Elwood, Victoria
Encyclopedia
Elwood is a suburb in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, 8 km south from Melbourne's central business district
Melbourne city centre
Melbourne City Centre is an area of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is not to be confused with the larger local government area of the City of Melbourne...

. Its Local Government Area is the City of Port Phillip
City of Port Phillip
The City of Port Phillip is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the northern shores of Port Phillip, south of Melbourne's central business district. It has an area of 20.62 km² and has an estimated population of 96,110 people....

. At the 2006 Census, Elwood had a population of 13,785.

Elwood Beach is a popular bayside beach destination during summer where the beaches are used recreationally for windsurfing
Windsurfing
Windsurfing or sailboarding is a surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually two to four metres long, powered by the orthogonal effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a...

, cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...

, touch football
Touch football (rugby league)
Touch is a field sport also known as Touch Football, or in some countries as Touch Rugby. Touch is overseen worldwide by the Federation of International Touch . Touch has traditionally been played in Australia and New Zealand but the sport has expanded internationally and features many regional and...

, cricket and walking.

The suburb has experienced ongoing gentrification, known for its mix of Edwardian
Edwardian architecture
Edwardian architecture is the style popular when King Edward VII of the United Kingdom was in power; he reigned from 1901 to 1910, but the architecture style is generally considered to be indicative of the years 1901 to 1914....

 and Interwar architecture character, its beaches and its leafy streets many of which are lined by London Plane
London Plane
Platanus × acerifolia, the London plane, London planetree, or hybrid plane, is a tree in the genus Platanus. It is usually thought to be a hybrid of Platanus orientalis and the Platanus occidentalis . Some authorities think that it may be a cultivar of P...

 trees.

History

Elwood was originally swamp
Swamp
A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

land; installation of the Elwood Canal turned it into a habitable area.

Elwood was initially planned out around the two central geographic features of Elster Creek,(now Elwood Canal and promontory at Point Ormond, once known as Little Red Bluff.

Fires burned for centuries on Point Ormond and it was here the Aboriginal Australians would cook shellfish, signal other clans and burn back country.

Fever brought the first large group of settlers to Elwood when the desperate immigrant ship Glen Huntley landed at Point Ormond in 1840, flying the fever flag and initiating Victoria’s fist quarantine station and St Kilda’s first graveyard.http://skhs.org.au/~SKHSflood/introduction.htm

Originally a working middle class suburb in the early part of the 20th century, Elwood has overseen waves of gentrification and is now one of Melbourne's most sought after bayside addresses.

Large period houses, many from the 1920s and 30s with art deco touches, along with proximity to beach and foreshore have made the area very attractive.

In the late 1970s, like nearby St Kilda
St Kilda, Victoria
St Kilda is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Port Phillip...

, Elwood was known for its nightlife and developed a reputation as a cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 area. Many of these venues operated out of some of the suburb's quirkier old buildings. As the scene saw a demise in the early 1980s, many including Maison de Luxe and Moulin Rouge (which operated out of the 1880s mansion "Pladda" built for Captain A. Currie) were subsequently demolished.

As late as 1989 locals could be seen riding surfboards and canoes in Elwood streets when the canal burst its banks yet again.

Despite its history of adversity, a modern suburb now thrives by the bay in one of Melbourne’s most prized locations. Café life in the Elwood village seems a long way from the flood, fire and fever of earlier days.
Coloured lorikeets flock to the green corridors of shady trees, a native forest has been planted on the foreshore and the once despised canal area is undergoing rejuvenation as a haven for walkers and cyclists.

Local landmarks

Elwood Village is the main shopping strip, located on Ormond Road it has many restaurants and cafes.

Parks and open space

For such a leafy suburb, Elwood is highly built up and lacking in open space. The most popular and largest reserves are bayside including Elwood Beach, Elwood Canal, and Point Ormond Reserve.

Elwood is not without environmental issues, however. The beach and canal frequently suffer from litter pollution and the canal has a distinctive smell resulting from the backflow of seaweed. However the local council has strategies in place to manage these issues.

Residential architecture

Elwood is known for its mix of Victorian mansions, Edwardian cottages, Interwar apartment buildings. Infill development in recent decades has changed the character of the suburb, however some examples still remain.

Sherwood Hall formerly named "Rotherfield" is a large Victorian (45 room) mansion at 14 Hennessy Avenue. It was built between 1890 and 1891 by David C. Askew of Twentyman & Askew (architects) for Joseph Cowen Syme who was a co-owner of "The Age" newspaper, Melbourne for some 12 years. Upon the death of Laura Syme (J.C. Symes' widow) in the 1920s; the mansion was turned into flats. Sherwood Hall is listed in the Port Phillip Heritage Review, 1998.

La Tourelle flats, 47A Brighton Road, corner of Dickens Street is one of the many large blocks of interwar flats in the area around Brighton Road.

Education

Elwood houses a number of schools considering its limited area. There are 2 primary schools, one offers a catholic education. Saint Columba's Primary is located adjacent to the church and has access to a large number of facilities. There is also a large public school, Elwood Primary School http://elwoodps.vic.edu.au
Elwood is also serviced by a local secondary school, Elwood College
Elwood College
Elwood College is a co-educational, non-selective public school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It has more than 700 students, including many who live in the surrounding area and many international students. The current principal is Rhonda Holt, and the assistant principals are Greg Pritchard...

.

Sport

Elwood Sailing Club was founded in 1924 as Elwood Sea Canoe Club and has since hosted many national and international championships including 12m2 Sharpie sailing in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics
Sailing at the 1956 Summer Olympics
Sailing/Yachting is a Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad Sailing/Yachting is a Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad Sailing/Yachting is a Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad (1896 Olympics in Greece. With the exception of 1904 and...

 and the 2005 World Formula Windsurfing Titles. ESC now boasts extensive sailing, training and social facilities and the clubrooms are available to the general public for function hire. Click here for live webcam views of the beach.

Elwood has a full time lifesaving club.

An active Triathlon club operates in Elwood and the main beach hosts several triathlons each year.

Elwood is home to a touch football club and an indoor soccer club. The suburb has an Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

 club which there share with St Kilda and it is called St Kilda city and soccer Elwood Football Club between 1881 and 1980.

Transport

The main form of transport is the private automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 and bus. The major roads are on its periphery and include multi-lane Brighton Road, Marine Parade, Barkly Street and Glen Huntly Road.

Elwood is no longer serviced by rail. A tram line
Trams in Melbourne
The Melbourne tramway network is a major form of public transport in Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria, Australia. , the network consisted of of track, 487 trams, 28 routes, and 1,773 tram stops. It was therefore the largest urban tramway network in the world, ahead of the...

 connecting St Kilda to Brighton which operated between 1908 and 1959 ran through Elwood down Mitford Street. After its closure the route was replaced by bus services.

Elwood is serviced by the Bayside Trail bicycle path. This path is used by commuters and also recreationally and it includes a roller-skating path used by rollerblade
Rollerblade
Rollerblade is a brand of inline skates owned by Nordica, part of the Tecnica Group of Trevignano, Treviso, Italy.The company was started by Scott Olsen and Brennan Olson in Minneapolis as Ole's Innovative Sports; when they sold the company, it became Rollerblade, Inc...

rs.

Tram line number 67 (Carnegie) runs along the northern boundary of the suburb along Brighton Road/Nepean Highway to the city or up via Elsternwick (past Elsternwick Railway station) to Carnegie.

The nearest railway stations are about 500 metres beyond the northern boundary of the suburb at either Ripponlea or Elsternwick (both across Brighton Road/Nepean Highway).

Elwood is also served by a number of bus routes.

Number 630 runs from Ormond Road Elwood to Gardenvale (station), Ormond (station), Huntingdale to Monash University in Clayton.
Number 923 runs from St Kilda to Elwood, Brighton Beach, Sandringham to Westfield Southland.
Number 246 runs from Elsternwick train station, via Elwood, Prahran, South Yarra, Richmond, Collingwood (all via Punt Road) and up to Clifton Hill.

Street names

Many of the streets in Elwood are named after things related to the beach. These streets include Beach Avenue, Spray Street, Wave Street, Tide Street and Foam Street. Other streets in the area are named after famous writers, essayists and poets, such as Shakespeare Grove, Dickens Street, Milton Street, Wordsworth Street, Byron Street, Keats Street, Tennyson Street, Ruskin Street and Shelley Street.

Notable residents

  • Joe Camilleri
    Joe Camilleri
    Joseph Vincent "Joe" Camilleri, aka Jo Jo Zep or Joey Vincent, is an Australian vocalist, songwriter and saxophonist. Camilleri has recorded as a solo artist and as a member of Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons and The Black Sorrows...

  • Rodger Corser
    Rodger Corser
    Rodger Corser is an Australian actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Owen in the Nine Network crime mini-series Underbelly, based on the Melbourne gangland killings, and Senior Seargent Lawson Blake in the Network Ten police drama series Rush.-Early...

  • Alex Gurney
    Alexander George Gurney
    Alexander George "Alex" Gurney was an Australian artist, caricaturist, and cartoonist born at Pasley House, Stoke, Devonport , England.-Family:...

  • Paul Hester
    Paul Hester
    Paul Newell Hester was an Australian musician and television personality; he was the drummer for the related bands Split Enz and Crowded House.-The early years:...

  • Mark Holden
    Mark Holden
    Mark Holden is an Australian singer, television personality and barrister. He was one of a panel of three judges on the television series Australian Idol.-Acting career:...

  • Ken James
    Ken James
    Ken James may refer to:* Ken James , played Tony Wild in The Box and later played Mike O'Brien in Sons and Daughters...

  • Brad Miller
    Brad Miller (footballer)
    Brad Miller is an Australian rules footballer, who currently plays with Richmond after previously playing with the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League until he was delisted at the end of the 2010 season.-Early life:Brad is the son of Neville Miller, who played 30 games with...

  • Matt Parkinson
    Matt Parkinson
    Matthew "Matt" Parkinson is an Australian comedian, actor and radio presenter. He began acting at school and studied Theatre Arts at W.A.I.T....

  • Roland Perry
    Roland Perry
    Roland Perry is a Melbourne-based author best known for his books on history, especially Australia in the two world wars. His Monash: The Outsider Who Won The War, won the Fellowship of Australian Writers' 'Melbourne University Publishing Award' in 2004...

  • Jane Turner
    Jane Turner
    Jane Turner is an Australian actress, comedian and Logie Award winning comedy writer.Turner has appeared in many popular Australian TV programs, namely Prisoner in a straight dramatic role, with comedy roles in sketch comedy programs The D-Generation, Fast Forward, Full Frontal, Big Girl's Blouse...

  • Ronald Ryan
    Ronald Ryan
    Ronald Joseph Ryan was the last person to be legally executed in Australia. Ryan was found guilty of shooting and killing prison officer George Hodson during a prison escape from Pentridge Prison, Victoria in 1965...

  • Rhianydd Wills-John

Sunsets

Like many of the beaches on the Mornington Peninsula
Mornington Peninsula
The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south-east of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geographically, the peninsula begins its protrusion...

, Elwood is known for its spectacular sunsets.
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