St Kilda, Victoria
Encyclopedia : S : ST : STK : St Kilda, Victoria
- :For other places called St Kilda, see Saint Kilda (disambiguation)
St Kilda is a suburb of Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria, in Australia. It is located in the municipality of City of Port Phillip. It is a beachside suburb about 7km south-east of Melbourne city centre.
History of St Kilda
St Kilda was originally settled because the high ground above the beach offered a cool fresh breeze during Melbourne's hot summer months. Within a few years of its founding it became a fashionable and wealthy area. St Kilda became a separate municipality in 1857.
During the Land Boom of the 1880s, St Kilda became a suburb of great stone mansions and palatial hotels, particularly along the seaside steets such as Fitzroy Street, Grey Street and Acland Street and the area once known as St Kilda Hill centred between Wellington Road, Alma Road, former High Street (incorporated as part of St Kilda Road) and Chapel Street. The lower inland areas of St Kilda East were not so wealthy and comprised of many smaller, semi detatched cottages, many constructed of timber.
During the Depression of the 1890s, however, St Kilda began to decline. The seaside area became an entertainment precinct for Melbourne's working classes, and the wealthy people moved further south to more exclusive suburbs such as Brighton. From World War I onwards, parts of St Kilda have become notorious for prostitution and other vices, a reputation that still persists today.
Since the 1960s it has become one of Melbourne's leading gay and lesbian residential areas. Today St Kilda is an area of sharp social contrast, with many homeless and other disadvantaged people living among the wealthy and fashionable who crowd its shops and cafes.
In the 1930s St Kilda became a centre for Melbourne's growing Jewish community and subsequently a growing Orthodox community developed with a number of synagogues and schools. In recent decades, however, the centre of Melbourne's Jewish community has moved eastwards to more affluent Caulfield. There are still Jewish neighbourhoods in East St Kilda, mainly of older and more Orthodox people and recent Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, but the Jewish character of Acland Street, for example, has been lost.
In the 1970s, widening of St Kilda Road and the creation of the Queens Way connection to Dandenong road destroyed much of the former St Kilda Junction (including the famous Junction Hotel) and High Street, once considered the centre of the suburb, which became an extension of the road.
Since the 1990s, an influx of tourists and young backpackers and the increased gentrification of the area over the past 5 - 10 years, has lead many long term residents to leave, thus removing much of the bohemian/artistic character of the area.
The area adjacent to the Palais Theatre known as the Triangle Site, including the Palace music venue was flagged by the council for re-development in 2005, with a number of proposals. All of the proposals facilitate restoration of the Palais, but some which, somewhat controversially, advocate the demolition of the Palace. Other recent local controversies concern the locality of homeless shelters and a skate park.
Distinctive features
- Luna Park - turn of the century fun park
- Palais Theatre - former cinema now used primarily for concerts
- Esplanade Hotel
- Catani Gardens
- Acland Street shopping and restaurant precinct
- Foreshore and Catani Arch
- St Kilda Marina
- St Kilda Botanic Gardens
- St Kilda Sea Baths
- Pier, St Kilda Pavilion, breakwater and little penguin colony
- Canary Island Date Palms
- Astor Theatre - 1930s art deco cinema with largest screen in southern hemisphere
- National Theatre (formerly Victory) - now home to ballet schoool
- Metropole and Terminus - former railway station, now light rail terminus
- The George Hotel, Fitzroy Street
- St Kilda Junction
- Junction Oval
- Williamstown Ferry
- St Kilda Synagogue
- St Kilda Primary School
- St Kilda Lawn Bowls Club
References in popular culture
The Network Ten drama The Secret Life Of Us was set in St Kilda, mostly around Acland Street, Fitzroy Street and in the famous Esplanade Hotel.
Many of the indoor scenes from The Story of the Kelly Gang were filmed in St Kilda.
Origins of the name
Many Melbourne people assume St Kilda is named after a saint called Kilda, and indeed a satirical "cult of Saint Kilda" has grown up among the area's many artists and writers. In fact the suburb takes its name from a ship called The Lady of St Kilda, which visited Melbourne in July 1841, five years after the founding of Melbourne. The ship was owned by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, a member of a prominent British political family, and the main shopping street of St Kilda is named Acland Street after him. The ship was named for the island of St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and the name of the island derives the Old Norse word skildir, meaning "shields."
Demography of St Kilda
For many years, St Kilda has had the highest population density in the Melbourne statistical area, and the highest for a metropolitan area outside of Sydney [link]. This density is reflected in the built form, which consists primarily of strata titled units, apartments and flats. In recent years an apartment trend in suburbs like Southbank, Docklands and the Melbourne CBD and St Kilda Road all rival the suburb's population density.
Culture
St Kilda has a unique artists culture, but is also home to many local events of high profile.Events
Annual events include the popular St Kilda Festival, the Community Cup, the St Kilda Writers Festival and the city hosts many of the films from the Melbourne International Film Festival and Melbourne Underground Film Festival.Sport
The St Kilda Football Club is repesented in the national Australian Football League and although lacks success, has a cult following including local celebrities such as including Molly Meldrum.The suburb is home to many sports ovals in Albert Park, including the historic Junction Oval.
The suburb is also home to the St Kilda City Football Club, a member club of the Southern Football League.
Music
St Kilda has produced many Australian live music acts. Perhaps the most famous of these is legendary rock band Hunters & Collectors and its front-man Mark Seymour.Transport
Getting There
St Kilda is well connected to the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne by trams. You can take tram 96 from Bourke Street, tram 112 from Collins St or tram 16 from Swanston Street, for a 25-minute ride to St Kilda. Metcard tickets cost AUD $3.20 (a full-fare 2 hour Zone 1 inner-neighbourhood Train, Tram and Bus metropolitan transport ticket). One can also hire a taxi which would cost about AUD $15 from the CBD. Buses also run through the suburb.
| Melbourne suburbs near St Kilda (City of Port Phillip) | ||
| Williamstown North | Albert Park | Windsor |
| Port Phillip Bay | St Kilda | St Kilda East |
|---|---|---|
| Port Phillip Bay | Elwood | Balaclava
|
References
- [St Kilda has grown up fed a steady, varied diet of film]
- St Kilda Historical Society
External links
- [St Kilda Historical Society]
- [Melbourne.com.au St Kilda Information]
- [Photos of St Kilda]
- [All St Kilda Backpackers Hostels]
- *Street map from [Street Directory], [MSN Maps] and [Multimap].
- *Satellite image from [Google Maps], [WikiMapia] and [Terraserver].
| Suburbs of the City of Port Phillip | |
|---|---|
|
Elwood |
Middle Park |
Port Melbourne |
St Kilda |
St Kilda East |
South Melbourne
| |
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