Belgrave is a town and outer suburb in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, located 36 km east of Melbourne's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center 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 wit ...

, within the

Shire of Yarra Ranges The Shire of Yarra Ranges, also known as Yarra Ranges Council, is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the outer eastern and northeastern suburbs of Melbourne extending into the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges. It has ...

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 federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

. Belgrave recorded a population of 3,894 at the 2021 census.

History

Belgrave is situated in the foothills of the

Dandenong Ranges The Dandenong Ranges (commonly just the Dandenongs) are a set of low mountain ranges in Victoria, Australia, approximately east of the state capital Melbourne. A minor branch of the Great Dividing Range, the Dandenongs consist mostly of rol ...

, on the lands of the

Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Aboriginal peoples, Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language, Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of ...

people of the

Kulin Nation The Kulin nation is an alliance of five Aboriginal nations in the south of Australia - up into the Great Dividing Range and the Loddon and Goulburn River valleys - which shares Culture and Language. History Before British colonisation, the ...

. Belgrave was settled by Europeans in 1851. Belgrave was named after an 1840s chapel in Leeds, Yorkshire, England; the name was carried by Mr and Mrs R.G. Benson when they came to Melbourne in 1856. Their sons, the Benson Brothers, settled in the Belgrave district in the 1870s. Though originally the area was known as "Monbulk" for the reservoir that lay near by, the town wasn't known as Belgrave until December 1904 when the railway station was renamed, and another suggested name for the town at that stage was Glassford. A Post Office opened in the area around 1904. Many from Belgrave served in the

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

Second World Wars World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and there is a war memorial in Belgrave. The War Memorial was originally erected in the Main Street and unveiled on August 28 1920, but was moved to Terrys Avenue around July-August 1933 when the street was widened.

Belgrave Volunteer Fire Brigade

The local fire brigade was established by the local community in 1923. In 2023 it marked 100 years of service to the local community.

McDonald's rejection

In 1993, the

Shire of Sherbrooke The Shire of Sherbrooke was a local government area about east of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The shire covered an area of , and existed from 1963 until 1994. Its largest population centre was the town of Belgrave. H ...

prepared a site specific amendment for land adjoining the Belgrave roundabout to facilitate the development of a 70-seat

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

restaurant including drive-through. The proposal was unpopular attracting many objections from within the local community. The Panel approved the proposal but disallowed the drive-through. McDonald's decided not to proceed with the development. Application for a nearly identical proposal by the site owner was approved by

Yarra Ranges The Shire of Yarra Ranges, also known as Yarra Ranges Council, is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the outer eastern and northeastern suburbs of Melbourne extending into the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges. It has an ...

Council in 1996 but lost on appeal at the Victorian Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Despite protests by the locals, McDonald's opened at a site in nearby

Tecoma ''Tecoma'' is a genus of seven species of shrubs or small trees in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae. They are native to the Americas, ranging from the extreme southern United States through Central America and the Antilles south through An ...

on 7 April 2014.

Commerce

Most of the commercial district of Belgrave is located on Main Street, which is at the end of

Burwood Highway Burwood Highway (and its western section as Toorak Road) is a major transportation link with Melbourne's eastern fringe at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges, linking the suburbs of Hawthorn and Belgrave. The highway is considered a major lin ...

. There are also shops on Bayview Road, which is located just across the rail bridge. Belgrave has galleries and bookshops among various other shops and businesses. Belgrave's most notable attraction is the

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

, steam-operated

Puffing Billy Railway The Puffing Billy Railway is a Narrow gauge railway, narrow gauge heritage railway in the southern foothills of the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne, Australia. The railway was one of the five narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways, narr ...

, which was reopened in 1962—after four years of restoration by volunteers—and travels through 24 kilometres of cool temperate rainforest, semi-urban development and rural farmland to Gembrook. It is also the terminus of the

Belgrave railway line The Belgrave line is a commuter railway line on the Melbourne metropolitan railway network serving the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, the line is coloured dark blue and is one of the four lines t ...

Special events

Belgrave Survival Day is an annual event held on 26 January to honour and celebrate Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their continuing culture and heritage. The Belgrave Lantern Parade, coinciding with the winter solstice, is also held each year. The main street is lined by hundreds of lanterns, accompanied by drummers, dancers and performers.

Education

Belgrave is served by public primary schools in the neighbouring suburbs of

Selby Selby is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse. At the 2021 Census, it had a population of 17,193. The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire; from 1974 until 2023, ...

and

Belgrave South Belgrave South is a suburb of Greater Melbourne mainly beyond the Melbourne metropolitan area Urban Growth Boundary, 37 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area ...

. Upwey High School is the nearest public high school. Two Catholic schools operate within Belgrave: St Thomas More's Primary School, and

Mater Christi College Mater Christi College is an Independent school, independent Roman Catholicism in Australia, Roman Catholic secondary school for Single-sex education, girls located in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Belgrave, Victoria, Australia. History Mother M ...

, a girls' secondary school.

Government and emergency services

Belgrave has a police station, which acts as the base for all police stations in the Dandenong Ranges Region. There is also the Belgrave Volunteer Fire Brigade on Bayview Road, which has been serving the community for over 80 years. It is also home to the Dandenong Ranges Fire Brigades Group HQ, from there, the CFA and Parks Victoria used to manage all major fires within the Dandenong Ranges, though this has moved to an Incident Control Centre in Ferntree Gully since the Black Saturday Fires of 2009. There is also an Ambulance station in Bayview Road. There is a

Centrelink The Centrelink Master Program, or more commonly known as Centrelink, is a Services Australia master program of the Australian Government. It delivers a range of government payments and services for retirees, the unemployed, families, carer ...

office on the high side of Main Street. The State Member for the seat of Monbulk, Daniela De Martino MLA, has her Electoral Office in Belgrave. The closest

office is in Upwey on Main Street.

Sport and recreation

The Belgrave Town Park, just below the police station, provides a fine view over the town as well as a public space for events such as the annual Christmas carols. Just off the Belgrave-

Hallam Road Hallam Road is a major urban arterial road in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Within Hampton Park the road is known as Hallam Road, whilst on its northern sections the allocation is still best known as by the names ...

is the Belgrave outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts and a playground. The town supports both a cricket and

Australian Rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

football team which are located at Belgrave Recreation Reserve on Reserve Road. It is also the home ground of the Belgrave Junior Football Club. The Belgrave Cricket Club is affiliated with the Ferntree Gully And District Cricket Association, while the Belgrave Football Club competes in the Yarra Valley Mountain Football League. Belgrave has a park 3 km from the Main Street. During the summer months, Belgrave Pool is open. Belgrave pool is an outdoor 33m heated pool. Public reserves in Belgrave include Belgrave Lake Park, Belgrave Recreation Reserve, Borthwick Park, Violet Larsen Reserve and Dandenong Ranges National Park.

Belgrave Lake Park

A small reserve surrounding Belgrave Lake and located south of Belgrave town centre. It is an important biolink between Dandenong Ranges National Park and Birdsland as well as Lysterfield Lake Park. The park has a combined focus of recreation and conservation. Monbulk creek flows through the area and is important for wildlife such as

platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...

and water rat. In the trees, arboreal mammals include the

sugar glider The sugar glider (''Petaurus breviceps'') is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal gliding possum. The common name refers to its predilection for sugary foods such as sap and nectar and its ability to glide through the air, much lik ...

and also would have been a habitat for the yellow-bellied glider. The reserve is dominated by ''Eucalyptus cypellocarpa'' (mountain grey gum) on the slopes. Along the riparian zone (adjacent to creek) the dominant plant species are ''Eucalyptus viminalis subsp. viminalis'' (manna gum), ''Acacia dealbata'' (silver wattle). Belgrave Lake was constructed in 1893 to supply water to Dandenong. Water flowed by pipeline to Heany Park in Rowville and then by aqueduct and pipeline through Churchill Park and on to Dandenong. From 1924 water supply to Dandenong was discontinued but the pipeline continued to supply water to farms in the Lysterfield area. Fern Tree Gully Shire leased the pipeline from 1940 to 1950. The pipeline was still in use in the 1970s and was closed some time after that.

Transport

Belgrave railway station Belgrave railway station is a commuter railway station and the terminus of the Belgrave line, part of the Melbourne railway network. It serves the eastern Melbourne suburb of Belgrave in Victoria, Australia. Belgrave is a ground level premiu ...

is located behind the main street shops, with the steam train Puffing Billy just beyond it. Belgrave suburban electric trains go to

Melbourne CBD The Melbourne central business district (colloquially known as "the City" or "the CBD", and gazetted simply as Melbourne) is the city centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As of the 2021 census, the CBD had a population of 54,941, and is ...

via Ringwood. Puffing Billy goes to Gembrook. Bus services are located throughout the suburb, and go to Oakleigh, Lilydale, Gembrook,

Olinda Olinda () is a historic city in Pernambuco, Brazil, in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. It is located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, in the Recife metropolitan area, Metropolitan Region of Recife, the state ca ...

, Upwey. Major roads include

, Wellington Road, Ferntree Gully Road and Belgrave-

, all providing access to the city centre of

Media

Belgrave's local newspapers are ''The Free Press Leader'', and ''The Ferntree Gully-Belgrave Mail''. The local radio station is 3MDR 97.1FM.

Gallery

File:Belgrave Shops.jpg File:Jellyfish lantern, Belgrave Lantern Parade 2013.jpg File:Puffing Billy (3708462529).jpg File:Belgrave Railway Station.jpg File:2023-05-07 Belgrave Train Station.jpg File:Sherbrooke Forest Belgrave.jpg File:Micawber Tavern.jpg File:Belgrave - panoramio.jpg File:BelgraveStation1.jpg File:Puffing Billy Loco 12A at Belgrave.JPG File:Monbulk Creek Trestle Bridge.JPG File:Puffing Billy Railway Line Closeup.JPG File:Belgrave rail trail.jpg File:Puffing Billy Railway Station at Belgrave.JPG