The area has a long history of multiculturalism and includes many stores owned and operated by Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Anglo, Thai and Italian Australians.

There is a particularly large Indian grocery store, "Bharat Traders", located here as well as independent supermarket Sims, at the end of the "Barkly Village" section of the street.

The suburb has its own #wefo hashtag on Twitter The Footscray YMCA is located on Barret Reserve, Essex Street.

10th Footscray Scout, open to all youth aged 6–26, share the reserve with the YMCA meeting in a their hall on Graham St.

Shorten Reserve on Essex Street is home of the Druids Cricket Club and the West Footscray Roosters, a local Australian Rules Football team.

Johnson Reserve on Essex Street is home to a local Soccer team, and League games are regularly played on Sunday afternoons.

As part of Metro Tunnel works, a third platform was built on the Cross Street side of the station to allow services to terminate.

[6] In 2018, a big industrial fire started in a warehouse storing chemicals illegally resulting in environmental and health damages.