Spotswood

Spotswood is a residential and industrial suburb 7 km south-west of central Melbourne, separated by Stony Creek from Footscray to its north.

Its name came from John Stewart Spottiswoode, a resident, who purchased land there in 1841. (His daughter married Richard Seddon who became Prime Minister of New Zealand, and the locality of Seddon in Footscray is named after him). Apart from pastoral activity, industry in Spotswood was the quarrying of basalt, used for building, road surfacing and for ballast in ships leaving the port at Williamstown.