Wheelers Hill 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 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 ...

, 22 km south-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 "city ...

, located within the

City of Monash The City of Monash is a local government area in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne with an area of 81.5 square kilometres and a population of 200,077 people in 2016. Demographics Monash has a diverse pop ...

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 ...

. Wheelers Hill recorded a population of 20,652 at the . At 152m above sea level it includes one of the highest points in metropolitan Melbourne.

History

Wheelers Hill was almost certainly named after James Wheeler, who was an early settler in the

Dandenong Dandenong is a southeastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, about from the Melbourne CBD. It is the council seat of the City of Greater Dandenong local government area, with a recorded population of 30,127 at the . Situated mainly ...

area. James came out from Kilbride townland,

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. James married Ellen Reilly née Glynn in 1848 after the death of her husband, Bernard. There was a five-room house on a creek that went down to the

Dandenong Creek The Dandenong Creek ( Aboriginal Bunwurrung: ''Narra Narrawong'' or ''Dandinnong'') is an urban creek of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the eastern and south-eastern Greater Melbourne region of the Australian east coast state of Vic ...

not far down the road from the Post Office. James had a disagreement with Joseph Jell about the cutting of trees which led to the lands being surveyed. James sold the land in 1854 and moved to Woodend. The Wheelers Hill Hotel was a post office and stopping point for farmers before a 6 to 8-hour drive to the city by horse to sell their goods. The Wheelers Mansion was destroyed by a fire in the late 1920s. The house was located somewhere to the south of the Wheelers Hill Library. The Post Office opened on 1 January 1869 but was called Mulgrave until 1888. Wheelers Hill was the last suburb of the now Monash City Council to be linked up to the electricity grid. This is because, at the time, there was a dispute between the Shire of Mulgrave and the Council of Waverley on whose suburb it was. The main roads in Wheelers Hill were named after landowners and run along the boundaries of old orchards and farms. In Columbia Park on Jells Road, there are steps and a brick outline indicating where "Bellenden" homestead once stood. This was a solid brick home reportedly built for W.D. Robertson, a retired Melbourne baker. It had a tower which gave a commanding view of the Dandenong Ranges. During

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the building was in use as a home for children with

infantile paralysis Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe sym ...

, then known as "spastic" babies. When the mothers were needed to work on the farms left idle by the men who had gone to war, their special-needs babies were cared for at Columbia Park. The house was occupied by a family named Jungwirth post-war and was in ruins by the time V.F.L Park was built nearby.

Today

Wheelers Hill is home to

Jells Park Jells Park is a public park in Wheelers Hill, a southeastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The park opened on 30 April 1976 and is named after Joseph Jell, a cattle grazier who worked in the area in the mid-late 1800s. The park attra ...

, a major recreational facility of over 127 hectares. It contains 9 km of cycle paths and walking tracks which surround a large lake. Wheelers Hill is known for its trees. Parklands make up 31% of the total area of Wheelers Hill. Secondary Schools *

Wheelers Hill Secondary College Wheelers Hill Secondary College is a coeducational state school in the Melbourne suburb of Wheelers Hill, Victoria, Australia. School number 8474. The College is divided into two sub-schools and six Year levels: Middle School (Years 7 - 9) an ...

Brentwood Secondary College Brentwood Secondary College is a co-educational, public high school, located in Glen Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Glen Waverley South Primary School adjoins the college, and they have their own oval, which is used for many sport activities s ...

Primary Schools * Wheelers Hill Primary School * Jells Park Primary School * Waverley Meadows Primary School * St. Justin's Parish School * Brandon Park Primary School * Good Shepherd Parish School Private Schools *

Caulfield Grammar School Caulfield Grammar School is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican, International Baccalaureate, day school, day and boarding school, located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1881 as ...

Sports Clubs * Notting Hill/Brandon Park Cricket Club is the suburb's leading cricket team. * Tennis players play at the Wheelers Hill Tennis Club on Sunnybrook Drive. * Golfers play at the course of the Glen Waverley Golf Club at Waverley Road.

Public Library and Art Gallery

The Monash Gallery of Ar

and the Wheelers Hill branch of the Monash Public Library Servic

are co-located in a fine building at the corner of Jells Road and Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill. The architect of the original 1990 Gallery was

Harry Seidler Harry Seidler (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architect who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauh ...

. Even though Seidler had designed a further whole cultural precinct beyond the gallery,See "Waverley Cultural Centre" (scheme of 1988) page 356 of ''Harry Seidler: Four Decades of Architecture'' by Kenneth Frampton and Philip Drew (London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 1992). This scheme was highly praised by modern architecture writer Kenneth Frampton in book's essay "1965-1991 Isostatic Architecture" being pages 86-111 at page 110 Seidler's designs for a complete cultural centre were never implemented. Later architects Cox Sanderson Ness designed the adjoining library which has a bay of windows facing a small lake. The Gallery contains a nationally significant collection of Australian photography, of which its permanent collection comprises over 1500 works illustrating the development and evolution of the photographic medium in Australia.

Transport

There are nine bus services that run in or through the vicinity of Wheelers Hill. Two

SmartBus SmartBus is a network of bus services in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Overseen by Public Transport Victoria, the network comprises nine key cross-town and orbital bus routes around Melbourne. Key aspects of the service include more frequen ...

services run through the boundaries of the suburb.

Notable people

Chris Cheney Christopher John Cheney (born 2 January 1975) is an Australian rock musician, record producer, and studio owner. He is the founding mainstay guitarist, songwriter, and lead vocalist of the rockabilly band The Living End, which was formed in 19 ...

, guitarist and lead vocalist from

The Living End The Living End are an Australian punk rockabilly band from Melbourne, formed in 1994. Since 2002, the line-up consists of Chris Cheney (vocals, guitar), Scott Owen (double bass, vocals), and Andy Strachan (drums). The band rose to fame in 199 ...

went to school in Wheelers Hill, attending the

References