Surrey Hills, Victoria

Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb
name = Surrey Hills
city = Melbourne
state = vic


caption = Surrey Gardens, which lie within Surrey Hills
lga = City of Boroondara
lga2 = City of Whitehorse
postcode = 3127
pop = 13,105 (2006)Census 2006 AUS | id = SSC21457 | name = Surrey Hills (State Suburb) | accessdate = 2007-09-26 | quick = on]
area = 4.4
est =
propval = $900,000 [ [http://www.domain.com.au/public/suburbprofile.aspx?suburb=Surrey%20Hills&postcode=3127 Surrey Hills] , accessed 13 March 2008]
stategov = Box Hill, Burwood
fedgov = Chisholm, Kooyong
dist1 = 14
location1= Melbourne
near-nw = Balwyn
near-n = Mont Albert
near-ne = Box Hill
near-w = Canterbury
near-e = Box Hill South
near-sw = Camberwell
near-s = Burwood
near-se = Burwood

Surrey Hills is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in the state of Victoria. It is split between two local government areas, where roughly over a half of it (to the west) lies within the City of Boroondara and under a half of it (to the east) lies within the City of Whitehorse.

History

The Surrey Hills area was first developed by real estate consortia following the extension of the railway line from Camberwell to Lilydale in 1882. Housing estates were laid out and streets were given impressive names such as Balmoral, Windsor and Albert Crescents, but the area was considered too distant from the nearest shopping districts; Camberwell to the west and Box Hill to the east. The economic depression of the 1890s brought development to a halt and the next major phase of suburban development didn't take place until after the First World War.

During the 1990s, the last bank branch in the Union Road shopping strip closed, which caused some concern within both the local community and local traders. On 24 February 2003, the Surrey Hills Community Bank (a community bank branch of Bendigo Bank) opened for business in Union Road.

Today

Surrey Hills contains the "English counties district", which is a small area between Canterbury and Riversdale Roads where the streets are named after English counties, including Durham, Kent, Middlesex, Essex, Suffolk roads.

Its local primary school is called Surrey Hills Primary. Surrey Hills's central business district is relatively small consisting of a 250 metre strip of shops along Union Road which features Surrey Hills railway station (on the Lilydale and Belgrave lines), five cafes, two bakers, two chemists, neighbourhood centre, community Bank, a post office and a large bottle shop. Coming out from Melbourne, Union road is the first railway level crossing on the Lilydale/Belgrave line.

Surrey Hills also has Chatham railway station just off Canterbury road. Most working residents of Surrey Hills commute to Melbourne either by car or train. To reach a safe bicycle path for the city commute cyclists must travel south to the Gardiners Creek Trail or north to the Yarra River Trail, via the Anniversary Outer Circle Trail.

To the north, Surrey Hills is also serviced by the 109 tram route which continues from Port Melbourne, on to Box Hill and in the south the 70 tram line which travels from the city to Wattle Park.

Parks and gardens

The major parks and gardens in Surrey Hills are Surrey Gardens and South Surrey Park. Surrey Hills is also adjacent to Wattle Park which is just across Riversdale Road to the South in Burwood.

See also

* City of Box Hill - the former local government area of which part of Surrey Hills was a part.

* City of Camberwell - the former local government area of which part of Surrey Hills was a part.

References

External links