Caulfield North is where Melbourne’s Jewish community, Boom-era mansions and three tram routes meet around a former swamp that is now Glen Eira’s biggest park. It is leafy and close to the city, with multiple synagogues, a sought-after state primary zone and a Hawthorn Road shopping strip known for its bakery. The trade-offs: houses cost about $2.1 million to $2.4 million, the nearest train station is over the border in Caulfield East, and new state planning rules around the Caulfield activity centre allow taller buildings to the south-east.
Caulfield North Boundary and Location Map
Caulfield North sits roughly 8 kilometres south-east of the Melbourne CBD at the northern tip of the City of Glen Eira and covers about 4.2 square kilometres. Dandenong Road forms its northern edge, with Malvern and Armadale on the other side. It borders St Kilda East to the west, Elsternwick to the south-west, Caulfield to the south, and Caulfield East and Malvern East to the east.
Quick Facts
| LGA | City of Glen Eira |
| Postcode | 3161 |
| Population | 16,903 (ABS Census, 2021), up from 15,269 in 2016; 2026 Census results due from June 2027 |
| Growth Rate | About 10.7% between 2016 and 2021, driven by apartments (39.4% of homes in 2021, up from 31.7%) |
| Distance from CBD | About 8km south-east (about 10km by road) |
| Character | Leafy streets of period homes, mansions and apartment blocks, with a large Jewish community |
| Median House Price | About $2.1m (PropTrack, 12 months to 31 August 2026, down 12.4%) to $2.43m (Cotality via Your Investment Property) |
| Median Unit Price | About $599k to $665k (PropTrack; Cotality), from more than 200 sales a year |
| Transport | Trams 3, 16 and 64; Caulfield station (Frankston, Cranbourne and Pakenham lines) about 1.9km by road in Caulfield East |
| Crime Rate (LGA) | City of Glen Eira 4,616.1 offences per 100,000 (year ending June 2026, down 11.9%), about half the Victorian rate of 8,679.6 |
| Childcare Availability | Adequate to tight: CareforKids lists 7 services in 3161, averaging about $159 a day |
| School Zone Quality | Strong: 63% zoned to Caulfield Junior College (ICSEA 1160); 82% zoned to Glen Eira College for Year 7 |
| Parks & Recreation | Caulfield Park, Glen Eira’s largest park, with 7 ovals, a lake and 3 playgrounds |
| Shopping | Hawthorn Road and Balaclava Road strips, Woolworths Metro on Orrong Road; Chadstone about 6km |
| Health | The Alfred (public ED) about 6.4km; Cabrini Malvern (private ED) about 3.5km; Caulfield Hospital (no ED) next door |
| Best For | Families wanting a strong state school zone and Jewish community life; buyers wanting space close to the city |
What Makes Caulfield North Special
From Paddy’s Swamp to Labassa
The Caulfield name has an uncertain origin. Victorian Places notes one suggestion is John Caulfield, a builder who arrived in 1837. Racing began on a bush track in 1859 and the first Caulfield Cup was run in 1879, at the racecourse that now sits just over the border in Caulfield East. Caulfield Park itself was once known as “Paddy’s Swamp”, where peat and sand were dug in the 1860s and 1870s before it was reserved as parkland in 1866. Market gardens gave way to houses between about 1900 and 1920, Caulfield became a city in 1913, and it merged into Glen Eira in 1994.
The jewel of the suburb is Labassa at 2 Manor Grove, listed on the Victorian Heritage Register (H0135). This late-Victorian Boom Style mansion in the French Second Empire style is now a National Trust house museum. Victorian Places also points to St Mary’s Anglican Church (1871) and Shelford Girls’ School (1898) as part of the suburb’s story. Council is now adding more protection: Amendment C246, the Caulfield North Heritage Review, proposes 4 new heritage precincts and 18 individual places. It went to a planning panel in April and May 2026 and the panel report went to a special council meeting on 21 July 2026, but we could not confirm whether it has since been approved.
A Centre of Jewish Melbourne
Caulfield North is one of the main centres of Jewish life in Melbourne. At the 2021 Census, 40.8% of residents identified their religion as Judaism, and Hebrew (3.8%) and Russian (2.1%) were among the most common languages other than English after Mandarin (5.1%). South Africa (3.8%) was the second most common country of birth after China (4.8%) for residents born overseas. Victorian Places lists multiple synagogues in the suburb.
That community shapes daily life here. The local state primary school, Caulfield Junior College, runs a Hebrew immersion program alongside a French bilingual program. Several Jewish day schools, including Leibler Yavneh, Beth Rivkah and Yeshivah, sit a short drive away in Elsternwick and St Kilda East, and kosher shops such as Glick’s are just south on Hawthorn Road in Caulfield South.
What Is It Like Living in Caulfield North
Caulfield North mixes big family homes with plenty of apartments. In 2021, 36.2% of homes were separate houses, 24.2% were townhouses or semis and 39.4% were flats and apartments, and 39.8% of households rented. More than half of adults (52.2%) held a bachelor’s degree or higher, and the median household income was $2,205 a week. Homely reviewers rate it 4.6 out of 5 from 11 reviews, describing a “green, leafy, safe and sound suburb in a great pocket of Melbourne” with “amenities all within walking distance”.
Transport
Trams are the main way around. Route 3 runs along Balaclava Road to Caulfield station and East Malvern, route 16 heads north towards Malvern and Kew, and route 64 runs along Hawthorn Road towards the city in one direction and East Brighton in the other (after 6.30pm it runs as a shuttle between Dandenong Road and East Brighton, a change made in October 2023). See our Melbourne tram guide. Caulfield station, in Caulfield East, is about 1.9 kilometres by road from the middle of the suburb, and trains take about 19 minutes to Flinders Street. By car, the CBD is about 10 kilometres away, roughly 13 minutes in free-flowing traffic.
The Metro Tunnel opened on 30 November 2025, with the full timetable starting on 1 February 2026. From Caulfield, Cranbourne and Pakenham line trains now run through the tunnel to Anzac, Town Hall and State Library stations, while Frankston line trains use the City Loop and Flinders Street (see our Melbourne train guide). There are no level crossings in Caulfield North. The nearest removals were at Neerim Road and Glen Huntly Road in Glen Huntly, where a new station opened in July 2023. The nearest Suburban Rail Loop stations will be at Clayton and Monash, well to the south-east, with trains due in 2035.
Healthcare
Hawthorn Road has a cluster of GP clinics, including North Caulfield Medical Centre (115 Hawthorn Road) and Caulfield Park Clinic (139 Hawthorn Road), both listed as bulk billing, and WellMed at 257 Hawthorn Road. Caulfield Family Medical Practice is on Glen Eira Road. Caulfield Hospital, run by Alfred Health just over the border in Caulfield, focuses on rehabilitation and aged care and has no emergency department. For emergencies, The Alfred in Prahran is about 6.4 kilometres away (about 9 minutes by road), and Cabrini Malvern’s private emergency department is about 3.5 kilometres away (it charges an attendance fee, which Cabrini lists as $510 for Medicare cardholders). Aged care homes include Emmy Monash on Dandenong Road and Opal Caulfield Horizons.
Schools and Childcare
Our test of the 2026 and 2027 zone maps puts 63% of Caulfield North in the zone for Caulfield Junior College on Balaclava Road (about 536 students, ICSEA 1160), with the rest split between Malvern Primary (18%), Ripponlea Primary (15%) and Armadale Primary (3%). For Year 7, 82% of the suburb is zoned to Glen Eira College on Booran Road in Caulfield (883 students, ICSEA 1117) and 18% to Elwood College. Private options close by include Caulfield Grammar in St Kilda East and the Jewish day schools in Elsternwick and St Kilda East, including Sholem Aleichem and Adass Israel. Confirm any address on Find My School.
Childcare is adequate but can be tight. CareforKids lists seven services in the 3161 postcode, averaging $158.96 a day (October 2026). Guardian has two large centres, on Dandenong Road (131 places) and Glen Eira Road (120 places), both rated Meeting the National Quality Standard. Check vacancies on Starting Blocks.
Industry & Work Life
Caulfield North is a suburb of professionals and managers. At the 2021 Census, 41.4% of working residents were professionals and 18.5% were managers. Local jobs come from the schools, health and aged care services and the Hawthorn Road shops, while most commuters head to the CBD by tram, train or car.
Shopping & Eating Out
Hawthorn Road is the main shopping strip. Its best-known name is Baker Bleu at 119 Hawthorn Road, a bakery praised by Broadsheet, Concrete Playground and AGFG that also supplies leading restaurants such as Attica and Gimlet. For brunch, Mother on Kambrook Road and Frank and Ginger on Orrong Crescent both feature in Concrete Playground and AGFG. Groceries come from Woolworths Metro at 358 to 364 Orrong Road, and most kosher grocers are a little further south in Caulfield South and Elsternwick. For a big shopping trip, Chadstone is about 6.2 kilometres by road.
Attractions, Parks and Natural Spaces
Caulfield Park, on the corner of Hawthorn and Balaclava Roads, is Glen Eira’s largest park. It has seven ovals, tennis courts, lawn bowls, cricket nets, basketball and netball courts, three playgrounds including a sensory playground, a lake, a bandstand, off-leash areas and a heritage-listed arboretum.
Labassa opens to visitors as a National Trust house museum, and Caulfield Racecourse Reserve, just over the border in Caulfield East, is open to the public daily from sunrise to sunset except on race and event days.
Crime and Safety
The City of Glen Eira recorded 4,616.1 offences per 100,000 people in the year to June 2026, down 11.9% from 5,238.5 and about half the Victorian rate of 8,679.6, according to the Crime Statistics Agency. Caulfield North itself recorded 953 offences, up 4.8% from 909 a year earlier and up from 791 in 2024.
Theft from cars is the main problem, with 207 offences (up from 179), followed by 84 non-aggravated home burglaries (up from 76), 79 retail thefts and 62 car thefts. Lock your car, keep valuables out of sight and use off-street parking where you can.
Big Build and Planning: The Caulfield Activity Centre
Caulfield is one of the state’s Stage 2 Train and Tram Zone activity centres, and its plan was finalised in July 2026 through Amendment GC285. The core, closest to Caulfield station, allows buildings of 6 to 20 storeys, with the tallest near the railway, and a catchment of about 800 metres surrounds it, so homes in the south-east of Caulfield North should check whether they fall inside it. Glen Eira Council had adopted its own Caulfield Structure Plan in September 2022 before the state took over planning in February 2025, and the mayor criticised the takeover at the time. Council’s reading of the draft plan showed a maximum of 6 storeys along Kambrook Road, Balaclava Road and Normanby Road, but we could not confirm the final heights for those streets, so check Planning Victoria for a specific address.
Development is already picking up along Hawthorn Road. An 8-storey building with 54 apartments and four shops is planned at 122 to 130 Hawthorn Road, and a 26-apartment project has been lodged at 139 to 141 Hawthorn Road (decision unconfirmed). Next door in Caulfield East, Caulfield Village has delivered 1,636 homes across three precincts, and an application for its East precinct was with the Department of Transport and Planning in September 2026. There are no Suburban Rail Loop, Victorian Planning Authority or Development Victoria projects inside Caulfield North.
Realty Market
Data providers disagree on Caulfield North house prices, partly because they cover different periods and use different methods. PropTrack puts the median house price at $2.1 million for the 12 months to 31 August 2026, down 12.4%, while Cotality figures published by Your Investment Property show $2.43 million, up 1.6%, from 102 house sales. REIV’s latest quarter has $2.0 million. By size, Domain shows three-bedroom houses at about $1.55 million, four-bedroom houses at about $2.18 million and five-bedroom houses at about $3.45 million. Owners stay put: Jellis Craig puts the average hold period for houses at 17.5 years.
The top end is very high. 24 Langdon Road sold for $7.7 million in June 2026, 6 to 8 Tennyson Avenue sold for $8.0 million in May 2024, and the suburb record is $8.26 million for 21 Lumeah Road in January 2022. Units are a much cheaper way in, at about $599,000 (PropTrack) to $665,000 (Cotality, down 4.4%) from more than 200 sales a year, and Domain puts two-bedroom units at about $600,000.
Renting is common, with 39.8% of households renting in 2021, up from 37.6% in 2016. Cotality puts median rents at $992 a week for houses and $640 for units (a 4.4% gross yield on units), while PropTrack has $1,163 and $705. The median rent at the 2021 Census was $422 a week.
Our Honest Verdict
Caulfield North suits families who want a top state primary zone, Glen Eira’s best park and a strong Jewish community life within 8 kilometres of the city. It also suits apartment buyers, who can get in for around $600,000 and still walk to Caulfield Park and Hawthorn Road. Crime in Glen Eira is about half the state rate, though theft from cars is worth guarding against.
It is less suited to people who want a train station at the end of their street, since most of the suburb relies on trams, or to house buyers on a budget under $2 million. If you like the community but want a cheaper house, St Kilda East has a median of about $1.71 million and Caulfield about $1.89 million. If you want a train line and a busy shopping street, Elsternwick (about $2.13 million) is the closest comparison. All three figures are Cotality via Your Investment Property.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which schools is Caulfield North zoned to?
Our test of the 2026 and 2027 zone maps puts 63% of the suburb in the Caulfield Junior College zone and 82% in the Glen Eira College zone for Year 7. The rest falls into Malvern, Ripponlea or Armadale primary zones and the Elwood College zone.
Does Caulfield North have a train station?
No. The nearest station is Caulfield, about 1.9 kilometres by road in Caulfield East, which has served the Metro Tunnel on the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines since November 2025. Trams 3, 16 and 64 run through the suburb.
How much does a house cost in Caulfield North?
About $2.1 million (PropTrack, 12 months to 31 August 2026) to $2.43 million (Cotality). Units are about $600,000 to $665,000.
Can you visit Labassa?
Yes. Labassa at 2 Manor Grove is a National Trust house museum. Check the National Trust website for opening days.
Is Caulfield North safe?
Yes, by Melbourne standards. Glen Eira’s crime rate is about half the Victorian average, although Caulfield North’s recorded offences rose 4.8% in the year to June 2026, mainly theft from cars.
References
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 and 2016 Census QuickStats: Caulfield North (SAL20523, SSC20520)
- Victorian Places, “Caulfield” (accessed 6 October 2026)
- Friends of Caulfield Park, park history (accessed 6 October 2026)
- Victorian Heritage Database, Labassa (H0135); National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Labassa (accessed 6 October 2026)
- City of Glen Eira Have Your Say, Amendment C246 Caulfield North Heritage Review (exhibited October to December 2025); special council meeting, 21 July 2026
- City of Glen Eira, Caulfield Structure Plan (adopted 20 September 2022); Activity Centres Program and mayoral statement (27 February 2025); Stage 2 submission (March 2026)
- Department of Transport and Planning, Caulfield activity centre and Caulfield cluster pages, Amendment GC285 (July 2026)
- Victorian Big Build, Neerim Road and Glen Huntly Road level crossing removals (2023); Suburban Rail Loop newsletter (February 2026)
- Transport Victoria, Metro Tunnel Cranbourne and Pakenham line changes (2025 to 2026); ABC News, Metro Tunnel opening (30 November 2025)
- apartments.com.au, 122 to 130 Hawthorn Road; City of Glen Eira planning application P65/2025 (139 to 141 Hawthorn Road); The Urban Developer, Caulfield Village East (18 September 2026)
- Crime Statistics Agency Victoria, Recorded Offences, year ending June 2026 (LGA and suburb tables)
- Department of Education, school zones 2026 and 2027 (DataVic), tested against the Caulfield North boundary on 6 October 2026
- ACARA My School data via schoolrank.com.au, 2025
- CareforKids, KindiCare and ACECQA, Caulfield North childcare (accessed 6 October 2026)
- healthdirect Australia, Caulfield North GP search; Alfred Health; Cabrini, emergency department (accessed 6 October 2026)
- Aged Care Guide and Emmy Monash, aged care homes (accessed 6 October 2026)
- City of Glen Eira, Caulfield Park and Caulfield Racecourse Reserve pages (accessed 6 October 2026)
- Broadsheet, Concrete Playground and AGFG, Baker Bleu, Mother and Frank and Ginger; Woolworths store listing; Glick’s (accessed 6 October 2026)
- Public Transport Victoria, tram routes 3, 16 and 64 (accessed 6 October 2026)
- OpenStreetMap Nominatim and OSRM, geocoding and road distances (6 October 2026)
- Your Investment Property (Cotality data), Caulfield North and comparison suburbs (accessed 6 October 2026)
- Barry Plant (PropTrack data), Caulfield North suburb profile, 12 months to 31 August 2026
- Jellis Craig, Caulfield North suburb report (October 2026); REIV, Caulfield North quarterly data (accessed 6 October 2026)
- Domain, Caulfield North VIC 3161 suburb profile and sold listings (accessed 6 October 2026)
- Homely, Caulfield North VIC 3161 suburb reviews (accessed 6 October 2026)
- Suburb boundary: suburbs.json (Victorian locality boundaries), area and distance calculated 6 October 2026
Want to compare Caulfield North with Elsternwick, St Kilda East and the rest of the city? Explore more in our Melbourne suburbs guide.