Wantirna 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 me ...

, Victoria, Australia, 24 km east of 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 " cit ...

, located within the

City of Knox The City of Knox is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of and in 2020, Knox had a population of 165,147. This municipality is one of only a handful that survived the widespread m ...

local government area. Wantirna recorded a population of 14,237 at the 2021 census. Its name is derived from the local aboriginal population's meaning for, "a gurgling stream". The Knox Private Hospital,

Westfield Knox Westfield Knox (formerly known as Knox City Shopping Centre) is a shopping centre, outdoor entertainment and professional services complex in the outer eastern Melbourne suburb of Wantirna South, in the Australian state of Victoria. The ce ...

shopping centre, and Kieran are located in Wantirna. The EastLink

tollway A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implement ...

runs through Wantirna with interchanges at Boronia Road and Burwood Highway. Wantirna was first settled by Australians of European descent in 1840 when Mrs. Madeline Scott established the "Bushy Park" cattle run on the banks of the Dandenong Creek. During the 1870s other pioneers opened up the area to settlement.Knox City Council – City of Knox Suburb Histories
/ref> In 1912 the need for a school to serve the local area soon became apparent in this small but fast-growing area; the Finger family donated two acres of land on the southern side of Mountain Hwy (then known as Wantirna-Sassafras Rd) and a timber schoolhouse was opened. The Finger and Fankhauser families were prime movers in the erection of the Methodist Church opened opposite the school in May 1914, and a parish hall was built on Burwood Highway in 1924. Wantirna Post Office opened on 1 November 1913, closed in 1977, and reopened in 1983. The Wantirna Reserve was provided by the council in 1925 and a tennis court was built there shortly afterwards. In December 1939, after the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, West Prussia Road was renamed Wantirna Road. Locations in Wantirna, especially

, are occasionally used to shoot the soap opera '' Neighbours''. Koomba Park is a large native bushland park spanning the area between Dandenong Creek and the Eastlink Tollway. It is run by Parks Victoria and was opened in 1982. The Victorian Jazz Archive is located within Koomba Park.

Schools

Schools in Wantirna includ
Wantirna Primary School
Wantirna College
Regency Park Primary SchoolTempleton Primary School
and St Luke's Primary School.

Churches

Hills Bible Church
* Knox Presbyterian Church * The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Stake Centre and the Melbourne Australia Temple (churchofjesuschrist.org)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wantirna, Victoria Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Knox