Kew, Victoria

Kew is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Boroondara. At the 2006 Census, Kew had a population of 22,516.

Formerly a city in its own right, Kew City Council, Hawthorn City Council and Camberwell City Council were amalgamated in 1994 to form the City of Boroondara. The suburb borders the Yarra River to the west and north, with Hawthorn to its south and Balwyn to its east.

Kew is one of Melbourne’s most affluent suburbs with a plethora of Victorian and Art Deco mansions graced by stunning gardens set back from tree-lined streets, such as Raheen. This is also reflected in house prices where the price of a home is more than twice the metropolitan Melbourne average. There is abundant parkland in the suburb including Yarra Bend and Studley parks. City of Boroondara achieves the highest score of all Melbourne municipal areas on the SEIFA index of disadvantage compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (the lower the score, the more disadvantage).

History




Prior to the establishment of Melbourne, the area was inhabited by the Wurundjeri peoples. In the 1840s European settlers named it the Parish of Boroondara—meaning "a place of shade" in the Woiwurrung language.

John Hodgson established a squatters run at Studley Park on the eastern bank of the Yarra River in 1840. Studley House, also known as Burke Hall, built in 1857, was named after Hodgson's birthplace of Studley, Yorkshire, and the house is now on the Register of the National Estate. The house was built in the Victorian Period Italianate Revival style. Modifications were made to the house in 1875 and 1919. The house was also owned by former bookmaker, ALP lobbyist, influential Irish-Catholic and millionaire, John Wren, and was donated to Xavier College by the land developer T. M. Burke. It illustrates the importance of a residence in indicating success and status in nineteenth and early twentieth century Melbourne society. [Nancy Bird Walton] also lived in this town.

St. Paul's Anglican church, in its section on the history of Kew states:

In 1838 the Melbourne Advertiser reported bush-rangers in this area..and they probably outnumbered women. In 1838 Dight travelled down the Yarra from Heidelberg and decided to locate his water-powered mill on a site adjacent to the falls. The impressive 3 story Mill opened in 1840. [2]

In 1851, Crown land sales occurred in the area. One of the purchasers, Nicholas Fenwick, subdivided his land (which was just further out from the center of the colony of Melbourne than the area known as Richmond) and named the region Kew, based on the thought that Kew in England was near Richmond. He also notably named its streets after British statesmen. The area quickly became a sought-after suburb for the well-to-do in Melbourne. Access to Kew was originally via Bridge Road in Richmond, crossing the Hawthorn Bridge to Burwood Road, until the Johnston Street bridge was built in 1858.

The commercial precinct known as Kew Junction began to take shape in the 1850s. The first store was opened by Mr. J. J. French in August, 1853 and the first post office on 6 October 1856, however, it was not till towards the end of the decade that many shops appeared in High Street. The Kew Hotel opened in 1855, the Prospect Hill Hotel (now the Dan Murphys liquor store) in 1857, the Council Hotel about 1860, the Clifton (now Hotel Kew) in 1869, and the Greyhound (now the Skinny Dog Hotel) in 1874. The fine block of civic buildings comprising the former post office, the former court house, and the former police station were built in 1888 as was the National Bank at the corner of Walpole and High Streets.

In 1856 a site was reserved for a mental asylum next to the river. By 1871 Kew Lunatic Asylum, now known as the Willsmere apartments was completed. The Kew Cottages for children were added in 1887. The hospital was built despite objections by residents and the borough council and provides an historical example of NIMBYism. Kew Cottages and Willsmere Hospital are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Various churches opened in the 1850s, with the first school opened by the Anglican Church in 1856. In 1875, Sacred Heart Primary School was opened. More private schools were opened in 1878, being Ruyton Girls' School (non-denominational) and Xavier College (Catholic in Jesuit order). Other private schools soon followed, including Methodist Ladies' College (Methodist) in 1882, Genazzano FCJ College in 1889, Trinity Grammar School (Anglican) in 1903, and Carey Baptist Grammar School (Baptist) in 1923. Preshil, The Margaret Lyttle Memorial School was opened in the early 1930s. By 1990, Kew had six government campuses and twenty-eight non-government campuses, the highest concentration of education institutions in the Western world.

A railway branch line to Kew from Hawthorn station opened on December 19, 1887 and was officially closed on May 13, 1957. Kew was proclaimed a town on 8 December 1910, and a city on 10 March 1921. The population of the area tripled between 1910 and World War II.

Raheen
Raheen is an historic 19th-century Italianate mansion located at 92 Studley Park Road. It was built in the 1870s, and its name means "little fort" in Gaelic.

Raheen was once the residence of Daniel Mannix, the former Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and was bequeathed to the Catholic Church by John Wren.

It was purchased in 1980 by the Australian businessman Richard Pratt and his family and is not currently open to the public. Pratt extensively renovated the house and gardens, including the addition of a new wing designed by Glen Murcutt.

Today


Kew has grown steadily since the early the Bridge Road crossing development and is now one of the most prestigious suburbs in Melbourne. Town Planners were not constrained by the smaller lot allocations found just to the west over the Yarra and allotments in Kew were developed usually with much greater size and fronted wide, leafy boulevards.

As a consequence, many of these residences now attract some of the highest residential resale values in Melbourne. In many cases, the large allotments have been subsequently redeveloped into townhouses or duplexes and have thus appealed to a newer demographic (primarily dual-income parents with one or more children), keen to be close not only to the Melbourne CBD but also the excellent schooling facilities available nearby.

Streets within the Sackville Ward (bounded by Barkers, Burke, Cotham and Glenferrie Roads) such as Alfred, Rowland, Wellington, Grange and Sackville have some exceptional examples of Edwardian, Victorian and contemporary architecture. There has also been a recent trend towards the development of larger retirement-living complexes aimed principally at downsizing couples wishing to remain in the area. However one negative aspect of this increased living density is that the infrastructure within Kew is becoming taxed and will need continuous government and private-sector investment to operate efficiently.

Nonetheless, Kew has convenient access to public facilities and transport. The 109, 16 and 72 tram routes pass through on three of the above mentioned thoroughfares and the City/Lilydale/Belgrave train line is easily accessed at Hawthorn and Glenferrie stations. Kew station and the associated railway branch was last served by passenger trains in 1952, and the station site now the headquarters of VicRoads.

Education

 * Carey Baptist Grammar School
 * Methodist Ladies' College
 * Xavier College
 * Genazzano FCJ College
 * Trinity Grammar School
 * Ruyton Girls' School

Sport
Golfers play at the course of the Kew Golf Club on Belford Road in Kew East or at the Studley Park Par 3 Golf Course on Studley Park Road. kew football club plays out of victoria park

Transport
Tram
 * 16 Kew - St Kilda Beach - Melbourne University (via City and St Kilda)
 * 24 North Balwyn - City (via La Trobe Street)
 * 27 City - Kew Tram Depot (via La Trobe Street)
 * 42 Box Hill - City (Collins Street West)
 * 47 Port Melbourne - Kew Tram Depot (Barkers Road)
 * 48 North Balwyn (Doncaster Road / Balwyn Road) - City (Docklands)
 * 72 Camberwell (Burke Road / Cotham Road) - Melbourne University
 * 108 Box Hill - Southbank Tram Depot (Normanby Road)
 * 109 Box Hill - Port Melbourne (via Collins Street)

Notable people

 * Michael Klinger, cricketer
 * Gough Whitlam, 21st Prime Minister of Australia.