Amy Diana

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Postcode 3004: St Kilda Road BD

Who even knew that St Kilda Road would have its own postcode? When I was younger, I loved travelling along St Kilda Road and seeing all the big trees lining each side of the street. It was how I knew we were almost in the city. You may have noticed in this sketch that the trees have a red band - a group of locals had put a red ribbon around every single tree to raise awareness about their impending removal. Currently (November 2016) here is a new proposal to have an underground railway line through St Kilda Road, but in this small section outside the CBD, the railway is said to not be deep enough to avoid the destruction of the boulevard. The group are not fighting against the new Domain Station, but against the above-ground design. Apparently, if the tunnel were to run just 1 or 2 metres deeper than what is currently being planned for [as it will be elsewhere...] the boulevard can remain intact. I gladly signed the petition to support the group. At the time of this sketch, there were only 150 signatures needed to deliver the petition to our Public Transport Minister to express concern.

Even though it's very early in this project, it has been fun learning about which towns belong to which postcodes, and seeing all the interesting and funny names of places that we have. And while it seems obvious, it's really helping me to learn about our state in a very geographical way. It makes me curious about when these towns were born, and whether their postcode gives any sort of hierarchy, or even importance by association. For example, Postcode 3004. St Kilda Road MUST have some sort of significance to 1) have its own postcode and 2) have a postcode so chronologically close to 3000, Melbourne CBD. Is it because it is geographically close to Melbourne CBD, or was it really founded not long after the city centre? Or did 3004 only appear in recent years because of an influx in businesses and apartment buildings? Or is it because it has the most tram lines and therefore it serves as an exceptionally lively corridor for commuters and city visitors? It's probably easy enough to find answers to these questions, but sometimes I enjoy being able to sit in the mystery of things, similar to how I never want to find out the lyrics to the theme song of Suits because I prefer to loudly sing words that are completely incomprehensible.