Niddrie, Victoria
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Niddrie is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Moonee Valley. The Calder Freeway marks the northern boundary of the suburb to its junction with the Tullamarine Freeway.
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History
Between 1869 and 1871 Henry Stevenson built his property Niddrie in the area. The house was named after Niddrie, a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is thought this is the most likely origin of the name, although an alternative derivation may have come from an unsuccessful Polish prospector, Kol Nidre, who settled in the area in the 1850s.
Commerce
The main shopping centre is located on Keilor Road, Niddrie. The main industries of the suburb are construction (19%), property and business services (18%), retail trade (17%) and manufacturing (13%).
Transport
The number 59 tram service travels from Westfield Shoppingtown - Airport West (at Matthews Avenue), then runs via Matthews Avenue, Keilor Road, Mount Alexander Road, Fletcher Street, Pascoe Vale Road, Mount Alexander Road, Flemington Road and then terminates at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Flinders Street, Flinders Street Station. Catch it on Keilor Road in Niddrie.
Three bus routes also service the suburb:
- 475 Moonee Ponds - East Keilor (via Niddrie)
- 483 Sunbury - Moonee Ponds (via Diggers Rest)
- 501 Moonee Ponds - Niddrie (via Strathmore)
Landmarks
The Niddrie Quarry was established in the 1940s to extract basalt for road paving from the vast lava plain that stretches from Melbourne to Mt Gambier. Quarry operations continued to 1975. Since 1975 local residents have waged a campaign against use of the quarry as a waste dump or for landfill. The site was eventually purchased by the Urban Land Corporation in November 2000 for development of new housing estates with the retention of the quarry as a lake. Currently the site is in the process of being redeveloped into a residential housing estate, which will also see the lake retained and redeveloped.
Steele Creek runs through the suburb and is a tributary of the Maribyrnong River.
References
- The Niddrie Quarry (http://www.enet.org.au/historyonline/niddriequarry/niddriequarry.htm)
- City of Moonee Valley