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By Jayne D'Arcy

August 1, 2018

Transportation dislocation: Melbourne's most confusing train stations
Possibly the most confusing for travellers is North Melbourne Station, which is in West Melbourne. Photo: Luis Ascui

Melbourne train stations that aren't quite where they say they are

If you’re looking for a house in a particular suburb, and think you can centre your search around the train station with the same name, then be warned: the name of the station might be misleading.

Take a look around Melbourne’s suburbs and you’ll find a whole lot of station and suburb dislocation going on.

Ever wondered if people living in Toorak are more likely to pop into a car than wait for a train? Here’s why you might think that: Toorak station is not actually in Toorak. No, the station’s in neighbouring Armadale. Smack bang in the centre of Armadale is another train station, named, more appropriately, Armadale. Toorak does have a station: the practically unheard of Heyington, on the Glen Waverley line. Heyington doesn’t really have that Toorak ring to it, does it?

Plenty of stations are named after suburbs that they are not actually in. Tottenham station, in Melbourne’s west, is actually in West Footscray, not Tottenham. Though if you just went “What? Tottenham? Is it an unknown yet affordable and maybe up-and-coming suburb I haven’t heard of?” — sorry, don’t get excited.

Tottenham is the new West Footscray. Thanks to a rezoning, the residential areas of Tottenham have been rezoned into West Footscray. All that’s left in Tottenham, according to Village real estate agent Huss Saad, are “panel beaters and mechanics”.

A bit more to the north are more examples of suburb swapping: Strathmore, a suburb famous for its high-achieving high school, has a namesake station, but it’s in the suburb of Essendon. Don’t panic if you got confused when school-zone shopping; the area around the station is still in the zone for the prestigious school.

Heading out a bit to the north-east, Fawkner station is actually in Hadfield. This one kind of makes sense, as Hadfield itself formed part of the John Pascoe Fawkner estate. Some familiar names? That man is all over that area (though there’s no suburb called John). Instead of getting its namesake station, Fawkner gets Gowrie, on its border.

Closer to the city, Collingwood station is actually in Abbotsford. Collingwood doesn’t have a train station. Up the road, Richmond seems to have a huge number of stations (Richmond, North Richmond, West Richmond), though East Richmond most definitely is in Cremorne.

Back to the southern ‘burbs, where most of these suburb/station mashups seems to appear, Gardenvale station isn’t in Gardenvale, it’s in its better-known neighbour, Brighton.

Gardenvale doesn’t get a station, yet Brighton gets four: Gardenvale, North Brighton, Middle Brighton and Brighton Beach Station, which is a zone 1 and 2 combo.

Huntingdale, known for its golf club, (actually in Oakleigh South) has Huntingdale station, which is also in Oakleigh. This one really makes sense, as Huntingdale was formerly known as Oakleigh East or East Oakleigh. It’s a tiny ‘burb with, at the 2011 census, only 1784 people. Probably not enough to complain about the name change.

Burwood station is in Glen Iris, and was originally named Hartwell. Two decades later, in 1909, it was renamed Burwood after Burwood House. The suburb of Burwood doesn’t have a train running through it at all, making do with tram 75, and, bordering Wattle Park, tram 70.

Possibly the most confusing for travellers is North Melbourne station, which is in West Melbourne. Go figure.

Four things you didn’t know about Melbourne’s public transport system

  • In 2015 a state election promise led to travel across zone 1 and 2 being charged at the same amount as a zone 1 ticket. People travelling only in zone 2 pay a cheaper zone 2 fare.
  • Zone 1+2 crossover stations include Brighton Beach, Bentleigh, Huntingdale, Heidelberg, Reservoir, Sunshine and Fawkner.
  • Free tram zones in the CBD also came into effect in 2015, but those ending their journey outside the free tram zone are still required to tap on when they get on. Unfortunately it’s resulted in the city’s tram stops being plastered in way too much FREE TRAM ZONE signage.
  • Zone 3 was abolished almost a decade ago as part of an election promise.

Things you should know

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