In my suburb you’ll find a country town, if you survive the roundabout

The heart of my suburb calls itself a village, which sounds ambitious for a place where the number 59 tram regularly barrels through its centre and aircraft pass overhead, interrupting conversations like an opinionated local.

But it is a village in the traditional sense: everybody knows everybody and nobody’s business remains private for long.

That is part of its charm. Old bungalows, trams, little shops and cafes sit only minutes from the freeway and Essendon Fields Airport. North Essendon feels both old Melbourne and extremely practical.

I grew up here before leaving and spending years living in regional Victoria. When I eventually returned, I discovered something unexpected: the part of Melbourne I had come back to has an intimacy that makes it feel more like a country town than the country towns I had left.

Having spent years reporting the news in regional Victoria, where appearing on television afforded me the dubious status of minor local celebrity, I became accustomed to being recognised in the street. Years later, back in North Essendon with its population of just over 3000, everyone can enjoy that status without ever appearing on television.

North Essendon is the smallest suburb in Moonee Valley City Council, and a wedge about 10 kilometres north-west of Melbourne’s CBD, between Keilor Road, the Calder Freeway and Bulla Road.

A comfortable pocket amid some of Melbourne’s busiest transport infrastructure, it has a strong sense of “this is my neighbourhood”. When the Tullamarine Freeway was built in the late 1960s, the northern ends of many streets were simply cut short, leaving an unusual collection of no-through roads, and thankfully, very little passing traffic. There’s even a beautiful little secret passageway running alongside the fence line of the freeway, connecting the closed-off streets with Bulla and Keilor roads – hakuna matata, until you hit the traffic.

Then there is the minor problem of where North Essendon really is. The name dates back to the 19th century: churches were built in the 1880s and 1890s, a tram service reached the end of Mount Alexander Road in 1906 and Essendon North Primary School opened in 1920. The suburb was well established long before Essendon North was formally gazetted in 1998.

Pieces of that old-world North Essendon remain protected under heritage laws: Essendon North Primary School on Keilor Road, North Essendon Uniting Church and even the Canary Island palms along Duffy Street.

Essendon North Village, the shopping precinct around which much of local life revolves, is now technically in Essendon . But many businesses happily disregard the map, and describe themselves as being in North Essendon. (The suburb’s name is Essendon North on a map, North Essendon to locals, Essendon when you are in a hurry or “near the airport” when speaking to somebody from the other side of town.)

The Lincolnshire Arms can seem an oddly grand presence looming over the junction of Mount Alexander and Keilor roads.