Southbank: Population, history, development, sights and crime
Southbank is known for night-life, fine dining and has been the cultural hub of Melbourne for more than 140 years. Here’s a closer look at postcode 3006.
Melbourne City
Don't miss out on the headlines from Melbourne City. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Southbank has a reputation for being the cultural hub of Melbourne, a hotspot for tourists and home to city slickers living across the bridge from the busy CBD.
The small suburb on the south side of the Yarra River is home to the Melbourne Arts Centre, Hamer Hall, NGV, Malthouse Theatre and the Victorian College of the Arts.
Prior to European settlement the Kulin people of the Wurundjeri tribe lived and hunted along the Yarra River flats catching fish, eels and freshwater mussels.
Southbank was previously the first port of Melbourne with factories and warehouses built between the 1860s and 1920s to sustain industrial development.
The settlement was part of South Melbourne before being redefined into Southbank in 1984.
ARTS PRECINCT THEN AND NOW
The land the Arts Centre was built on used to be an amusement park, circus, roller skating rink, dance hall and water slide but saw dramatic change in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1877 the Cooper and Bailey’s Great American International Circus visited the site before the Fitzgerald Brothers Circus made it the permanent home of the biggest circus in Australia called Olympia.
Plans were in the works for almost 20 years before the NGV was completed in 1968 at a cost of $14 million.
DEVELOPMENT
Southbank boasts the best views of the city stretching from the Southgate complex to Queensbridge Square and the infamous 92 level view seen from the Eureka Tower.
The promenade you see today was built during the early 1990s to stimulate the area and bring in visitors during an economic slump.
Residential high-rises and tall office buildings went up during this time including The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd and IBM.
International heads turned to Southbank when the Eureka Tower skyscraper was completed in 2006, with Melbourne home to the tallest residential tower in the world.
For the 18,709 residents who live in Southbank it’s a work hard, play hard crew with ABS data showing the median age is 30, with 66 per cent working full-time and 43 per cent studying at tertiary level.
Living so close to the city has fantastic perks with 32 per cent able to walk to work.
A popular place to dine, drink and relax, couples with no children make up 67 per cent of the locals who live here.
Crown Casino comes alive at night with everything on offer from pokies and punts to caviar and fine dining.
CRIME
In 2008 Matthew McEvoy died after a brawl at the QBH nightclub when two men later pleading guilty in taking part in the short fracas that cost Mr McEvoy his life in the smokers’ pit outside the notorious Southbank venue.
Mr McEvoy, 24, died after being punched then kicked to the head during a fight that lasted only moments.
Ivan Issa and Michael O’Brien, both 19, pleaded guilty at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to a charge of affray.
In 2019 the federal government ordered an inquiry into claims of money laundering, fast-tracked visas and sex trafficking at Crown Casino.
And in July, media commentator and best-selling author Fiori Giovanni fronted court charged over the drowning death of her seven-month-old baby after the little girl was found unresponsive in the bath at her Southbank apartment.
Check out more stories at The Melbourne City News
Like us on Facebook here
Contact Grace at grace.mckinnon@news.com.au