Ferntree Gully 3156 Ferntree Gully 3156

Ferntree Gully, originally "Fern Tree Gully"because of the scenic gully now partly in the National Park of the same name, is mostly a large suburban area 32 km. east-south-east of Melbourne.

The fern tree gully in the National Park runs along a creek between One Tree Hill and the Upper Ferntree Gully railway station. The gully became an excursion destination in the 1870s, and its popularity increased when the railway was extended from Ringwood to Upper Ferntree Gully in 1889. Seven years before, the land around the gully had been reserved for public purposes, and the reservation was given the status of a national park in 1927.

Upper Ferntree Gully is generally the eastern extremity of the locality. Its western edge is near the junction of Ferntree Gully Road and the Burwood Highway, at the Club Hotel, which had been the coach terminus for excursionists before the railway extension.

During the 1870s there were two hotels, a post office and various selectors occupying land. Further eastwards timber-getters were penetrating the forest, and the local population warranted building a school in 1880. Shortly afterwards shops, a bakery, a butchery and Wesleyan and Anglican churches were built. By the turn of the century Ferntree Gully had spread, caused partly by the railway line bypassing the old Club Hotel location. On 30 May, 1889, the Shire of Fern Tree Gully was proclaimed, consisting of 390 sq. km. severed from the Berwick shire, and having a population of 750.

After the first world war Ferntree Gully became a retreat for several prominent Melburnians and elaborate boarding houses were built for tourists. Several sporting competitions were active. At a less prosperous level, cheap land and fibro houses with wood stoves enabled low income people to derive a living, particularly if they grew back yard vegetables. A strong arts society was founded in 1944. Post war urbanisation saw the building of a kindergarten (1949) a boys' technical school (1954) and the William Angliss hospital (1954). A second primary school was opened, at the western end of the locality, in the same year. By the early post-war years only about 20% of Ferntree Gully's workforce were in primary industry, and many workers commuted to Melbourne's industrial areas. Ferntree Gully had electric trains (since 1929) picture theatres and motor cars. There was a divide between the hills people and the subdividers down on the plains, and in 1954 the State Government enacted planning controls over excessive subdivision. Debate over severance of the plains from the hills extended from war time to the 1960s, and in 1963 the Fern Tree Gully shire was divided, creating Knox shire in the west, the boundary running between Lower and Upper Ferntree Gully.

Fern Tree Gully shire included Bayswater, Boronia, Lysterfield, Scoresby and Wantirna, all of which were severed on 16 November, 1963, to form Knox shire down on the plains. The severance included the western part of the Ferntree Gully township. The areas remaining in the shire included Avonsleigh, Belgrave, Clematis, Emerald, Ferny Creek, Kallista, Macclesfield, Menzies Creek, Monbulk, Olinda, Sassafras, Selby, Sherbrooke, Tecoma, The Patch, Tremont, Upper Ferntree Gully and Upwey. On 22 December, 1964, the name was changed to Sherbrooke shire.

The census populations of Ferntree Gully township have been 590 (1911), 1,000 (1933), 3,169 (1947). The census populations of Fern Tree Gully shire were 3,613 (1911), 9,171 (1933), 22,019 (1954) and 37,418 (1961).

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