Heatherton is a suburb in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
,
Australia, 19 km south-east of Melbourne's
Central Business District, located within the
City of Kingston
The City of Kingston is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, its northern boundary lying approximately 15 km from the Melbourne city centre along the north-eastern shorelines of Port Ph ...
local government area. Heatherton recorded a population of 2,826 at the .
The suburb has a low population for a metropolitan suburb. It is predominantly open space:
market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to ...
, golf courses (the
Kingston Heath Golf Club and th
Capital Golf Club and the large
Karkarook Park.
History
As part of the
Melbourne Sandbelt, the area has been subject to significant
sand mining
Sand mining is the extraction of sand, mainly through an open pit (or sand pit) but sometimes mined from beaches and inland dunes or dredged from ocean and river beds. Sand is often used in manufacturing, for example as an abrasive or in conc ...
in the past, though many extraction sites have now passed to other uses. Heatherton Post Office opened on 6 May 1885, but closed in 1973.
Today
The Kingston Centre, a major regional Aged Care and Rehabilitation facility, is located on
Warrigal Road
Warrigal Road is a major inner urban road in southeastern Melbourne, Australia. On weekdays, it is heavily trafficked as it runs through many major suburbs along its route, traversing some of Melbourne's eastern and south-eastern suburbs. These ...
. The site was originally the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum (where construction began in 1909). A
narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
tramway was constructed from the railway at
Cheltenham to the building site. A large proportion of the grounds of the Kingston Centre were sold in the 1990s to the developer
Mirvac
Mirvac is an Australian property group with operations across property investment, development, and retail services. This entity now broadens their clientele and shareholder return on investment by venturing across multiple development sectors, ...
, who built the 500 homes of the Heath estate between 2000 and 2009.
Population
In the 2016 Census, there were 2,907 people in Heatherton. 56.8% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were China 5.0% and England 3.5%. 63.3% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin at 4.9%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 31.7% and Catholic 23.2%.
Sport
The suburb has an
Australian Rules football team competing in the
Southern Football League.
The Heatherton Football Club ("The Tunners") was formed in 1913
Heatherton Football Club History
. Retrieved 16 February 2009 and currently play at the Heatherton Recreation Reserve on Ross Street.
Golfers play at the course of the Kingston Heath Golf Club on Kingston Road
See also
* City of Moorabbin – Heatherton was previously within this former local government area.
References
{{City of Kingston suburbs
Suburbs of Melbourne
Suburbs of the City of Kingston