Modbury Heights is a medium-sized

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

in the

City of Tea Tree Gully The City of Tea Tree Gully is a local council in the Australian state of South Australia, in the outer north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide. The major business district in the city is at Modbury, where Westfield Tea Tree Plaza, Modbury Hospital, ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. The suburb is located in the foothills of the

Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and d ...

around 16 kilometres north east of the

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 ...

. Much of the suburb is residential but there is a small shopping area along Ladywood Road. The suburb is bounded by Grenfell Road to the north, Milne Road to the south, Mcintyre Road to the west, Golden Grove Road to the east and is cut in half by Ladywood Road. Modbury Heights is also bounded to the north and north west by the suburb of Wynn Vale, to the north east by Surrey Downs, to the east by Fairview Park, to the south by Modbury North, to the west by Para Hills and to the south east by Redwood Park.

History

The area was first settled by Europeans in 1857, however major development did not begin until the 1970s, beginning as a northerly residential extension to central Modbury.

Demographics

According to the 2006 Census, the population of the Modbury Heights census area was 5,601 people. Approximately 50.7% of the population were female, 74.7% are Australian born, over 90.5% of residents are Australian citizens and only 0.6% were native born indigenous people. 20.1% of the population identify themselves as

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, while a slightly higher 28% identify with no religion at all.City of Tea Tree Gully
''Community Profile''. Retrieved on 22 June 2008.

School

The Heights School is located on Brunel Drive, Modbury Heights and has the Ignite Program.

Transport

Modbury Heights is connected to the major Adelaide thoroughfare

North East Road North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

via Mcintyre and Ladywood Roads. Adelaide's city centre can typically be reached by car in 25–30 minutes. High frequency bus services as well as connections to the

O-Bahn Busway The O-Bahn Busway is a guided busway that is part of the bus rapid transit system servicing the northeastern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The O-Bahn system was conceived by Daimler-Benz to enable buses to avoid traffic con ...

mean 10% of Modbury Heights residents travel to work by

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

. The main bus route for Modbury Heights is the M44 bus, provided by the multi-service Adelaide Metro. This bus travels from Marion and the city, via the

and Tea Tree Plaza Interchange to Golden Grove. The route through Modbury Heights is on Ladywood Road. Other bus services include the 545, 203 and 209.

Politics

Modbury Heights is part of the state

electoral district of Florey Florey is a single-member Electoral districts of South Australia, electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after scientist Howard Florey, who was responsible for the development of penicillin. It is a suburban ...

, which has been held since 1997 by Labor MP

Frances Bedford Frances Ellen Bedford (born 5 November 1953) is an Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Florey from 1997 state election until 2022, first for the Labor Party and from 2017 as an independent. E ...

. In federal politics, the suburb is part of the

division of Makin The Division of Makin () is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, electoral division for the Australian House of Representatives located in the northeastern suburbs of Adelaide. Makin was established in the South Australian r ...

, and has been represented by new Labor MP

Tony Zappia Antonio "Tony" Zappia (; born 13 June 1952) is an Australian politician and former powerlifting champion. He has been an Australian Labor Party member for the House of Representatives seat of Makin in South Australia since the 2007 election. ...

since 2007. The results shown are from the largest polling station in Modbury Heights – which is located at The Heights School, on Brunel Drive. Until the 2007 Federal Election, Makin was one of the most marginal seats in the country. But with the retirement of Liberal MP

Trish Draper Patricia Draper (born 2 April 1959) is a former Liberal Party politician. She held the seat of Makin seat from 1996 to 2007. Early life Draper was born in Woodville, South Australia, the daughter of German migrants who travelled to Australia ...

, and a general swing toward Labor of around 7%, the seat fell and although still marginal, is no longer under threat. Florey has been a safe Labor seat since the 2002 State Election.

References