The new Domain Liveable Melbourne study has ranked 307 suburbs on 17 indicators to give us this list of the most liveable in the city.

“Let there be smoke” proclaims a sign outside hip, Amercian-style barbecue joint Up in Smoke, just after you cross the Maribyrnong River into Footscray.

It’s fitting given the suburb was once filled with factories spouting billows of the stuff into the air. Tanneries, slaughterhouses, soap works and a sugar works (which still runs today in nearby Yarraville) dominated the area in the late 1800s and established Footscray as a working-class suburb.

Years later, waves of post-war immigrants – first from Europe, then from Vietnam – made the suburb their home, adding layers of multiculturalism to the once very Anglo area.

Franco Cozzo’s open arms welcome you from the mural painted on his nearly 60-year-old Italian furniture store (the building was sold to a developer last year, but the store is still open for now), while Barkly Street offers some of the best Vietnamese food in Melbourne.

Overall 1-31 (More Liveable) 32-62 63-93 94-124 125-155 132-186 187-217 218-248 249-279 280-308 (Less Liveable)

More than a century on from its industrial past, the suburb has earned a new reputation as a hipster hub with an enviable restaurant and bar scene.

It is now one of the top 10 most liveable suburbs in Melbourne, according to the Domain Liveable Melbourne study by Deloitte Access Economics and Tract Consultants, released this weekend.

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The study ranked 307 Melbourne suburbs on factors including walkability, cafe culture, education and public transport. The last time it was conducted, in 2015, Footscray ranked 74th. It now takes sixth position.

MELBOURNE’S TOP 10 MOST LIVEABLE SUBURBS 1 South Yarra 2 East Melbourne 3 Carlton 4 Fitzroy North 5 Hawthorn 6 Footscray 7 Travancore 8 Carlton North 9 Kooyong 10 Collingwood Embed this table

Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane's most liveable suburbs Alice Stolz talks to Your Domain about Domain's Liveable Cities study, which ranks suburbs based on key indicators of liveability.

The abundance of industrial buildings in the area ripe for creating dining and drinking spaces could be one reason for the jump in the rankings. The suburb has seen about a 36 per cent increase in food businesses since 2015, according to Maribyrnong council.

“There’s quite a romance now with warehouse spaces and finding new uses for factories that would not have been imagined 50 years ago,” says Footscray Historical Society secretary Carmel Taig. “There are a lot of new residents who really appreciate being able to go around the corner and tuck into a little place that doesn’t feel like a pristine, clinical space that some cafes may be elsewhere.”

For marketing professional and resident Kim Huynh, that’s certainly part of it.

“I don’t know what it is about Footscray. It’s like it’s a little bit grungier, a bit edgier. It’s almost post-hipster – it’s artsier,” Ms Huynh says.

She and her then-boyfriend, now husband, Euhin moved to Footscray from Perth in 2010, and three years later bought a one-bedroom apartment in the same block as their Barkly Street rental.

In 2017 they sold their apartment and bought a townhouse in the western, “more suburban” side of Footscray – just in time for the arrival of their baby daughter the following year.

“When we were first moving from Perth, we asked a Melbourne friend if they knew anything about a suburb called Footscray, and they said ‘ugh, don’t do that, don’t go there’,” she says.

Her friend told her that her dad had once been mugged in Footscray and that the suburb had a “sketchy” reputation.

“Over time I’ve really noticed that stigma is gone. There’s a lot of young professionals in Footscray now,” she says.

It’s estimated the suburb grew by more than 2000 people in the two years to 2018, reaching just over 18,500. The population is expected to more than double by 2036, and another 7000 dwellings are set to be built by 2031 to accommodate them.

House prices have increased by more than 30 per cent in the past five years, although houses are still relatively affordable, with the median just below $785,000 – more than $70,000 less than Melbourne’s overall median.

“It is probably one of the cheapest suburbs within five kilometres of the CBD,” McGrath Yarraville agent Joshua Lowman says.

New infrastructure – including a redeveloped station, office buildings attracting major employers State Trustees and City West Water, and a revamped Footscray Plaza shopping centre – has improved the liveability of the suburb since the last study, says one of its authors, Adam Terrill from Tract Consultants. Slight changes to the study’s methodology also contributed to Footscray’s improved standing.

“Many of the suburb’s strengths are picked up in the 2019 study, with new indicators such as walkability demonstrating the number of services within a walkable catchment of residents,” Mr Terrill says.

Former locals Sarah Ryan and Damian Shaw opened one of those services in 2017. Their “boozy bakery” Bad Love Club is just what it sounds like – a bar that sells desserts, mostly American-style cakes and pies.

“There are tonnes of restaurants in the area, but there was nothing really to follow dinner,” Ms Ryan says. “Our main reason for opening was to provide something that was complementary to the existing area in hopes that it would encourage more people to stay and spend money here.”

The couple has seen the suburb evolve from an infrastructure and business point of view, but say the type of people who live there – although there are more of them – hasn’t really changed.

“It’s still a very inclusive, a very multicultural suburb and always has been,” Mr Shaw says.

Ms Taig says locals have a very strong allegiance to Footscray – the suburb becomes part of their identity somehow. The mammoth celebration after the Western Bulldogs won the grand final in 2016 for the first time in 60 years is testament to this.

“There’s a resilience. People can go through quite arduous times and then pull themselves up and make a go of it again,” she says.