Glen Waverley 3150 Glen Waverley 3150

Glen Waverley, the terminus of a metropolitan railway line, is a residential suburb 19 km. south-east of Melbourne.

The area was first named Black Flat. In 1868 when the area was occupied by farmers, orchardists and wood carters, a school was opened. 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. They were unsuccessful. Some residents were also discontented with the name and various proposals were considered over ten years. Finally Glen Waverley was settled on 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.

In addition to farming, two early industries were gold mining (short lived, 1896), and pigment mining.

In 1909 a mechanic's institute and free library were opened, serving as a community focus and as the venue for Anglican church services until the St. Paul's church was built in 1921. The railway line connecting Glen Waverley to Melbourne was opened in 1930, and the 1933 census population showed a 50% increase over the 1911 figure of 238 persons. Notwithstanding the area's proximity to the railway line the outward spread of urbanisation from metropolitan Melbourne had substantial broad acres to fill in before reaching Glen Waverley. In the late 1940s the township had a recreation reserve, two shops and the few community facilities already mentioned. By 1954 a planned shopping centre near the railway station was being developed and the Mulgrave shire was contemplating new offices nearby. Among the seven shops one was described as a supermarket in 1955 in the Victorian Municipal Directory.

During the 1960s Glen Waverley underwent rapid residential growth. A primary school and a high school were opened in 1960 and 1961 respectively, the latter year coinciding with the change of Mulgrave shire to Waverley city. In 1974 the Council designated Glen Waverley as a district centre and in 1982 collaborated with the Victorian Railways in securing land for a second shopping centre. The drive-in open-air Kingsway shops were soon overshadowed by the climate-controlled drive-in centre known as The Glen (198 . .). The Glen was enlarged in 1996 by the addition of the David Jones department store.

The population growth attracted a second campus for Wesley College in the mid 1960s, four more primary schools and two more secondary school. The Catholic seminary on a prominent hill off Waverley Road became the Victorian Police Academy.

The eastern side of Glen Waverley has a linear park and golf course occupying the Dandenong Creek valley. Reserves, some with ovals, are set amidst the housing areas, and the predominantly generous allotments on which the houses are built provide households with open space. The configuration of the residential streets as one moves away from the railway station becomes increasing less grid-like, showing how protection from traffic overtook the earlier preference for convenient through traffic routes.

The median house prices in Glen Waverley were 22% above the metropolitan prices in 1987 and 1996.

The census populations of Glen Waverley were 238 (1911) and 509 (1947).

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