Brunswick East is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Merri-bek local government area. Brunswick East recorded a population of 13,279 at the 2021 census.
Bordered generally by Lygon Street and Holmes Street in the west; the Merri Creek in the east adjoining Northcote; Park Street, Nicholson Street and Glenlyon Road in the south adjoining Carlton North and Fitzroy North; and Moreland Road in the north adjoining Coburg. Brunswick East is a mixed-use suburb, consisting of primarily residential and commercial properties.
Geography
Lygon Street and Nicholson Street run along Brunswick East's western border with neighbouring Brunswick, while Park Street (one block south of the main thoroughfare of Brunswick Road) and Glenlyon Road form the southern border with Carlton North and Fitzroy North respectively. Merri Creek marks the eastern border with adjoining Northcote. Moreland Road marks the northern border with adjoining Coburg.
Brunswick East has a hillier landscape than Brunswick.
History
In 1839, under the instructions of Robert Hoddle, chief surveyor, the area of Brunswick, including East Brunswick, was surveyed. Big blocks were marked out of 1 miles long by 1/4-mile wide. The blocks were bought mostly by land speculators.
Bluestone quarrying was one of the first industries in Brunswick East. By 1852, the local stone quarries had been worked to the point of exhaustion.
Significant residential subdivision of the area took place in the 1880s (Brunswick East Post Office opening on 13 January 1888) and also in the period after World War I. In 1916, the tram along Lygon Street was electrified, making access much easier.
Brunswick's first textile factory, Prestige Hosiery, opened in 1922, and the suburb became the location of numerous textile and garment factories. The textile industry has been in substantial decline in the suburb since the 1980s, with the liberalisation and elimination of tariff controls by successive Federal Governments.
Redevelopment of commercial and industrial property has taken place for medium and high density housing, as part of the intense gentrification Brunswick East has been subjected to.
Demographics
According to the 2011 census, there were 8476 people were living in Brunswick East. The population rose from 7410 recorded in 2006, and 6845 in 2001.
The suburb has a higher proportion of people 18–34 years and a lower proportion of children 0–17 years and older people over 70 years, than the Merri-bek average. While cultural diversity is declining, nearly one third of all citizens were born overseas, which, although lower than the Merri-bek average, is substantially higher than the metropolitan average.
In the 2011 census, 65.5% of people reported speaking only English at home. The most common other languages spoken at home are Italian (9.2%), Greek (4.6%), Arabic (2.5%), Mandarin (1.8%) and Cantonese (1.0%). In the census, 39.4% of people identified as having no religion (markedly more than the state average of 24.0%), 26.5% as Catholic, 6.6% as Eastern Orthodox, 4.4% as Anglican and 2.8% as Buddhist.
Brunswick East has a high proportion of flats, units, apartments and semi-detached row townhouses. Separate houses make up just over half of all dwellings. More than one in four households in Brunswick East are lone person households and 14 per cent are group households, which is higher than the Merri-bek and metropolitan averages. There is also a high proportion of rental households, which is also significantly higher than the metropolitan and Merri-bek averages.
Residents of Brunswick East tend to be highly educated, with 28 per cent having a bachelor's degree or higher, and over half of all residents having completed Year 12 schooling, significantly higher than the municipal and metropolitan averages. A high proportion of professionals work in Brunswick East, with declining numbers of labourers, trades, production and transport workers. Income data from the 2001 census highlights that there are still pockets of disadvantage in the suburb, with almost half of the citizens on weekly individual incomes of less than $400 per week, with 10 per cent of citizens on incomes of less than $120 per week.