Geelong city centre


The Geelong city centre is a locality surrounded by the Geelong metropolitan area. It is also referred to as the Geelong CBD, Central Geelong, the Central Activities Area, and informally simply as "town" by locals. The suburb name is officially gazetted as Geelong.
It is the oldest part of Geelong and includes many of the city's important landmarks such as the Geelong Town Hall, St. Mary of the Angels Basilica, the T & G Building, Johnstone Park and the Geelong Botanic Gardens, and the old Geelong Post Office.
The area is one of Geelong's major shopping districts, with the Westfield Geelong and Market Square Shopping Centre catering for shoppers. The opening of the major shopping centres have seen a decline in strip shopping on Moorabool Street, with many empty shops and few customers.
It is also a cultural area for the region, housing the Geelong Art Gallery and the Geelong Performing Arts Centre, as well as the Deakin University waterfront campus. A number of tourist attractions are also nearby, including Waterfront Geelong, Eastern Beach, and the National Wool Museum.Geelong Performing Arts Centre
The Geelong City Centre has seen much redevelopment since 2016. In 2018, Worksafe Headquarters was constructed, drastically changing the skyline. New apartment buildings have come up as well, being The Mercer and The Miramar Apartments. There are many proposals, such as the new Yarra St Pier, and a Hotel Inn. Geelong City Centre, as well as the whole of Geelong, will drastically change over the next 50 years.

Population

In the 2016 Census, there were 5,210 people in the Geelong city centre. 69.5% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 3.1%, India 2.7%, Italy 2.0% and China 1.9%. 75.5% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Italian 2.8% and Mandarin 2.4%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 33.1% and Catholic 26.0%.