Jacana (/dʒəkɑːnə/) is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 14 km (8.7 mi) north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hume local government area. Jacana recorded a population of 2,187 at the 2021 census.^[1]

Quick Facts Jacana Melbourne, Victoria, Coordinates ...

Jacana Melbourne, Victoria
Jacana Railway Station
Jacana Location in metropolitan Melbourne
Coordinates	37.68°S 144.912°E / -37.68; 144.912
Population	2,187 (2021 census)[1]
• Density	1,820/km2 (4,720/sq mi)
Established	1920s
Postcode(s)	3047
Elevation	110 m (361 ft)
Area	1.2 km2 (0.5 sq mi)
Location	14 km (9 mi) N of Melbourne
LGA(s)	City of Hume
State electorate(s)	Broadmeadows
Federal division(s)	Calwell Maribyrnong
Suburbs around Jacana: Broadmeadows Broadmeadows Broadmeadows Gladstone Park Jacana Broadmeadows Gladstone Park Glenroy Glenroy

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Jacana is located north of the Western Ring Road, south of Johnstone Street and between the Craigieburn railway line and Moonee Ponds Creek.

The name Jacana was applied to an area between Broadmeadows and Glenroy in the 1950s by the Housing Commission of Victoria (HCV).^[2] The name comes from Jacana Avenue, to the east of the Craigieburn railway line (therefore, technically not in Jacana itself).^[2] Both the street and the suburb are slightly to the north of the Jacana railway station, which was built to service the suburb in 1959. However, Jacana as a built landscape did not spring fully formed under the aegis of the HCV.

The streets in the southern section of Jacana were laid out in 1923, when 861 lots were offered for sale on land which had formerly been owned by Duncan Kennedy, a farmer in the area from the mid-1840s. The Housing Commission retitled some of the streets (for instance, the jokingly named Emu Parade and Sunset Boulevard, as well as after prominent sports persons who competed in the 1956 Olympics)^[2] and built most of the housing stock in this section of Jacana in the 1950s. Only a few houses in Jacana—notably those in Pascoe Vale Road—predate the Housing Commission's arrival in Broadmeadows. In the late 1950s, a picture of the 'daily needs' shopping centre in Emu Parade appeared in the Housing Commission's Annual Report of 1958–59, presumably because it represented the progressive and ever-expanding nature of HCV operations. As the population increased, Jacana Post Office opened on 15 May 1961.^[3] The Commission later laid out and built the northern section of Jacana in the early 1970s, the southernmost section of its showcase Meadow Fair estate. A small portion of the southern section of Jacana came under threat in the mid-1960s, when a new branch line was proposed to extend from the Broadmeadows railway line close to the site of Jacana Station, to the new Melbourne Airport. This line was not built.

Construction of the newer area of Jacana took place in the Whitlam era, which ended with the opening of the Broadmeadows Sporting Club, located on the Jacana side of the Moonee Ponds Creek Valley. The club was opened by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam on 10 November 1975—the day before his dismissal by the Governor General, John Kerr. During the 1970s, a major portion of what is now Jacana Reserve was a rubbish dump created to fill a valley containing a small tributary of Moonee Ponds Creek. This area now features two sports ovals.

As is to be expected from a former Housing Commission development in this region, Jacana is a lower-middle or working class area which, because of its planned heritage, enjoys better amenities than many privately developed or unplanned suburbs. It contains the aforementioned shops and Sports Club (which includes a bowling green), small playgrounds, a school and extensive parkland. The north-eastern section of the suburb is the site of the Broadmeadows Community Health Centre, relocated from a site north of Broadmeadows Central to a space long reserved for a hospital.

ABS 2001 statistics for the Jacana reveal a suburb in which 60.4% of the population is Australian-born – the remainder from a variety of sources, only the United Kingdom (3.1%) and Italy (2.6%) exceeding 2%. In 2001 almost 10% of residents were unemployed, and 48.5% were not in the labour force (over 30% of the population is under 18 or over 65). Of those employed, almost a quarter worked in manufacturing, and just over 15% worked in retail.

The majority of Jacana housing, as stated above, was erected by the Housing Commission of Victoria either in the late 1950s, early 1960s or in the early 1970s. It is mainly of brick construction with pre-cast concrete elements as per the HCV method of the 1950s-60s. There are no flats. 91.3% of Jacana residents live in separate houses. 48.3% own their own home, and 26.2% are purchasing their home, a total of 74.5%. The average housing price in Jacana in 2001 was $131,750; today premium streets such as Langton Street and Freeland Grove command prices over $700,000 as a result of the housing boom earlier in the decade. While this is a major increase over a short period of time, prices in Jacana are still far below the average for Melbourne.

Jacana Football Club, an Australian Rules football team, competes in the Essendon District Football League.^[11]

• City of Broadmeadows – Jacana was previously within this former local government area.