Buyers agent for Sunshine VIC3020

The suburb wears its name on the station platform in letters tall enough to read from the street. Sunshine. It sounds aspirational, maybe too aspirational for a place with an industrial past and a reputation that still precedes it. But spend an afternoon walking Hampshire Road and you start to understand that this suburb has always been about something more than what outsiders assume.

Sunshine sits 12 kilometres west of the Melbourne CBD in the City of Brimbank. The train station dominates the centre of town, a major interchange where Metro lines meet V/Line services to Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. Trains run to Flinders Street in about 20 minutes. That connectivity has always been the suburb's defining feature, and it's about to become more so. Sunshine is slated to become a 'Superhub' as part of the Melbourne Airport Rail project, with new platforms, extended concourses and direct trains to the airport once the line opens. The state government has designated Sunshine a Metropolitan Activity Centre, signalling serious long-term investment in the precinct.

The suburb exists because of one man: Hugh Victor McKay. In 1906, McKay moved his Sunshine Harvester Works from Ballarat to the site beside the railway junction then known as Braybrook Junction. Within a year, the suburb had adopted the company name. At its peak, the harvester works employed nearly 3,000 people and was the largest manufacturing plant in the southern hemisphere. McKay didn't just build a factory. He purchased 276 acres and subdivided it into worker housing, creating what urban planners now recognise as Australia's first 'garden suburb.' He funded churches, donated land for schools, established the technical college, and in 1909 commissioned what remains today as the H.V. McKay Memorial Gardens. Those gardens are the oldest surviving industrial garden in Australia, heritage-listed and tended by a dedicated Friends group. Few residents know that chrysanthemum and dahlia cultivars were developed on that site for decades, with names like 'Sunshine' and 'Harold Gray' after the head gardener who bred them.

The factory is gone, replaced by shopping centres. But walk the residential streets south of the station, particularly around Duke Street and McIntyre Road, and you find the legacy. Federation-era weatherboards sit on generous allotments, many renovated, some still waiting their turn. The streetscape has a consistency rare in Melbourne's west, a consequence of McKay's original estate planning. Trees line the footpaths. The scale feels human.

Hampshire Road runs north from the station and serves as the commercial spine. This is where Sunshine earns its reputation as one of Melbourne's most multicultural suburbs. Nearly half the residents were born overseas according to the 2021 census, with significant communities from Vietnam, Malta, Italy, Greece, India and more recently Sudan, Burma and Afghanistan. That diversity shows up in the shopfronts. Vietnamese bakeries selling banh mi. Ethiopian restaurants serving injera. Afghan grocers, Indian spice shops, Maltese pastry counters. You can eat your way through a dozen countries without leaving a single block. The Vietnamese food, in particular, draws people from across Melbourne. Steamed rice paper rolls from the northern port city of Hai Phong. Broken rice dishes. Pho and bun bo hue. Some of these places have been operating for decades, established by refugees who settled in Sunshine after the Vietnam War.

The shopping infrastructure serves practical needs rather than lifestyle aspirations. There are two enclosed centres near the station, plus Big W, Aldi, Woolworths, a JB Hi-Fi and a Village Cinemas. You can do a full week's grocery shopping, catch a movie and eat lunch without getting in your car. That self-sufficiency matters to families.

Kororoit Creek threads through the western edge of Sunshine, forming a green corridor with walking and cycling trails. The creek is Wurundjeri country, and scar trees where bark was harvested for canoes still stand along its banks. For organised sport, the suburb has football, cricket, soccer and tennis clubs. The Sunshine Kangaroos compete in the Western Region Football League. There's also direct freeway access via the Western Highway and Western Ring Road, putting the airport 25 to 30 minutes away by car.

Who lives here? The population is around 9,500 in Sunshine proper, though the broader Sunshine cluster including North, West and surrounding pockets pushes that figure much higher. You'll find long-term residents who bought in the 1970s and 80s alongside young families priced out of suburbs further east. Professionals who work in the CBD and value the short commute. Investors watching the infrastructure spend. First home buyers using stamp duty concessions to get a foothold. The demographic is genuinely mixed, which gives the suburb a social texture some newer estates lack.

The honest acknowledgment? Sunshine's reputation. Some residents describe tree-lined streets, friendly neighbours and a pleasant suburban life. Others point to antisocial behaviour around the station, particularly after dark. Both perspectives hold truth. The shopping centre attracts people from surrounding suburbs to access government services, and that can create friction. But the contrast between the station precinct and the residential streets is stark. Walk five minutes in any direction and the atmosphere shifts to quiet courts, mowed lawns and kids on bikes.

The investment case for Sunshine Melbourne rests on infrastructure. The Airport Rail project alone represents billions of dollars in transport upgrades. The Suburban Rail Loop proposes orbital connections through the western suburbs. Electrification of the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines will add further services through Sunshine station. There is no more land to subdivide. The housing stock is established. And the suburb sits at the geographic centre of Melbourne's western growth corridor, with employment, hospitals and retail already in place.

Sunshine was named for a harvesting machine that changed Australian agriculture. The original factory workers are long gone, but their housing remains, their gardens persist, and the suburb they built continues to evolve. It is not for everyone. It carries baggage. But it has substance, and increasingly, it has momentum.

The information provided is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or professional advice. While care has been taken to ensure accuracy, the information may not be complete, current, or applicable to your specific situation. You should always do your own research and, where appropriate, seek advice from a qualified professional before making any decisions based on this information.