The Sandringham railway line branches from other southeastern suburban rail lines at South Yarra station. It serves the City of Bayside, and small sections cover the Cities of Glen Eira, Port Phillip, Stonnington, and Yarra. The Sandringham Line shares track between Flinders Street and Richmond Junction with the Belgrave, Lilydale, Alamein, Pakenham, Glen Waverley, Cranbourne and Frankston lines. It is double-track from Richmond through to Sandringham, and features an emergency crossover at Elsternwick, where it also formerly intersected with the Rosstown Railway from Oakleigh.
After leaving the Melbourne Central Business District, the train passes the Melbourne Cricket Ground (left hand side of the train).
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 MCG underwent a $430 million redevelopment on the northern side of the stadium between 2002 and 2006; the upgrade was in part to prepare it as the main venue for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, which were hosted by Melbourne. The redevelopment involved the demolition of the Pavilion, Ponsford and Olympic Stands. The present capacity (including seating and standing room) of the MCG is just over 100,000. Up until October 2002, the capacity of the ground was 96,308.
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, known by Melbourne's foodies as 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.
South Yarra is one of Melbourne's oldest and most affluent inner-city suburbs, bordered by the Yarra River and Richmond to the north, Prahran to the south and Toorak to the east. Shopping, fashion, dining and entertainment are the main features of South Yarra's extensive commercial precinct.
The South Yarra section of Chapel Street has a reputation for being the most fashionable and upmarket end. A major landmark is The Jam Factory, and old factory converted into an upmarket shopping centre and cinemas. The Como Centre is a large shopping centre on the corner of Toorak and Chapel Streets, which combines with an office building, South Yarra s tallest, which houses the headquarters for ATV-10 and Global Television's TV production facilities.
The Prahran Market, located in South Yarra, is one of Melbourne's most popular and historic fresh produce markets. Toorak Road runs off Chapel Street and although not known as well as Toorak Village, is a popular strip that contains a wide range of shops. Chapel Street and Toorak Road also has some of the best nightlife in Australia.
It has been said that, with so much entertainment on your doorstep - restaurants, clubs, theatre – Prahran’s the place for people who want to take a big bite out of life. Prahran (pronounced "pruh-RAN", also known colloquially as "Pran") is a lively, L-shaped suburb that straddles the retail spine of Chapel Street and the grand boulevard of Dandenong Road. Commercial Road features mega nightclubs, glossy restaurants and gourmet Prahran Market, while Greville Street is a villagey strip of cafes and boutique stores, and High Street is student central. Chapel Street is home to fantastic old retail emporiums, and its dense network of narrow side streets is full of characterful Edwardian and Victorian terraces.
Restaurants and cafes abound on Chapel, High and Greville Streets, from student pubs to slick bistros like the Gramercy under the art-filled Cullen Hotel. Antique lovers can score at the Chapel Street Bazaar, food lovers can dive into Prahran Market and night owls can hit the clubs on Commercial Rd or the Chapel off Chapel theatre complex.
Windsor, a residential suburb south of Prahran, is 5 km. south-south-east of Melbourne. It is bounded by High Street, Punt Road, Wellington Street/Dandenong Road and (notionally) Williams Road on its east. Known at first as Prahran South, it was connected by railway to Melbourne and Brighton in 1860 and by a loop line to St. Kilda the year before. (The latter ceased service in 1862, and is traceable today by the linear reserve which runs into Gladstone street.) The locality was settled with small farms and a scatter of houses and business premises. There was a Windsor Castle hotel, from which the area's name may have originated, and the name of the railway station was changed form Chapel Street to Windsor in 1867.
Balaclava, part of St. Kilda East, is 7 km. south-east of Melbourne. It was named after the battlefield in the Crimean War (1853-6), and has street names such as Nightingale, Inkerman, Raglan and Sebastopol. It is well served by public transport, having trams in Chapel Street (1886) and Carlisle Street (1913) and a train line from Melbourne to Brighton (1859).
Pioneer tv entertainer Graham Kennedy was born at 32 Camden Street, Balaclava to Cyril William Kennedy and Mary Austen Kennedy on 15th February 1934. When Kennedy was two years old, his parents moved to Carlisle Street, St Kilda, for two years. As a youth Kennedy Kennedy worked in his uncle's hairdressing shop at 475 Collins Street, South Yarra.
Ripponlea takes its name from the large home and estate formed by Sir Frederick Sargood (1834-1903) businessman and Parliamentarian in 1868-9. The home was designed by Joseph Reed. Sargood chose the name Ripponlea as it was the maiden name of his mother. Residential development occurred in the 1880s and 1890s, although the Sargood estate occupied much of the area.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Ripponlea television studios were built in 1954 in Gordon Street on land compulsorily acquired from the Rippon Lea Estate, by the Victorian State Government. Many of the ABC’s classic TV shows, including Bellbird and Countdown, were shot there. The studios closed in 2017.
Elsternwick village was surveyed in 1856, situated on the Elster Creek, which later became the Elwood Canal. The village's location is partly occupied by today's Gardenvale. Elsternwick's western boundary is notionally in Elwood where Elsternwick Park is situated. In the same way that Ripponlea took its name from the Rippon Lea Estate of Sir Frederick Sargood, Elsternwick took its name from the largest property in the district: Charles Ebden's house Elster (Elster is German for "magpie [de]").The area was previously known as Red Bluff.
Glen Huntly Road in Elsternwick has a variety of cafés and restaurants, and Elsternwick is the home of perhaps the best-known brothel in Australia, and certainly Melbourne; Daily Planet, which was the first in the world to be listed on a stock exchange (the Australian Securities Exchange).
A short walk for Eltrernwick Station at No.8 Gordon Street is the site of one Australia's most famous television studios, whose history dated back to the start of television in Australia. It was from here that the ABC started broadcasting in Victoria in 1956, in time for the Melbourne Olympic Games, the completed studios being officially opened in 1958. Dubbed The Dream Factory, it soon cemented its place in the history of television production, being home to such iconic Australian television shows as Countdown, the children's show Adventure Island, '60s soapie Bellbird, period drama Power Without Glory, The Gillies Report, The Big Gig, SeaChange, Kath and Kim, Spicks and Specks, and, more recently, Mad as Hell and The Weekly. The Ripponlea Studios operated as the ABC's television's main television production house until 2017 when the ABC relocated to refurbished headquarters at Southbank.
A residential suburb between Elsternwick and North Brighton, Gardenvale originated with the Garden Vale estate, a subdivision of Lempriere's Paddock (1908) in the vicinity of Gardenvale Road between Nepean Highway and Kooyong Road. The origin of the name is uncertain: in 1907 the railway station was named Garden Vale, presumably inspired by the Market Gardens in the gently undulating countryside.
Brighton, which is serviced by three stations on the Sandringham line, is an affluent coastal suburb of Melbourne. It is named after Brighton in England. Brighton houses some of the wealthiest citizens in Melbourne with grand homes, and the development of large residential blocks of land. As of July 2020, Brighton has a median house price of $2.7 million.
A railway connection to Melbourne was built in stages: Windsor to North Brighton was completed in 1859 and connected to the loop line to St Kilda station; the connection to Melbourne was made in 1860; and the line was extended from North Brighton to Brighton Beach in 1861. A single line railway-tram from St Kilda to Brighton Beach was completed in 1906. The railway tramline was duplicated in 1914.
Dendy Street Beach, just south of Middle Brighton, features 82 colourful bathing boxes, which are one of the tourist icons of Melbourne. The boxes share a uniformity of size and build, and a regular arrangement along the beach, and are the only surviving such structures close to the Melbourne CBD.
The bathing boxes are known to have existed as far back as 1862, although the earliest ones were at the water's edge at the end of Bay Street rather than their present location on Dendy Street Beach just south of Middle Brighton.
Between Middle Brighton Beach and Sandown St Beach are the historic moderne Middle Brighton Municipal Baths, Royal Brighton Yacht Club, and the Middle Brighton Pier and breakwater. North Road in Brighton features many old churches and residences. The North Road Pavilion is a popular cafe which has an outlook of Port Phillip Bay, while the beachfront features stunning views toward the Melbourne city skyline.
Church Street is the premier retail shopping and leisure street in Bayside is home to more than 80 specialty shops within its’ arcades and side streets. There you will find cafés, restaurants, fashion boutiques and a multi-screen cinema.
At Brighton Cycles, you can hire a bicycle for the day and explore all that Bayside has to offer. Bayside Cycling's Map highlights trails suitable for cyclists of all ages and abilities. Each route includes opportunities to stops at parks, cafes and points of interest. All the trails include a section of the attractive foreshore with views of Port Phillip Bay.
Bayside is home to some of the world’s best golf courses. The Sandbelt is blessed with idyllic golf courses built on a magnificent sandy base, allowing for instant drainage and perfect playing surfaces all year round.
From Brighton to Beaumaris, there is 17km of foreshore, cliff tops and beaches to explore by foot. With over 90 informative signs, the foreshore coastal trail has walks and experiences that celebrate Bayside’s indigenous, historical, artistic and environmental heritage. The trails created by Bayside council celebrate the life and work of famous Australian artists who were inspired by the beauty of Bayside. They also tell the stories of the Boon Wurrung people who lived here for thousands of years.
The Art Trail includes work by famous Heidelberg School founders Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin. Completed during summer camps between 1886 and 1907, many artists such as Arthur Boyd, Clarice Beckett, CA Wilson and Jesse Trail followed in the footsteps of Heidelberg School painters in painting en plein-air. The trail signs are located as close as possible to where the artists stood over 100 years ago.
The Indigenous trail includes works of contemporary Indigenous artists, based on stories authored by Boon Wurrung Elder Carolyn Briggs. This trail outlines the close relationship between the Boon Wurrung culture and the coastal environment. Bayside’s rich coastal history and the significant local flora and fauna are also prominent.
Wedged between the Bayside suburbs of Brighton and Sandringham, Hampton has a shopping centre along the main road, Hampton Street, with more than 50 cafes and restaurants plus numerous fashion boutiques.
Hampton, like Brighton, started off as a place of market gardens in the 1840s and 1850s, supplying fruits and vegetables for Melbourne. In the 1850s, interest started to grow in the beaches in the area as places for daytrips and holidays for Melbournians, particularly Picnic Point, on the beautiful bay foreshore of Hampton. This expanded when a railway line was built to Brighton Beach in the 1860s. In 1887, the railway line was extended to Sandringham, with a station servicing Picnic Point. It was called Retreat, after the Retreat Hotel at the Point. However, several landmarks in the area, including the beach, had been named Hampton, after a local market gardener Dyas Hampton, and as wealthy landowners began buying subdivided land in the area, they favored the name Hampton as it sounded more regal.
Like its Bayside neighbours, Sandringham – the terminus on the Sandringham line – is an affluent beachside suburb. Sandringham is a popular location for beachgoers, sightseers, walkers, picnickers, photographers, cyclists and shoppers. It has a quaint village atmosphere with a number of cafes, coffee shops and restaurants (Greek, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese), take-away food outlets, gourmet food outlets, clothing stores, boutique homewares and more.
Sandringham formed part of the early estates in the parish of Moorabbin purchased by Josiah Holloway in 1852. Named Gipsy Village, lots were sold between 1852 and 1854 notwithstanding little settlement taking place at the time. Bluff Town Post Office opened on 1 April 1868, closed in 1871, reopened in 1873 and was renamed Sandringham in 1887.
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