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Seddon

(3011, 7 km W, Maribyrnong City)

This densely settled inner-western residential neighbourhood between Middle Footscray and Yarraville takes its name from the railway station opened on the Williamstown line in 1906. The Hotham Street Railway League had campaigned for a station, which was named after Sir Richard Seddon, the New Zealand Prime Minister, who had died on his way home from a trip to Australia. Seddon had work and family links with Williamstown and Spotswood.

The railway station stimulated residential infilling of an area first developed before the 1890s depression. Claude B. Smith, local real estate agent and historian, was an influential figure associated in the 1900s with the Seddon Progress Association, which pressed council for improved services. Edwardian homes built on the rather more generous subdivisions of the 1900s and 1910s lent Seddon a distinction that has been reflected ever since in buyer interest and real estate values. By the 1920s Seddon had churches and sporting clubs, a dance hall and cinema, and even a larrikin gang, the infamous Seddon Snakes.

Since the early 1990s Seddon has been popular among young professionals enthusiastic about local heritage and home restoration. Seddon Community Group, which has published a newsletter since 1997, secured the retention of Seddon as a postcode, supports improved shopping and services, and fosters community loyalty. The group's 1998 household survey suggested that Seddon's population, once staunchly working-class, had become 40% professional and managerial in occupation. Attempts to extend Seddon's southern boundary, however, produced strong negative reactions in Yarraville.

John Lack