Jacana

Jacana is a near neighbour of Broadmeadows, a suburb in the City of Hume, which is Australia"s fourth fastest growing municipality and one of the nation"s most distinct multicultural melting pots with its residents including migrants from 132 different countries.

World War I might have brought little but grief to Australia and Australians, but the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 did bring a ray of sunshine to the people of Broadmeadows in Melbourne's northern suburbs.

Fifteen days after war was declared, the Army set up a training camp between Broadmeadows and Campbellfield. Five days later, water was piped to taps in the area - something the council had failed to achieve in seven years of negotiations with the Melbourne Board of Works.

The state also played a major card in the development of the suburb in 1951 when 2270ha of land were dedicated to the Victorian Housing Commission - a trigger to population growth that obviously influenced Ford to base its major motor car assembly operation in Broadmeadows in 1959.