The station opened along with the railway between Collingwood and Heidelberg.[4] Like the suburb itself, it was named after Fairfield Park, an estate that was subdivided on land owned by land speculator Charles Henry James.[5][6] The estate is believed to have been named after Fairfield in Derbyshire, England.[5][6] James built Melbourne's first tram line in 1884, a horse-drawn tram from the station northwards to the Fairfield Park Estate. The tramway had closed by 1890.[7]
The station was upgraded in the early 1910s with new timber station buildings constructed in 1911.[9] That included replacing the former at-grade pedestrian crossing at Rathmines Street with a pedestrian footbridge, opened in March 1914.[10]
^Beardsell, David; Herbert, Bruce (1979). The Outer Circle: A history of the Oakleigh to Fairfield Park Railway. Australian Railway Historical Society (Victorian Division). ISBN0-85849-024-2.
^"New Station Buildings". The Age. No. 17, 878. Victoria, Australia. 5 July 1912. p. 8. Retrieved 9 January 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Overhead Bridge at Fairfield". Heidelberg News And Greensborough And Diamond Creek Chronicle. No. 851. Victoria, Australia. 14 March 1914. p. 2. Retrieved 9 January 2024 – via National Library of Australia.