[2] Meeting at Wood's store, members of the Ebenezer Church, Particular Baptist from Brighton, England met to change the name.

Instead they named it after Preston, a small village nearby, where the church members had happy annual outings.

These original establishments would be followed by several larger factories, including Huttons Hams and Bacons and Zwar's Parkside Tannery.

Throughout the 1880s, Preston with its abundance of land and newly built rail stations was marketed as a residential area, capable of supporting 20,000 inhabitants.

Urban growth accelerated in Preston during the 1920s, thanks largely to the establishment of a direct rail link between Collingwood and Flinders Street in 1904 (later electrified in 1926), and a building of a tram line to the Melbourne central business district in 1920.

However, capital works projects, which included the designation of new parks and reserves and the paving of roads, helped attract new residents to the area.

Preston bucked the economic status quo by recording rapid growth between the period 1933 and 1947, with the population growing by some 40%.

This growth also resulted in the establishment of a technical school in 1937, which would later become a campus of the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE.

A notable highlight for Preston residents during the era of depression was VFL legend Roy ("Up There") Cazaly's coaching of the local football team.

Two World Wars provided Preston with two awardees of the Victoria Cross – the Empire's highest military award for valour; Bruce Kingsbury and William Ruthven, both of whom lent their name to future localities.

The acquisition of former Housing Commission land by the Myer Emporium led to the opening of the Northland Shopping Centre in 1966.

Preston is bordered to the east by the Darebin Creek, a small tributary to the Yarra River and consists largely of flat terrain, ideal initially for farming, but later for industrial and residential development.

The most common other countries of birth were China (excludes SARs and Taiwan) 3.0%, Italy 3.0%, Greece 2.8%, India 2.5% and Vietnam 2.2%.

Preston lay within the federal Division of Cooper which is the current seat of Ged Kearney, a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

The state Electoral district of Northcote incorporates the rest of Preston, specifically all of the suburb south of Bell Street and is currently represented by Kat Theophanous of the ALP.

As part of the City of Darebin, Preston has an active and eclectic artists and DIY community which is contemporary, experimental, and culturally diverse.

Notable contributors to the Darebin arts community are locals Saint Jude, Downhills Home, The Contrast, The Melbourne Ukulele Kollective, Performing Older Women's Circus (POW Circus), Darebin City Brass, and members of Little John, to name a few.

The major community Indigenous Radio Station 3KND is located in Mary Street in Preston and is completely Aboriginal managed.

Ruthven Reserve in East Preston has recently been upgraded, with arguably the best social and training amenities of any local sporting venue in the area.

The Melbourne Polytechnic Preston Campus is a tertiary provider offering TAFE (VET) and Higher Education (Degree) courses.

Newlands Primary School (No 4646), designed by Percy Everett, a former chief architect of the Public Works Department of Victoria (PWD), was built in 1951 on the border of the former Cities of Coburg and Preston to a new experimental design featuring hexagonal classrooms,[12][13] and is listed on the Register of the National Estate.