Footer
Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
Partners
(3064, 29 km N, Hume City)
A developing residential area on Melbourne's outer northern fringe, Craigieburn is thought to have been named after the town in the former Scottish county of Dumfries by a group of Scots who settled here in the 1840s. Craigieburn was part of Broadmeadows Shire until 1955 when, together with most of the neighbouring districts of Somerton, Mickleham, Yuroke and Greenvale, it was moved into the Shire of Bulla. In earlier years it was primarily rural, described in 1865 as 'undulating, and occupied by a few small farmers'. Although the railway to Seymour, which opened in 1872, crossed the Hume Highway at Craigieburn, trains initially only stopped there on request. From the 1880s there were attempts to open up the area for residential subdivision, but it did not experience significant population until the 1980s. Nearby Mickleham and Yuroke remain largely agricultural.