Suburb by suburb snapshot – Epsom

Epsom is approximately 10.7 square kilometres and has three parks covering nearly 2.2 per cent of total area.

The population of Epsom in 2016 was 4325 people and by the 2016 Census it has risen to 5014 showing growth of 15.93 per cent in the area during that time.

Epsom was thought to be named after the horse racing town of Epsom Downs in Surrey, England.

Epsom is a developing outlying northern suburb of Bendigo on the Midland Highway and adjoins the White Hills district of Bendigo, and both places were first mined for gold during the 1850s.

Later, when the railway line was built north of Bendigo, the area separated from Epsom by the tracks was named Ascot, also an English horse racing location.

Epsom is situated on the junction of the Bendigo and Piccaninny Creeks, and the alluvial soil was a source of agricultural produce for the gold diggings.

As the ground was overturned for gold it revealed good pottery clay.

An immigrant, George Guthrie (1828-1910) opened Epsom’s best-known industry, the Bendigo Pottery, in 1858.

Guthrie’s pottery coincided with the opening of religious and civic institutions at Epsom, an Anglican school (1856-81), a Catholic school (1856-76), a Wesleyan church (1859) and a police station (1862).

Gold mining was the main industry of the 1860s, with 16 crushing mills and 12 horse puddling machines, and remained so until the late 1880s when the diggings were nearly all worked out after which selectors took up farms, including vineyards and orchards.

Epsom was an agricultural and industrial town until after the 1950s.

As the iron foundry gave out, market gardens supplied tomatoes to a pulp processing factory.

Throughout all of Epsom’s industrial history, however, the Bendigo Pottery has continued. Until the 1930s the pottery manufactured household wares, pipe ware, bricks, tiles, bottles, and demijohns.

During subsequent years pipe work became more important for sewerage schemes but by the 1950s plasticware overtook much of the ceramic houseware and the pottery remained technologically unadvanced.

In 1968 the possibility of reintroducing household pottery was taken up, and the new era of handmade Epsomware began.

Tourism soon followed and the former stables became a pottery gallery, and along with the kilns and other structures were placed on the Australian and Victorian historic buildings registers.

CoreLogic data indicates that the predominant age group in Epsom is 0-9 years with households being primarily couples with children and are likely to be repaying $1400 – $1799 per month on mortgages.

In general, people in Epsom work in a professional occupation.

In 2011, 70.4 per cent of the homes in Epsom were owner-occupied compared with 73.3 per cent in 2016.

 

TITBIT:

An immigrant, George Guthrie opened Epsom’s best-known industry, the Bendigo Pottery, in 1858.

 

Population: 5014

Male: 48.2%

Female: 51.8%

Median age: 31

5-year population change: 15.93%

House median value: $610,000

Change in Median Price: (5yrs) is 71.8%

Median asking rent per week: $440

Average length of ownership: 8 years

Owner occupiers: 75%

Renters: 25%

 

House median sale price:

June 2022: $587,500

June 2021: $475,000

June 2020: $387,500

June 2019: $355,750

June 2018: $350,000

 

House sales per annum:

Period ending June 2022: 96

Period ending June 2021: 111

 

Land median sale price:

June 2022: $345,000

June 2021: $187,000

 

Land sales per annum:

Period ending June 2022: 35

Period ending June 2021: 23