Melbourne

Sunshine is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, lying 11 to 13 km west of the CBD. Its local government area is the City of Brimbank. At the 2011 Census, Sunshine had a population of 8,838.

History

The township of Sunshine was earlier known as Braybrook Junction.

The Braybrook Junction Post Office opened on 25 August 1890.

In 1904 H. V. McKay bought the Braybrook Implement Works. In 1906 McKay moved his agricultural machinery manufacturing business from Ballarat to Braybrook Junction. This established the Sunshine Harvester Works which became the largest manufacturing plant in Australia. McKay had also secured 400 acres (1.6 km2) of land at Braybrook Junction with the aim of establishing housing to encourage his workers to settle in the area.

In 1907 the locality was renamed Sunshine, after residents had petitioned to change the name in honour of the Sunshine Harvester Works. The name "Sunshine" is assumed to have been given by McKay to his harvester works after he attended a lecture by the American evangelist Reverend Thomas De Witt Talmage who visited Victoria in 1894.

Also in 1907 an industrial dispute between owner H. V. McKay and his workers at the Sunshine Harvester Works led to the Harvester Judgement, the benchmark industrial decision which led to the creation of a minimum living wage for Australian workers.