Sunbury Asylum

The Sunbury Industrial School located on Jackson's Hill in Sunbury, Victoria, Australia, was a school developed to educate and house destitute children from 1864 until 1879. A 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) site was put aside in Sunbury following the implementation of the Neglected and Criminal Children's Act of 1864. Destitute or orphaned children were sent as wards of the state to learn a trade in the belief that this may then provide them with the skills necessary (once they were old enough), to provide and care for themselves. The school was co-educational although girls and boys were segregated. Boys were expected to learn a trade while girls were expected to handle menial tasks such as washing clothes, cleaning floors and to assist with cooking. The school consisted of ten large, unheated, bluestone buildings arranged in two rows of five. Located on the side of Jackson's Hill, they were called the Hill Wards. The open and exposed position of the buildings led to frequent illness and constant poor health of the children. The children were given rancid food, that they ate in their own rooms that by the time they received it, was cold. The children were given only a little water, no bedding, save for a blanket and many affected by Ophthalmia, went untreated, resulting in blindness. It was estimated that around 10 percent of children died within the first year of operation. This fact alone led to the school gaining the nickname of the Sunbury Slaughterhouse. Eventually, after public outcry, and after numerous Royal Commissions into the Industrial School System, by 1879 the Sunbury Industrial School was closed. The site was used as an asylum for the mentally ill from 1894 until around 1912, the patients were referred to as inmates. By 1914 at its peak, the Sunbury Lunatic Asylum housed 1000 patients. The asylum was renamed a psychiatric hospital and then a mental hospital. By the 1920s the Health Reformation Act came in and improved conditions. By 1968 until 1992, the site was called the Caloola Training Centre for the Intellectually Disabled. Presently, the site is used by Victoria University.

3NRG Incorporated is a community radio station based in Sunbury, Victoria.

Sunbury railway station is the terminus of the suburban electrified Sunbury line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the north-western Melbourne suburb of Sunbury, and opened on 10 February 1859.The station is also serviced by V/Line services to Bendigo and Echuca. Disused station Rupertswood is located between Sunbury and Clarkefield.

The Shire of Bulla was a local government area about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The shire covered an area of 422.17 square kilometres (163.0 sq mi), and existed from 1862 until 1994.

Sunbury ( SUN-bər-ee, locally SUN-bree) is a satellite suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 38 kilometres (24 mi) north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hume local government area. Sunbury recorded a population of 38,851 at the 2021 census.Statistically, Sunbury is considered part of Greater Melbourne, as per the Victorian Government's 2009 decision to extend the urban growth boundary in 2011 to include the area in the Melbourne Urban Area as the north-western fringe of the Greater Melbourne area, giving its land urban status and value.

The Electoral district of North Bourke was one of the original sixteen electoral districts of the old unicameral Victorian Legislative Council of 1851 to 1856. Victoria being a colony in Australia at the time. The district's area was defined as: "Bounded on the north by the great dividing range from the source of the River Plenty to the source of the Werribee River on the west by the Werribee River to Port Phillip Bay on the south by Port Phillip Bay to the mouth of the Yarra Yarra River and by that river to the confluence of the River Plenty and on the east by the River Plenty to its head in the great dividing range."From 1856 onwards, the Victorian parliament consisted of two houses, the Victorian Legislative Council (upper house, consisting of Provinces) and the Victorian Legislative Assembly (lower house).

Salesian College is an independent Roman Catholic, co-educational secondary school located in Sunbury, Victoria, Australia. The College is a member of the Sports Association of Catholic Co-educational Secondary Schools (SACCSS).

Rupertswood is a mansion and country estate located in Sunbury, 50 km north-northwest of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is well known as the birthplace of The Ashes urn which was humorously presented to English cricket captain Ivo Bligh to mark his team's victory in an 1882–83 Test match series between Australia and England. Rupertswood is one of the largest houses constructed in Victoria and, although now subdivided, has significant farm land. The estate also had its own private railway station (until closure in 2004), and artillery battery. It is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The foundation stone for Rupertswood was laid on 29 August 1874 with around 1,000 people in attendance. The house was the country seat completed in 1876 for Sir William Clarke a land owner and pastoralist who was one of Australia's wealthiest men and the first Australian-born baronet. It was designed by local architect George L. Browne in the Free Classical style. From 1874 to 1876 Sir William Clarke employed notable landscape designer William Sangster to design and create the surrounding gardens.The estate was sold in 1925 to Hugh Victor McKay, a wealthy industrialist and inventor of the Sunshine Harvester. When McKay died in 1926, Rupertswood was bought by pastoralist William Naughton, and then in 1927 by the Salesian Society, which used the mansion and surrounding property as a male boarding school. The school later became co-educational, relocated into separate premises nearby, and is known as Salesian College, Rupertswood. In March 2006, the Commonwealth Games Queen's Baton Relay travelled to the area, where a re-enactment of the handing over of The Ashes to the English took place in front of a small local crowd. The mansion was restored with the help of interior designer and Victorian architecture specialist Jacqui Robertson and converted into a hotel that was often used for weddings and other formal events until its closure in 2014. The contents were auctioned on site in July 2014 by Glenelg Auction Centre. The building is now used as administration offices for Salesian College.

Sunbury Pop Festival or Sunbury Rock Festival was an annual Australian rock music festival held on a 620-acre (2.5 km2) private farm between Sunbury and Diggers Rest, Victoria, which was staged on the Australia Day (26 January) long weekend from 1972 to 1975. It attracted up to 45,000 patrons and was promoted by Odessa Promotions, which was formed by a group of television professionals, including John Fowler, from GTV 9 Melbourne. Although conceived and promoted as Australia's Woodstock, the Sunbury Pop Festivals signalled the end of the hippie peace movement of the late 1960s and the beginning of the reign of pub rock. The early festivals were financially successful and featured performances by Australian and New Zealand bands including, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, Max Merritt and the Meteors, Chain and Wild Cherries. Various live albums were recorded at the festivals including Aztecs Live! At Sunbury issued in September 1972, which peaked at No. 3 on the Go-Set Top 20 Albums; and the triple live album, Sunbury 1973 - The Great Australian Rock Festival which was the inaugural release by Mushroom Records. Looking to pull in bigger crowds, the founders booked international acts with British rock band Queen performing in 1974. They arrived late, and were initially booed by a crowd who expected to see home grown acts, but they finished their set despite crowd screams of "go back to Pommyland, ya pooftahs". Lead singer Freddie Mercury retorted with "When we come back to Australia, Queen will be the biggest band in the world!". A fledgling Skyhooks were also booed and returned the following year with a new lead singer, Graeme "Shirley" Strachan. In 1975 another British band, Deep Purple, were head-liners. A fracas developed on-stage between Deep Purple's roadies and AC/DC's roadies and members. Due to poor weather and high ticket prices the attendance was down to 16,000. Odessa Promotions was liquidated after paying out Deep Purple but most local acts were not paid by Odessa. Late in the year, Deep Purple placed money into a fund so that unpaid artists were paid at the full musician's rate. In 2015, the Sunbury Pop Festival was inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame.There is footage on YouTube about the Sunbury Rock festival .

Rupertswood railway station was located on the Melbourne – Bendigo railway in the north-western Melbourne suburb of Sunbury in Victoria, Australia. It was the last station in the state that operated only to service school traffic, with services only stopping to pick up and drop off passengers for the adjacent Salesian College.

Sunbury Downs College is a secondary college located in the north-west regional town of Sunbury, Victoria, Australia. The College is set on a single campus located within the northern Melbourne suburb of Sunbury and caters for students in Years 7–12.

Diggers Rest railway station is located on the Sunbury line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the north-western Melbourne suburb of Diggers Rest, and it opened on 2 October 1859.