Kealba

Kealba is a residential suburb east of St Albans, 15 km north-west of central Melbourne. Its eastern boundary is a linear park along the Maribyrnong River, and on the river’s other bank is the Brimbank metropolitan park.

Kealba’s residential settlement began in the late 1960s, and the high school was opened in 1970. It has a small shopping area, several neighbourhood reserves and the much larger linear park along the river. The park includes a wetlands area where Taylors Creek joins the river, a bicycle path and a fine viewing point. There are a community centre and a neighbourhood house.

The Kealba hotel is just west of Sunshine Avenue, Kealba’s western boundary. When the suburb was first formed it included the area occupied by the hotel and as far west as Cowper Avenue. There is a Catholic church and primary school (c1968) in Sunshine Avenue, adjacent to the site of the high school which closed in an acrimonious merger with two other secondary colleges in 2010.

Kealba has an ethnically diverse population. Among the languages spoken at home as reported in the 2011 census Vietnamese made up 7.1% (Victoria 1.6%).

Kealba’s census populations have been: