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St Kilda, Victoria

Entertainment districts in AustraliaJews and Judaism in MelbourneOrthodox Jewish communitiesRed-light districts in AustraliaSeaside resorts in Australia
St Kilda, VictoriaSuburbs of MelbourneUse Australian English from March 2015
Luna Park Palais Theatre St Kilda
Luna Park Palais Theatre St Kilda

St Kilda is an inner seaside suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south-east of the city's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Port Phillip. As of 2016 Census, St Kilda has a population of 20,230. The Traditional Owners of St. Kilda are the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.St Kilda was named by Charles La Trobe, then superintendent of the Port Phillip District, after a schooner, Lady of St Kilda, which moored at the main beach in early 1842. Later in the Victorian era, St Kilda became a favoured suburb of Melbourne's elite, and many palatial mansions and grand terraces were constructed along its hills and waterfront. After the turn of the century, the St Kilda foreshore became Melbourne's favoured playground, with electric tram lines linking the suburbs to the seaside amusement rides, ballrooms, cinemas and cafes, and crowds flocked to St Kilda Beach. Many of the mansions and grand terraces became guest houses, and gardens were filled in with apartment buildings, making St Kilda the most densely populated suburb in Melbourne. After World War II, St Kilda became Melbourne's red-light district, and the guest houses became low-cost rooming houses. By the late 1960s, St Kilda had developed a culture of bohemianism, attracting prominent artists and musicians, including those in the punk and LGBT subcultures. While some of these groups still maintain a presence in St Kilda, since the 2000s the district has experienced rapid gentrification, pushing many lower socio-economic groups out to other areas, with the suburb again being sought after by the wealthy. Since at least the 1950s, the suburb has been the axis of Melbourne's Jewish community.St Kilda is home to many of Melbourne's visitor attractions including Luna Park, St Kilda Pier, the Palais Theatre and the Esplanade Hotel. It hosts many of Melbourne's big events and festivals.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article St Kilda, Victoria (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

St Kilda, Victoria
Inkerman Street, Melbourne St Kilda

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Wikipedia: St Kilda, VictoriaContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N -37.864 ° E 144.982 °
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Inkerman Street 68
3182 Melbourne, St Kilda
Victoria, Australia
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Luna Park Palais Theatre St Kilda
Luna Park Palais Theatre St Kilda
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St Kilda Beach, Victoria

St Kilda Beach is a beach located in St Kilda, Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia, 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south from the Melbourne city centre. It is Melbourne's most famous beach. The beach is a sandy beach about 700 metres (2,300 ft) long between St Kilda Marina and St Kilda Harbour along Jacka Boulevard and St Kilda Esplanade. It is located at the north-east corner of Port Phillip and is protected from ocean swell, though still affected by strong westerly winds. With Port Phillip Bay being open to the sea, St Kilda Beach is subject to regular tides. The St Kilda Sea Baths are located at the beach. The St Kilda Pier is another landmark. The pier is terminated by the St Kilda Pavilion, an eccentric Edwardian building in the mould of English pier pavilions which is considered of high cultural importance to Melburnians. It was recently reconstructed and listed on the Victorian Heritage Register after burning down. The pier has a long breakwater which shelters St Kilda Harbour and hosts a little penguin colony.St Kilda Beach is one of the 46 bayside beaches which are monitored by EPA Victoria for water quality. St Kilda Beach water quality is generally rated as good (the highest rating given by EPA), being below 150 orgs/100 mL, which is set in the State Environment Protection Policy (Waters of Victoria) 2003. The water quality is considerably lower for about 24 hours after rains, which flush stormwater drains. The reading exceeded the enterococci investigation trigger of 500 orgs/100 mL on 28 December 2009. This was short-lived, with bacterial levels returning below the investigation trigger the next day. The cause of the high reading was attributed to a oneoff, unidentified discharge into a stormwater drain, which is located close to the sampling site at St Kilda Beach.

Grey Street, Melbourne
Grey Street, Melbourne

There are 14 Grey Streets in metropolitan Melbourne, but by far the best-known is Grey Street in St Kilda, once a grand residential street but now with a reputation as a centre of prostitution. Grey St was almost certainly named after Sir George Grey, who was Governor of South Australia from 1841 to 1845 and later Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1877 to 1879. St Kilda's official historian, John Butler Cooper, suggests that it may have been named for another Sir George Grey, a British politician, but the fact other nearby streets are also named after colonial governors (Fitzroy St after Charles FitzRoy, Governor of New South Wales, Barkly St after Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria, and Robe St after Frederick Robe, Grey's successor as Governor of South Australia), makes the first Sir George Grey more likely.Grey Street runs south-east between Fitzroy and Barkly Streets. It lies within the original settlement area of the village of St Kilda, which was subdivided for land sales in 1842. As St Kilda grew into a wealthy and fashionable suburb during the second half of the 19th century, Grey St became lined with the mansions of Melbourne's prosperous mercantile class, attracted by the proximity of St Kilda beach and the hotels and restaurants of Fitzroy St and The Esplanade. One of leading hotels of the era, the George, stands on the corner of Fitzroy and Grey Sts. After decades of decline, it has recently been refurbished and its upper floors converted to apartments. The best-known of Grey Street's great homes was Eildon Mansion, built in 1877 by the wealthy pastoralist John Lang Currie. After many years as a guesthouse, Eildon was bought in 2006 by the Alliance française of Melbourne and has been restored. Next to Eildon is the house where Prime Minister of Australia Stanley Bruce was born in 1883. Other mansions have been converted into apartments or backpackers' hostels. Another well-known landmark on the street in the 19th century was the St Kilda Coffee Palace, now a backpackers' hostel. During the 20th century the social status of St Kilda declined and the wealthy moved away from Grey Street. Since the 1970s it has become notorious as one of Melbourne's main areas of street prostitution. Female prostitutes operate day and night on the corners of Dalgety ("hooker's corner"), Robe and Barkly Streets; and customers in cars, known locally as "gutter crawlers", are regarded by local residents as a major nuisance. Drug use in the area is also regarded as a problem. At night there is a frequent police presence along Grey Street, particularly on weekends. The most prominent landmark on Grey Street is the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1884 by Archbishop James Goold. The Church operates a large welfare centre, the Sacred Heart Mission, near the corner of Grey and Robe Streets, providing meals and sleeping accommodation to the homeless and needy. The Salvation Army operates the St Kilda Crisis Centre on Grey Street, offering services including a needle exchange facility for drug users.