Broadmeadows, Victoria

Broadmeadows Melbourne, Victoria
Hume Global Learning Centre
Broadmeadows Location in metropolitan Melbourne
Coordinates	37°41′06″S 144°55′30″E / 37.685°S 144.925°E / -37.685; 144.925Coordinates: 37°41′06″S 144°55′30″E / 37.685°S 144.925°E / -37.685; 144.925
Population	10,578 (2011 census)
• Density	1,259/km2 (3,262/sq mi)
Established	1850s
Postcode(s)	3047
Area	8.4 km2 (3.2 sq mi)
Location	16 km (10 mi) from Melbourne
LGA(s)	City of Hume
State electorate(s)	Broadmeadows
Federal Division(s)	Calwell
Suburbs around Broadmeadows: Meadow Heights, Westmeadows Dallas Campbellfield Westmeadows Broadmeadows Campbellfield Jacana Glenroy Fawkner

Broadmeadows is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16 km (9.9 mi) north from Melbourne's central business district. Its local government area is the City of Hume. At the 2011 Census, Broadmeadows had a population of 10,578.

Broadmeadows is a sub-regional centre within the northern suburbs of Melbourne, and is often used as a reference for the suburbs around it, although this may be due to its former status as a municipality.

The Broadmeadows area, home to the Wurundjeri Aboriginal tribe prior to European settlement, was settled by pastoralists in the 1840s.

The original Broadmeadows aka "Old Broady" is now known as Westmeadows, which lies to the west of the present Broadmeadows. The first Broadmeadows township was laid out by a Government survey in 1850. Ardlie Street was its commercial centre with a hotel (the Broadmeadows Hotel, now Westmeadows Tavern), the police station and the shire office (the District Roads Board Building, opened in 1866).

Broadmeadows' centre was altered when the railway line and station were opened two kilometres to the original centre's east in 1872. Shire loyalties clung to the old township until new civic offices were built near the railway station in 1928.

Broadmeadows was the site of the main camp for the reception and training of recruits for the AIF from Victoria early in the First World War. Broadmeadows had been identified as a possible site for military training in 1913, but no facilities had been established. The camp was established in August 1914 at "Mornington Park", a property loaned to the government by Mr R.G. Wilson. Early on, Broadmeadows was predominantly a tented camp and conditions were quite spartan. These facilities, combined with wet weather and poor drainage resulted in a rapid increase in sickness among recruits in autumn 1915. Public concern, fuelled by sensationalist press coverage, resulted in a decision in May 1915 to re-establish the main Victorian training camp at Seymour, approximately 100 kilometres north of Melbourne. Broadmeadows Camp remained in use throughout the war, however, with facilities being progressively improved.