St Kilda East is a 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,

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, 6 km south-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 ...

, located within the Cities of Glen Eira and

Port Phillip Port Phillip (Kulin languages, Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped bay#Types, enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, ...

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 ...

s. St Kilda East recorded a population of 12,571 at the 2021 census. St Kilda East is one of the more diverse and densely populated suburbs of Melbourne. It has a prominent

Hasidic Jewish Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

community, descended from Polish and

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immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

s. Quiet and residential, it is quite different from the adjacent suburb of St Kilda. However, the area around Carlisle Street is very diverse with a strong arts, alternative and indie community.

History

The St Kilda East area was part of the lands of the

Boon wurrung The Boonwurrung, also spelt Bunurong or Bun wurrung, are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory ...

tribe of

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

before being first settled by Anglo-British settlers in the 1850s. Smaller timber shacks were common during the early 1860s to 1870s, with larger houses on the bigger subdivisions. During the late 1870s,

terraced housing A terrace in agriculture is a flat surface that has been cut into hills or mountains to provide areas for the cultivation for crops, as a method of more effective farming. Terrace agriculture or cultivation is when these platforms are created s ...

began around the

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

. Alma Park was laid out and areas surrounding the park were set aside for religious purposes, resulting in a large number of convents and chapels along

Chapel Street Chapel Street may refer to: * Chapel Street, Belgravia, England * Chapel Street, Liverpool, England * Chapel Street, Melbourne Chapel Street is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, running along the inner suburbs of South Yarra, Prahran, Windso ...

and either side of Dandenong Road. In the 1950s, speculative development resulted in the alteration of many of the suburb's streetscapes. Centred on Chapel Street and to the east of the railway line, flats became common in the area. Recent development of the suburbs, rising land values and excellent access to public transport has seen recent

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

in the area. Modern infill medium density apartments are being built on many blocks, with the Carlisle Street area designated an activity centre under the Melbourne 2030 planning scheme.

Demographics

64.6% were born in Australia. Other Countries of birth top responses were England 3.9%, India 2.3%, New Zealand 2.2%, United States of America 2.2% & Israel 1.7%. Religious affiliation top responses were No Religion (so described) 41.5%, Judaism 26.4%, Catholic 11.2%, Not Stated 7% & Anglican 2.8%.

Education institutions

The main schools in St Kilda East are the Edmund Rice Campus of St Mary’s College, the Caulfield Campus of

Caulfield Grammar School Caulfield Grammar School is a private, co-educational, Anglican, International Baccalaureate, day and boarding school, located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1881 as a boys' school, Caulfield Grammar began admitting girls exactly ...

, Malvern Community School, Ripponlea Primary School, the St Kilda East campus of Mount Scopus Memorial College, Yeshivah College, Cheder Levi Yitchak, Bnos Chana, Beth Rivkah Ladies College and part of St Michael's Grammar School. The Rabbinical College of Australia and New Zealand (Yeshivah Gedolah Zal), a tertiary institution for the training of Orthodox

rabbis A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as '' semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

and religious functionaries in the Chabad-Lubavitch denomination, is located on Alexandra Street. Ripponlea Primary School (No. 4087) was opened on 3 July 1922 with 400 pupils in grades prep to eight. John Edward Woodruff (1867-1944) was the school's first headmaster, and he served as such until his retirement in 1932. In 2011 enrolment at the school was 272 students across prep to grade 6. Image:Christian brothers college st kilda dandenong road b.jpg, Dandenong Road buildings of Christian Brothers College now known as St Marys College, St Kilda

Culture

St Kilda East is home to the Red Stitch Actors Theatre, a professional theatre, located on the corner of Dandenong Road and Chapel Street.

Transport

St Kilda East is served by several forms of public transport. Major tram routes operate on Carlisle Street/Balaclava Road,

, Dandenong Road and

St Kilda Road St Kilda Road is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is part of the Melbourne central business district, locality of Melbourne which has the postcode of 3004, and along with Swanston Street forms a major spine of the city. St Kilda ...

Buses 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 ...

operate along Orrong Road and Hotham Street. Balaclava and Ripponlea railway stations, on the Sandringham line, also service the suburb.

Landmarks

Residential architecture

The suburb is dominated by 1960s flats. There are, however, some pockets of preserved heritage streetscapes. Godfrey Avenue has well-preserved rows of

Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...

cottages on either side of the street and is protected by council heritage controls. Camden Street has several rows of Victorian semi-detached timber workers cottages. Some large Victorian buildings remain along Inkerman Street and Alma Road, but have been since subdivided into flats. The streets in between have a mix of housing from different periods. Image:Clement_house.jpg, Clement House, Inkerman Street (built 1888). One of the suburb's grander surviving polychrome Victorian era terraces Image:Glenfern east st kilda.jpg, Built in 1857, Glenfern Mansion on the corner of Inkerman and Hotham Streets was home to the

Boyd family The Boyd family is an Australian family whose members over several generations contributed to the arts in the fields of painting, sculpture, pottery, Ceramic art, ceramics, literature, architecture, poetry and music. The Boyd family is consi ...

and is now a writers' colony

Non-residential architecture

Image:Top_shop_east_st_kilsa.jpg, The Top Shop on the corner of Glen Eira Road and Hotham Street is an unusual Edwardian

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

design

Places of worship

There are several churches in St Kilda East, and multiple

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

s, reflecting the area's extensive history of both

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

and

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

migration. Many of these buildings have historic significance with heritage registration, and often form various religious precincts.

Judaism

Yeshiva Centre is the headquarters and main synagogue of Chabad in Melbourne. Chabad House of Caulfield is a replica of the New York headquarters of the Chabad movement at 770 Eastern Parkway. Image:439 inkerman street east st kilda.jpg, 439 Inkerman Street, the "770" Synagogue

Anglican

The bluestone All Saints Anglican Church on Chapel Street was built in 1861, and is reputed to have the largest seating capacity of any Anglican parish church in the Southern hemisphere, with a capacity of 1500 in the pews. The neighbouring Parish Hall was built as an extension to the church in 1909 and was restored in 2005 during a conversion into a boutique

gym A gym, short for gymnasium (: gymnasiums or gymnasia), is an indoor venue for exercise and sports. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasion". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learn ...

nasium. Image:All saints anglican church east st kilda.jpg, All Saints Anglican Church Image:All saints parish hall east st kilda.jpg, All Saints Parish Hall Another Anglican Parish Church is

St James the Great James the Great ( Koinē Greek: Ἰάκωβος, romanized: ''Iákōbos''; Aramaic: ܝܥܩܘܒ, romanized: ''Yaʿqōḇ''; died AD 44) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was the second of the apostles t ...

, established in 1914 and located at 435 Inkerman Street. St James was founded in close association with the former Church of England St John's Theological College, which was located in nearby Alma Road, on the lot now bisected by Wilgah Street. The Diocese closed the seminary in 1919 amid some controversy directed towards the then perceived Anglo-Catholicity of the seminary (which was at odds with the prevailing sentiment of the diocese at the time). The land was sold and subdivided. Image:St James the Great St Kilda East Street Frontage.jpg, St James the Great Anglican Church

Roman Catholic

The St Mary's Catholic Church (208-214 Dandenong Road), designed by

William Wardell William Wilkinson Wardell (1823–1899) was a noted architect who practiced in the second half of the 19th century, and is best known for a series of landmark buildings in Australia in Melbourne and Sydney. Following a successful career in ...

and built in 1858, was one of the earliest bluestone churches. The East St Kilda Uniting Church, on the corner of Hotham and Inkerman Streets, was built in 1887, to the design of architect Hillson Beasley. Originally a church of the

Congregational Union of Australia The Congregational Union of Australia was a Congregational church, Congregational Christian denomination, denomination in Australia that stemmed from the Congregational church, Congregational Church in England as settlers migrated from there to ...

prior to the formation of the Uniting Church, it was sold by the Uniting Church to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Melbourne in 2011 for the establishment of an Eastern Orthodox use church, according to the provisions of an Ordinariate. Image:Uniting church st kilda east.jpg, Former East St Kilda Congregational Church (now Byzantine Russian Catholic use) Image:St marys catholic church st kilda east.jpg, St Mary's Roman Catholic Church

Uniting Church

The St George's Uniting Church, on Chapel Street, was built in 1877, to the design of Albert Purchas and is listed on the

Victorian Heritage Register The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...

. It has been leased by St Michael's Grammar School since 1990. Image:St georges presbyterian church east st kilda.jpg, St George's Uniting Church

Orthodox

The former Balaclava Corps Hall, built in 1929 on Camden Street, is an unusual design, featuring castellated motifs. It was sold to the Autocephalous Orthodox Ukrainian Church in 1976, now being the parish of The Sacred Assumption of the Holy Virgin.

Public spaces

The suburb's main park is Alma Park, a large park designed by Clement Hodgkinson in 1867, which was split into two linear parks by the Sandringham railway line in 1858. The park has recreational facilities, including a heritage rotunda, a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

oval and bike paths, as well as large stands of

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical- montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ...

trees, Moreton Bay Figs and native vegetation areas. Image:Rotunda_alma_park.jpg, Hexagonal rotunda in Alma Park, probably built between 1910 and 1915

St Kilda General Cemetery

St Kilda Cemetery St Kilda Cemetery is located in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda East, Victoria. History St Kilda Cemetery covers a large block bordered by Dandenong Road, Hotham Street, Alma Road and Alexandra Street. It is bounded by a historic wall and cont ...

covers a large block bordered by Dandenong Road, Hotham Street, Alma Road and Alexandra Street. It is bounded by a historic wall and contains many Victorian era graves. The cemetery is the resting place of

Alfred Deakin Alfred Deakin (3 August 1856 – 7 October 1919) was an Australian politician who served as the second Prime Minister of Australia, prime minister of Australia from 1903 to 1904, 1905 to 1908, and 1909 to 1910. He held office as the leader of th ...

, the second

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...

, and Albert Jacka VC, MC, barrister and Mayor of St Kilda (1930).

East St Kilda Heritage Study

In 2004 the City of Port Phillip commissioned a heritage study that recommended the following areas as heritage precincts and places. The Council adopted most of the recommendations in 2004 and the controls which apply to each of the areas so listed. Heritage Precincts * Chusan Street (from 1886 onwards) * Godfrey Avenue / Raglan Street (settled early 1910s) * Hammerdale Avenue (Former grounds of "''Hammerdale House''" from 1868, demolished and subdivided 1925) * Holroyd Court (former grounds of "Fernacre" from c. 1867, demolished and subdivided 1936) * Kalymna Grove / Inkerman Street (Market gardens until 1914, subdivided and housing erected between 1914 and 1924) * Mooltan Avenue (Former grounds of "''Mooltan Estate''" subdivided 1922) * Murchison Street /Alma Road (Former site of ''St John's College Anglican Seminary'' closed 1919, subdivision and building continuing until the late 1930s) * Orange Grove (from the 1890s) Individual Heritage Places * 31-35 Alexandra Street (Houses c. 1887–88) * 5 -7 Balstan Street (Former ''Kynoch & Co. Factory'' c. 1922, 1940) * 16 Balstan Street (Cottage - oldest surviving dwelling Pre 1863, extended 1869) * 52 Balstan Street (Electrical Substation, c. 1929) * 316- 320 Inkerman Street (Houses c. 1888) * 20 Shirley Grove * 22 Shirley Grove (House - "''Pine Nook''" c. 1920) For some reason, the following properties, although included in the heritage study recommendations, were not included in the overlay. * 42 Hotham Street (House c. 1927) * 34 Young Street (House - "''Warby Cottage''" c. 1870)

Heritage sites

St Kilda East contains a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * 10 Chapel Street: St Kilda Artillery Orderly Room and Drill Hall * 417 Inkerman Road: Glenfern House * 216-238 Dandenong Road; 1-9 and 2-10 Ardoch Avenue; 2-8 Pilley Street: Ardoch Flats * 260-288 Dandenong Road:

* 2 Chapel Street: All Saints Church, Hall and Former Vicarage * Dandenong Road: Ornamental Tramway Overhead Poles

Notable residents

Ada Mary à Beckett Ada Mary à Beckett MSc (18 May 1872 – 20 May 1948), née Lambert, was an Australian biologist, academic and leader of the kindergarten movement in Australia. She was the first woman appointed lecturer at Melbourne University. History Ada Ma ...

(1872-1948), biologist; leader of the kindergarten movement in Australia, first woman appointed as lecturer at

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

(lived in Lansdowne Street). * Ted à Beckett (1907-1989), Australian Test cricketer, son of Ada, born in St Kilda East. * Hugh Gemmell Lamb-Smith (1889-1951), educator; landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915; member of the staff of

from 1913 to 1951 (lived in Wavenhoe Avenue). * William Lanfranchi (a.k.a. "Bill Lang") (1882-1952), Richmond footballer; Australian champion heavyweight boxer; first Australian to fight for a world heavyweight title, losing to Tommy Burns by a knockout, in September 1908 (lived in Hotham Street). * Lady Joan à Beckett Lindsay (1896-1984), Joan à Beckett Weigall, playwright, essayist, visual artist, and novelist (author of '' Picnic at Hanging Rock''), was born in East St Kilda, grew up there, and went to School at Carhue Ladies' College (lived in Alma Road). * Sir John Madden (1884-1918), member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly; Chief Justice of Victoria (built and lived at "Cloyne Mansion", 12 Chapel Street). * James Newbery (1843-1895), museum administrator; industrial chemist (lived in Hotham Street). * Arthur John "Doc" Pearce (1881-1902), St Kilda footballer; champion miler (lived in Grosvenor Street). * Cezary Skubiszewski (1948-), composer for film, television, and orchestra. * Jessica Weintraub (born 2007), Olympic rhythmic gymnast.

References

External links

Australian Places - St Kilda East
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Kilda East Jews and Judaism in Victoria (state) Orthodox Jewish communities Polish-Australian culture Russian-Australian culture Suburbs of Melbourne Suburbs of the City of Glen Eira Suburbs of the City of Port Phillip 1850s establishments in Australia