Kew East is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, 8 km east from Melbourne's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

, located within the City of Boroondara

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

. Kew East recorded a population of 6,620 at the 2021 census.

History

A number of farming properties were established along the Yarra River following government land auctions, between 1845 and 1847. The Wills family established "Willsmere Estate", a grazing and dairying property, with the name now reflected in Willsmere Road and Willsmere Park. William Wade established a farm, named "Belford", next door. A flood in December 1863 devastated the property, which later became the Kew Golf Course. The Harp of Erin Hotel, on the corner of Harp Road and High Street, was established in 1854, by Edward Glynn. It was a centre for race meetings and gave its name to Harp Road, which was part of a route to Lilydale, used by

Cobb and Co. Cobb & Co was the name used by many successful sometimes quite independent Australian coaching businesses. The first was established in 1853 by American Freeman Cobb and his partners. The name Cobb & Co grew to great prominence in the late 19th ...

Kew East Post Office opened around 1924. The East Kew Maternal and Child Health Centre, in Strathalbyn Street, Kew East, is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. Opened in December 1925, it is the earliest purpose-built and intact baby health centre in the state. The notorious

2020 Eastern Freeway truck crash On 23 April 2020, a drugged truck driver, Mohinder Singh, crashed his truck into a Porsche 911 and two police cars on the Eastern Freeway, in the city of Melbourne, killing four police officers who were on routine highway patrol. Prior to the in ...

, which received national news coverage, occurred in the suburb.Four Victoria police victims of horror Melbourne freeway crash named
The Guardian. 23 April 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2022.

Street names

Windella Road was originally named Balfour Road, after Kew resident and politician James Balfour. It was renamed to Windella Avenue, after Balfour's residence Windella, due to the similarity of the former name to that of nearby Belford Road. Longstaff, Leason,

McCubbin McCubbin is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bobby McCubbin (1868–1950), Australian rules footballer * Frederick McCubbin (1855–1917), Australian painter * Henry McCubbin (1942–2023), Scottish politician *Megan McCubbin ( ...

, Newbury, Frater and Lister Streets are all named after Australian painters.

Demographics

As of 2016, 68.2% of residents were born in

, 4.3% were born in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, 2.4% in England, 2.1% in Italy and 23% were born elsewhere.

Population

At the

2016 census Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film dir ...

, Kew East had a population of 6,669.

Geography

The suburb is bounded to the east by

Burke Road Burke Road is a major north–south thoroughfare in Melbourne, Australia. It runs from Ivanhoe East to Caulfield East and through the major shopping district at Camberwell. It is aligned with the western boundary of Elgar's Special Survey, an ...

, to the north by the Yarra River and to the west by the Yarra River, parts of Kilby and Willsmere Roads and the property boundaries between Willsmere Road and Rattan Avenue. The southern boundary follows Carnegie Avenue, Park Crescent, Earl Street, Asquith Street, property boundaries near Belford Road (south), High Street and Harp Road. The Eastern Freeway runs across the centre of the suburb from east to west.

Education

There are two co-educational government schools located in Kew East —

Kew High School Kew High School is a co-educational school in suburban Melbourne for students in years 7–12. The school has an enrolment of approximately 1146 students from the suburbs of Kew, Balwyn North, Hawthorn, Ivanhoe, Kew East and Richmond. School g ...

, a secondary college located on Burke Road and Kew East Primary School on Kitchener Street. St Annes Catholic School is located on Beresford Street.

Sport and recreation

Kew Golf Club and Green Acres Golf Club on Elm Grove are located in the north of the suburb. Parks in Kew East include Willsmere-Chandler Park, home of one of the suburb's three soccer clubs, East Kew United Soccer club, and the adjacent Kew Billabong,

Hays Paddock Hays Paddock is a popular Australian recreational park in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Kew East, Victoria, Kew East. Managed by City of Boroondara council, the park consists of a popular playground, walking & cycling tracks, and two ovals for t ...

on Glass Creek, is home to the Old Xaverians Soccer Club, and Kew Deaf Soccer Club. Hyde Park, Harrison Park and Stradbroke Park are located in the south-east of the suburb.

Shopping

The main shopping area, "Harp Village", is located on High Street, near the intersection with Harp Road. A small local centre, Belford Court Shopping Centre, is located on Belford Road.

Transport

The Eastern Freeway is accessible via the Chandler Highway or Burke Road. The

Main Yarra Trail __NOTOC__ The Yarra Trail is a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians, which follows the Yarra River through the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The trail follows the river from near its mouth, through the city a ...

, a shared bicycle and pedestrian path, runs along the north side of the freeway. Belford Road bridges the freeway, providing a link to the northern part of the suburb. The suburb has a single tram line along High Street, which accommodates tram route 48. There are also a number of bus routes which connect the suburb to surrounding areas.

Places of worship

Places of worship include: *St Paul's Anglican Church, located on the corner of Windella Avenue and Hale Street. *East Kew Uniting Church, Normanby Road. *MWP Centre, Westbrook Street. *St Anne's Catholic Church, Windellla Avenue. *The Leo Baeck Centre for Progressive Judaism, Harp Road.

References

{{City of Boroondara suburbs Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Boroondara