The Glen Waverley line leaves the Lilydale, Belgrave and Alamein lines at Burnley, and crosses the Yarra River to follow the Monash Freeway and the valley of Gardiners Creek through seven stations to Holmesglen. Next it rises through Jordanville and Mount Waverley stations, before reaching a peak just over 130 metres above sea level west of Lawrence Road. After this the line descends rapidly to a bridge across a valley before the next station, Syndal. The line rises and falls again to the terminus, Glen Waverley. The journey from Holmesglen to the terminus involves some of the steepest grades in Melbourne (1 in 30).
The Glen Waverley Line began as a branch line of the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company’s line from Princes Bridge to Punt Road (Richmond). The Branch Line, from Richmond to Burnley, opened in 1861. In 1890, what would become the Glen Waverley line, opened from Burnley to Darling. In 1930, the line was extended to Glen Waverley and became the Glen Waverley railway line.
Above: Lawrence Road bridge over Glen Waverley railway line, Mount Waverley, ca. 1929. Wilfred Disney Chapman photographer. Wilfred Disney Chapman worked as an engineer in the Victorian Public Works Department in the 1920s and 1930s. Photo: Monash Public Library Service.
What later became the Glen Waverley line was originally built as part of the Outer Circle line, which opened on 3 March 1890, as the line between Burnley and Oakleigh stations. After the parts of the Outer Circle line to Oakleigh and Camberwell were closed on 9 December 1895, trains from Burnley terminated at Darling. By-passing the old junction station at Waverley Road, East Malvern became the new terminus for just over a year after it opened. The complete extension to Glen Waverley opened on 5 May 1930.
Trains on the Glen Waverley Line exit the Melbourne Central Business District via the City Loop, a mostly-underground and partly surface-level subway and rail system that circles the inner city grid in a clockwise direction.
The underground City Loop is at the centre of Melbourne's busy suburban railway system. It's quite an unusual design, being made up of four completely independent single track tunnels, some of which change direction half way through the day. From Flinders Street station, trains travel across the Flinders Street Railway Viaduct to Southern Cross Station. Upon leaving Southern Cross, trains travel underground through Flagstaff. Melbourne Central and Parliament stations, emerging from the underground loop at East Melbourne.
Although the Melbourne Cricket Ground is arguably one of the two most important cricket grounds in the world, it is much more than a cricket ground to the people of Melbourne. It is one of the great icons of this city, and even Australia. By the 1950's, Melbourne's reputation as the sports capital of Australia was so firmly entrenched that it was a foregone conclusion that the city would host the 1956 Olympic Games and that the MCG would be the Games' main stadium.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is home to the Australian Sports Museum (above). Dedicated to Australian sport, there are exhibits for sports such as cricket, Australian rules football, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, tennis, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, basketball, boxing and netball. The Australian Sports Hall of Fame is also located within the museum along with the Australian Racing Museum and the Melbourne Cricket Club Museum.
The adjoining MCC Museum features exhibitions relating to the history of the Melbourne Cricket Club. On 6 October 2010, the Australian Racing Museum was absorbed into the Australian Sports Museum, which has now resulted in horse racing standing alongside other prominent Australian sports.
Best known for its bargain designer and seconds shopping along Bridge Road and Swan Street, vibrant Richmond is also the place to go for Greek or Vietnamese food, languid all-day breakfasts and great live music. Though a number of designer and seconds shop have moved out of the area in recent times, there are still plenty there to please the bargain hunter. Church Street is the place to go for designer furniture and objets d'art.
Bars and live music thrive in Richmond, the Corner Hotel being one of Melbourne's most famous intimate live-music venues, hosting big-name bands alongside obscure newcomers. Just across Swan Street, Dizzy's Jazz Club is known for its quality acts. Sip a cocktail in refined surrounds at Der Raum, or celebrate the hops and tour the Carlton and United Breweries' brewhouse in Abbotsford.
Nearby Victoria Street, or Little Saigon, in North Richmond, is the heart of Melbourne's Vietnamese community. Wander among the long stretch of eateries, bakeries, butchers, fishmongers and grocers and grab a bite along the way. Don't expect white linen tablecloths and hovering waiters - Victoria Street is about the hustle and bustle of fast, fresh and exceptional Asian food at a bargain price.
East Richmond station, which services the suburb of Cremorne, opened as Church Street Station on 24 September 1860 on the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company’s new railway line to Hawthorn, one of Melbourne’s earliest suburban rail services.
Its location at the city end of Melbourne's busiest group of railway lines means that a large number of services pass through the station, but only a limited number stop there, largely because of its proximity to Richmond station, a few hundred metres away in Swan Street.
Services to and from Lilydale and Belgrave do not normally stop at East Richmond. Glen Waverley trains stop there in the off-peak, but trains to and from Glen Waverley in peak hours do not. Most services to and from Alamein, Blackburn and Ringwood stop there.
Covering only about a square kilometre, until 1999 Cremorne existed only as a locality in the larger suburb of Richmond., which explains why its railway station is not called Cremorne, but East Richmond. Cremorne's charm is in its rather chaotic mix of uses and the unique character resulting from being 'walled in' by main roads and railways on all sides. There are industrial icons such as Bryant and May and Rosella factories, and the Nylex Clock, side by side with Victorian cottages, modern townhouses, offices and light industries.
Cremorne takes its name from the Cremorne Gardens, an amusement park that occupied a riverfront location in the western half of Cremorne for a period in the mid 19th century. Cremorne was established as six allotments of crown land in 1839 only 5 years after the subdivision of Melbourne's CBD by John Batman. Originally it was used for farming estates, with large villas reminiscent of English estates. It was subdivided in linear strips running from Swan Street to the Yarra River. Cremorne Gardens occupied a river-front location in the western half of Cremorne. The Gardens closed in 1863 and the land was sold for housing and an asylum.
Currently Cremorne has been coined as 'Australian Silicon Valley' due to a concentration of tech industries such as Seek, Disney, Carsales in the precinct.
Half of the Burnley area is public space and ground occupied by the Burnley campus of the Victorian College of Agriculture and Horticulture. The area was named after William Burnley, pioneer land purchaser in Richmond, local councillor and parliamentarian.
In 1838 the area approximating Burnley's present open space lying in a loop of the Yarra River was reserved as the Survey Paddock. The Horticultural Society of Victoria was granted 12 ha. in the Survey Paddock in 1862 for experimental gardens, mainly for acclimatization of exotic fruits, vegetables and flowers. The site was taken over by the State Department of Agriculture in 1891. The balance of the Survey Paddock became Richmond Park, containing the Picnic railway station, east of the present Burnley station, as the entry to a landscaped pleasure ground.
Within walking distance of Burnley station at 22 - 50 Bendigo Street, Richmond, is one of Melbourne's most iconic buildings. Yhe former Wertheim Piano Factory, it better known as GTV 9 Richmond Television City. GTV (General Television Corporation) owned by the Nine Network broadcast shows from its 'Television City' for 54 years. Australia's first official television broadcast was made by GTV 9 from Studio 1 on 27 September 1956. On 28 February 2011, GTV9 broadcast its final live program - the 6pm edition of Nine News from the Richmond studios. It was at this studio that many iconic Australian TV shows, including In Melbourne Tonight, Footy Show, Hey Hey it's Saturday, The Price Is Right, Sale of the Century, The Don Lane Show, The Ernie Sigley Show, The Graham Kennedy Show, The Sullivans and New Faces were created.
Heyington railway station serves the eastern Melbourne suburb of Toorak, and it opened on 24 March 1890. Duplication of the line between Heyington and Burnley stations occurred in 1926,with duplication between Heyington and Kooyong stations occurring in 1955. Heyington is the only station on the Melbourne railway network without disabled access. Heyington is located just off the Monash Freeway about 6 km from the Melbourne CBD.
Heyington is located in a cutting, between Heyington Place and St. Kevins College, with station access from both via steep steps and a footbridge at the Flinders Street end of the station. Heyington station opened on March 24, 1890. Electrified services reached the station in 1922. The name is taken for a prestigious housing estate centred around Heyington Place, which had been recently subdivided when the station was opened. The name is no longer in use for the locality.
The suburb of Kooyong, which neighbours Toorak and Malvern, is known for its lawn tennis club, internationally renowned as The Spiritual Home of Australian Tennis and home to the Australian Open. Kooyong railway station was opened in 1890, and tramlines were introduced along Glenferrie Road and Toorak Road in 1913 and 1927 respectively.
Kooyong takes its name from Kooyong Koot Creek, which was the original name given to Gardiners Creek by the government surveyor, Robert Hoddle, in 1837. It is thought that the name derives from an Aboriginal word meaning camp or resting place, or haunt of the wild fowl.
The name Tooronga Village referred initially solely to a shopping centre, which temporarily closed in March 2008. The mixed-use redevelopment by Stockland covers the former shopping centre site and part of the adjacent former brickworks site. The redeveloped shopping centre re-opened in August 2010 and now has 22 shops, cafes and restaurants in addition to anchor tenants Coles Supermarkets and 1st Choice Liquor Superstore.
Gardinder railway station was opened in March 1890 when much of the land around it was undeveloped. In 1912 the Belmont Estate was sold in subdivided form for housing, and three years later the Gardiner Central School in Belmont Street was opened. It later became a primary school and closed in 1992. The name recalls John Gardiner, a pastoralist who overlanded cattle to Port Phillip from Yass, New South Wales, in 1835. He settled near the junction of the Yarra River and Gardiners Creek about 3 km to the north-east.
The residential suburb of Glen Iris takes its name come from that of a residence built by a solicitor J.C. Turner. He had acquired his land from a settler who had travelled to Victoria on the ship named the Iris. Glen Iris includes the small locality of Gardiner. It was here that Gardiner pastured his stock near where Gardiners Creek joins the Yarra River.
The locality's population growth was sufficient for a Methodist church to be built in 1865 and a school in 1872 Both were in Glen Iris Road and were still in use in 1997. A general store was opened nearby in 1882, where a small local shopping centre continues to function.
In 1890 a railway line was opened from Burnley to Oakleigh running via the Glen Iris Valley. The line in fact joined the Outer Circle line a little east of Glen Iris, and it was truncated when the Outer Circle line was partly closed in 1895. The line had three stations in the Glen Iris district - Tooronga, Gardiner and Glen Iris. By 1917, Glen Iris had three tramlines - Malvern Road, turning north into Burke Road, Wattletree Road, terminating at Burke Road and High Street terminating at Glen Iris Railway station.
Darling railway station serves the eastern Melbourne suburb of East Malvern. The line through the station, opened on 24 March 1890. was originally built to link Burnley to the Outer Circle line at Waverley Road, and then on to Oakleigh. The outer part of the line beyond Darling closed on 9 December 1895. It was re-opened to East Malvern on 3 February 1929, and the line was then extended to Glen Waverley on 5 May 1930.
The suburb of Malvern East is most famous for the Chadstone Shopping Centre, the largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere, and the largest by total lettable space under one roof.
In recent times, what was once a relatively small suburb was extended to incorporate parts of neighbouring Chadstone. Based on its easterly proximity to Malvern, the expansion and redefinition of Malvern East was driven in the 1990s by resident groups eager to 'reclaim' their address from being identified with the Chadstone Shopping Centre, which had been massively expanded since its original construction. However, the Chadstone Shopping Centre shares the 'Malvern East' address and postcode.
Malvern East is serviced by Darling, East Malvern and Holmesglen railway stations, all on the Glen Waverley line, Caulfield and Malvern railway stations on the Frankston line, Cranbourne line and Pakenham line and the numbers 3 and 5 tram routes. No satisfactory explanation has been found to explain why the station is called East Malvern yet the suburb it services is called Malvern East.
The suburb of Holmesglen is situated at the conjunction of Ashburton and Chadstone, and its boundaries are blurred. However, the railway station is 14 km. south-east of Melbourne, where the line crosses Warrigal Road. During the second world war there was a munitions plant at Holmesglen. In the 1950s Warrigal Road was the boundary between the built up suburbs (to the west) and the developing housing areas to the east.
Holmglen Migrant Hostel
Holmesglen played a pivotal role in postwar population and housing growth, having a migrant hostel housed in Nissen huts and the concrete house factory run by the Housing Commission, Victoria, on the site of the former munitions plant. The Commission had large estates at Holmesglen and nearby at Alamein and Box Hill South.
Holmesglen railway station opened on May 5, 1930. The station was the site of a train crash in 2000. The name is taken for a housing estate nearby which had been recently subdivided when the station was opened. The name is no longer in use for the locality.
Jordanville is a railway station located in the suburb of Mount Waverley, on the Glen Waverley railway line. The station was opened in May 1930. Its name is derived from pioneering property that existed nearby.
By 1950 the Housing Commission had acquired land for two thousand houses. The Jordanville technical school was opened in 1954 and a high school (named successively Holmsglen, Jordanville and Waverley), was opened in 1956. Jordanville is now the western part of Mount Waverley. the end of the 1950s the railway line was duplicated and train frequency improved.
In 1853 a privately surveyed township was laid out at the south-east corner of High Street Road and Stephensons Road, named by its owner after Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels. The site rises from a deep valley to the south, the rise being sufficient for the appellation of Mount. A school was opened in 1905, and post and telegraph facilities were provided at about the same time. The farms were increasingly given over to fruit growing, and a cool store was built in 1920 in High Street Road. Vegetables and poultry farms increased in response to Melbourne's growing metropolitan population, particularly after the first world war.
The name was given to the locality when the railway line to Glen Waverley was opened in 1930, and the name for the station to be built at Blackburn Road was initially undecided. Syndal was eventually selected, it having been the name of a model farm and orchard owned by Judge Sir Redmond Barry between 1868 and his death in 1880.
Syndal had remained a farming community until housing for returned servicemen was built with assistance of the War Service Homes Commission after the second world war. Land was cheap even if services rudimentary: kerosene lamps lit the railway station in 1950.
The Glen Waverley area was first named Black Flat. In 1868 when a school was opened, the area was occupied by farmers, orchardists and wood carters. In addition to farming, two early industries were gold mining (short lived, 1896), and pigment mining.
By the 1880s there was a post office and a rudimentary township, and residents of Black Flat felt confident enough to seek a railway line connection. Glen Waverley was established as a locality in May, 1905, deriving from a privately surveyed township (1853), at the south-east corner of High Street Road and Stephensons Road, named by its owner after Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels. Though the railway arrived in 1930, it wasn’t until the 1960s that Glen Waverley underwent rapid residential growth.
Major development occurred in the 1950s to 1970s with rapid infilling of housing built to a generally high standard on large (typically 800m2) blocks. The suburb was also the site of Victoria's first McDonald's restaurant, which opened on 12 September 1973, at the corner of High Street and Springvale Road.[5] It was opened shortly after the original in Sydney.
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