundary is now Pascoe Vale Road.

COTTLES BRIDGE
Cottles Bridge is 30 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Nillumbik. At the 2006 Census, Cottles Bridge had a population of 963. The area, previously known as Back Creek, was named after Thomas Cottle, who settled in the area in the 1870s. From the 1950s onwards, various artists settled in the area, most notably Clifton Pugh AO, who established the Dunmoochin Artists Society there in 1953.

CRAIGIEBURN
Craigieburn is 26 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Hume. At the 2006 Census, Craigieburn had a population of 20,784. Craigieburn s first people were the Wurundjeri Indigenous people. The locality takes its name after an old bluestone inn that catered for travellers along the Old Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne. The Old Hume Highway still exists, albeit in a state of disrepair, and is now a continuation of Mickleham Road. raigieburn Post Office opened on 26 February 1866.

CRANBOURNE / CRANBOURNE EAST / CRANBOURNE NORTH / CRANBOURNE SOUTH / CRANBOURNE WEST
Approximately forty six kilometres south-east of Melbourne lies the rapidly growing town of Cranbourne. The earliest settlers were the Ruffy brothers who squatted on Mayune run in 1836. They conducted the Cranbourne Inn, which may have been named after a town in Berkshire or after Viscount Cranborne. There were few Aborigines in the district, but the discovery of numerous artefacts indicates that the area was fairly intensively occupied before European settlement. The early pastoralists grazed cattle and grew barley and wheat. The township was surveyed in 1856, where a small community already existed on Mayune, then leased by Alexander Cameron. The track into South Gippsland also passed through here. From the 1860s, selectors were able to purchase portions of the large runs. The town was gazetted in 1861. Soon a school, churches, another hotel and postal service were established in the township. A Road District was created in 1860 and a Shire proclaimed in 1868. A Shire Hall was erected about 1875. Cranbourne was briefly famous in 1860 when several meteorites were discovered in the area. The largest was sent to the British Museun where it is still exhibited in the meteorite collection. Models of the meteorites are on display in the town.


Cremorne

CREMORNE
Cremorne is a small suburb 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'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. 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. 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. 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.

CRIB POINT
Crib Point is a suburb in the Local Government Area of the Shire of Mornington Peninsula. Crib Point is served by three railway stations: Morradoo, Crib Point and Stony Point, the latter of which is the terminus of the greater-metropolitan Stony Point line. The locality is named after a hut built there by J and R Hann.

CROXTON
Croxton is a residential area in Northcote and Thornbury 7 km. north-north-east of Melbourne. It is best known for the Croxton Park Hotel in High Street, which was established in 1850-1 as the Old Pilgrim Inn, which was the first hotel opened in the Northcote district. In 1865 a new proprietor of the Pilgrim Inn put aside an adjoining site for athletic contests and horse riding, and in 1869 a syndicate of new owners named the establishment Croxton Park, said to be the name of a fashionable English racing rendezvous. Croxton Park was between high Street and St. Georges Road.
In 1915 the football club moved to a new venue, and Croxton Park's best days were over. The prospect of housing subdivision beckoned, however, as trams had been running on a reopened High Street service since 1901. The Croxton Park racecourse, called the Fitzroy Racecourse, was opened on the other side of St. Georges Road in 1891, becoming one of John Wren's pony tracks. It was closed in 1931 and remained a wasteland until taken for postwar housing. Between the 1911 and 1933 censuses for the Northcote municipality the population increased nearly two-and-a-half times. This period coincided with the residential settlement of Croxton, where houses were mainly double-fronted weatherboard.

CROYDON
Croydon is a residential locality 27 km. east of Melbourne, between Ringwood and Lilydale. The name came into existence in the 1880s, and was the name of the shire when the western part of Lillydale shire was severed in 1961. Croydon was a shire, and then a city until 1994. Croydon was first known as White Flats, and the centre of settlement was Brushy Creek which had churches and a hotel. (Brushy Creek was so named because of the tea tree which grew along its banks. It formed the eastern boundary of the municipality.) There was a Cobb and Co. coach run from Kew to Brushy Creek, along the Whitehorse Road, in the 1870s, but the centre of activity moved south-west when a station was put on the railway line to Lilydale in 1882. The name given to the station was South Warrandyte because of the approximate association of the area to Warrandyte about 7 km. northwards. The name did not meet with approval, and it was changed to Croydon at the suggestion of Gregory Lacey, the former owner of the land on which the station was built. His wife had been born in Croydon, Surrey, England.

CROYDON NORTH
Croydon North is a residential area 27 km. east of Melbourne. In the early days of subdivision Luther College and the Rudolf Steiner school established campuses in the Warranwood area. As the extreme east of Croydon North, on Maroondah Highway, is Brushy Park reserve, a reminder of the district's first point of settlement when the Brushy Creek cattle run (1840s) and Cobb and Co. coach stopping place (1870s) existed. Croydon North has several neighbourhood reserves, the Croydon golf course and primary schools at Warranwood, Croydon Hills and Croydon North. Residents depend on shopping facilities or further afield. Further north are the more sparsely settled Warrandyte and Wonga Park.