[1] Essendon is bounded in the west by Hoffmans Road, in the north by Keilor Road and Woodland Street, in the east by the Moonee Ponds Creek, and in the south by Buckley Street (except for a small section further south bordering Moonee Ponds).

Essendon and the banks of the Maribyrnong River were originally inhabited by the Wurundjeri clan of the Woiwurrung speaking people of the Kulin nation.

Richard Green, who arrived in Victoria in the 1850s and settled near Melbourne, was a native of Essendon, Hertfordshire, where his father Isaac Green was either owner or tenant of Essendon Mill, and he bestowed the name of his native village on the district in which he had made his new home.

[2] In 1851, the gold rush opened up the Moonee Ponds District with miners travelling along Mount Alexander Road to Castlemaine.

[4] In the 1880s, the local Council resisted industrial development in the form of cattle saleyards and brickworks, out of concern for pollution of the Maribyrnong River.

Originally known as Earlsbrae Hall, it was the home of Collier McCracken, a member of a local brewing family.

[6] The formally recognised traditional owners for the area in which Essendon is located are the Wurundjeri people.