Wheelers Hill 3150 Wheelers Hill 3150

Wheelers Hill, between Glen Waverley and Scoresby, is a residential area 22 km. south-east of Melbourne. Its origin was a farm taken by a John Wheeler near Ferntree Gully Road, extending eastwards to the Dandenong Creek (the present boundary of Scoresby). The prolonged rise along which the road runs gave the area its name. A hotel was erected at Wheelers Hill, as Ferntree Gully Road was a relatively busy access road to the Dandenong Ranges. It was also the site of the Mulgrave post office. To avoid confusion with the township of Mulgrave to the south-east, the post office was renamed Wheelers Hill in 1888.

In common with the surrounding district Wheelers Hill was a farming community. An Anglican church was opened in 1869 and a Presbyterian church in 1891. The hill was an attraction for early motoring rallies and hill climbs - motor cars in 1905 and motor cycles in 1911.

The population of the Wheelers Hill area was rural until well into the 1950s, as there was ample land available for postwar housing westwards, particularly along the railway line to Glen Waverley. Although Wheelers Hill was in a municipality that was predominantly urban in character, it was described in 1970 as being a mainly rural area with some lovely home sites and reached by an infrequent bus service form the Glen Waverley station. The following decade, however, saw Wheelers Hill's urbanisation.

The hotel at the corner of Ferntree Gully and Jells Road (substantially changed in 1929) remains a prominent feature and the new drive- in community shopping centre is a few hundred metres to the south. Between them is the Waverley City Gallery and gardens. Caulfield Grammar School anticipated its outward-moving catchment by building a second campus. There are also a State primary school, the Wheelers Hill Secondary College and a Catholic primary and secondary campus. A notable feature of the area is Jells Park which lies between Wheelers hill and the Dandenong Creek, occupying about four kilometres of the creek valley. Elsewhere in the residential area there are several neighbourhood parks. Most of the residential streets are configured so as to avoid unnecessary through traffic.

The median house price in Wheelers Hill was 67% above the metropolitan median in 1987 and 1996.

Wheelers Hill had census populations of 54 (1911) and 252 (1947).

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