Surrey Hills is a suburb of
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 ...
, 11 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 ...
, located within the Cities of
Boroondara
The City of Boroondara () is a local government area in Victoria, Australia. It is located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It was formed in June 1994 from the amalgamation of the Cities of Kew, Camberwell and Hawthorn.
It has an area of ...
and
Whitehorse
Whitehorse () is the capital of Yukon, and the largest city in Northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1426 (Historic Mile 918) on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas ...
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. Surrey Hills recorded a population of 13,655 at the .
Surrey Hills was settled in the late 19th century and evolved with slightly smaller blocks and slightly simpler housing than its neighbour Canterbury.
Most of Surrey Hills' streets are lined with now-mature European trees, mostly plane and pin oak.
It is bordered by Elgar Road in the east, Riversdale Road in the south, Highfield Road in the west and Whitehorse Road in the north.
History
The Surrey Hills area was acquired from the Crown by Henry Elgar, as part of his
Special Survey purchase in 1841.
The Surrey Hills area was first developed by a Real Estate consortia, following the extension of 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 ...
from
Camberwell
Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross.
Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...
to
Lilydale in 1882. Surrey Hills Post Office opened on 1 October 1884.
Housing estates were laid out and lovely period homes built in either brick or weatherboard, with most designs being influenced by the Victorian, Federation and Edwardian era. The streets were planted mainly with avenues of
Pin Oak
''Quercus palustris'', also called pin oak, swamp oak, or swamp Spanish oak, is a tree in the red oak section (''Quercus'' sect. ''Lobatae'') of the genus ''Quercus''. Pin oak is one of the most commonly used landscaping oaks in its native rang ...
and
Plane
Plane most often refers to:
* Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft
* Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface
* Plane (mathematics), generalizations of a geometrical plane
Plane or planes may also refer to:
Biology
* Plane ...
trees, which are now mature and offer a pleasant shady vista. The streets have impressive names such as Empress, Kingston, Surrey, Balmoral, Leopold, Windsor, Albert and Wolseley, but the area was considered too distant from the nearest shopping districts: Camberwell to the west and
Box Hill to the east. The economic depression of the 1890s brought development to a halt and the next major phase of suburban development didn't take place until after the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.
During the 1990s, the last bank branch in the Union Road shopping strip closed, which caused some concern within both the local community and local traders. On 24 February 2003, the Surrey Hills Community Bank (a community bank branch of
Bendigo Bank
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (trading as Bendigo Bank), is an Australian financial institution, operating primarily in retail banking. The company was formed by the merger of Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank in November 2007.
Prior to the merger, ...
) opened for business in Union Road.
Today
Surrey Hills contains both the 'English Counties District', which is a small area between Canterbury and Riversdale Roads, where the streets are named after English Counties, including
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
,
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England
**County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States
Durham may also refer to:
Places
...
,
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
,
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...
,
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
and
Suffolk
Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...
Roads and the 'Chatham Precinct', which is located between Canterbury, Union, Mont Albert & Chatham Roads. The latter streets are named after English places (
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...
,
Guildford
Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...
&
Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
) and Sir Garnet Road, named in honour of a famous British Army General (
Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley
Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley (4 June 183325 March 1913) was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army. He became one of the most influential British generals after a series of victories in Canada, West Africa and E ...
, born in Ireland, who served a distinguished career and became a hero in the British Army in the late 1800s & early 1900).
The suburb has 3 local primary schools; Surrey Hills Primary, Chatham Primary School and Our Lady's of Perpetual Succour. Surrey Hills' Central Business District is relatively small, consisting of a 300-metre strip of shops along Union Road.
The neighbourhood centre formerly featured
Surrey Hills railway station (on the
Belgrave Belgrave may refer to:
Places
*Belgrave, Cheshire, an English village
*Belgrave, Leicester an English district
*Belgrave, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia
**Belgrave railway line
**Belgrave railway station, Melbourne
**Belgrave (Puffing B ...
and
Lilydale railway lines). Heading out from Melbourne's CBD, Union Road was the first railway level crossing on the Belgrave/Lilydale train line until 2023, when the line was lowered as part of the
Level Crossing Removal Project
The Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRP) is an infrastructure upgrade project by the Government of Victoria, Australia, to remove and grade-separate 110 level crossings and to rebuild 51 railway stations on the metropolitan and regional r ...
. As part of this work, Surrey Hills station was replaced by
Union railway station, slightly further northeast and just into
Mont Albert. Surrey Hills also has
Chatham railway station, north of Canterbury Road, between Stanley Terrace and Junction Road. Chatham Station can be accessed from the north by laneways between houses, beginning near the Mont Albert Road General Store, then continuing south along the Canterbury Sports Ground pathway. Most working residents of Surrey Hills commute to Melbourne either by car or train. To reach a safe bicycle path for the city commute, cyclists must travel south to the
Gardiners Creek Trail
__NOTOC__
The Gardiners Creek Trail is a shared use path which follows Gardiners Creek through the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia.
Following the path
The path begins as a branch of the Main Yarra Trail, o ...
or north to the
Yarra River Trail
The Main Yarra Trail, also known as the Yarra Trail is a shared-use path for cyclists and pedestrians, which follows the Yarra River through the northeastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The trail follows the river from near its mo ...
, via the
Outer Circle Trail
The Outer Circle Trail, also known as the Anniversary Trail, is a shared use path for cycling, cyclists and pedestrians, which partly follows the Alamein line through the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australi ...
. A bike lane is located on Mont Albert Road.
To the north, Surrey Hills is also serviced by the
route 109 tram, which continues from
Port Melbourne
Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of the Melbourne central business district, located within the Cities of City of Melbourne, Melbourne and City of Port Phillip, Port Phillip Local government ...
, along
Collins Street (Melb.CBD), along
Whitehorse Rd, to Box Hill and in the south, the
route 70 tram travels along Riversdale Road from the city to the
Wattle Park terminus at the Elgar Road junction. Canterbury Road between Station Street, Box Hill and Union Road, Surrey Hills is the only east–west major road not served by any public transport, although historically the road was served by busses until the 1960s. There are a few remaining bus stop seats on Canterbury Road, but the nearest operating public transport is via Riversdale Road to the South (trams), Mont Albert Station to the north (trains), Union Road (busses) and Surrey Hills station (trains) to the west. These points all represent around one mile in distance from the peak of Surrey Hills (at around the position of the large telecommunication towers on the corner of Canterbury Road and Harding Street).
Parks and gardens

The major parks and gardens in Surrey Hills are
Surrey Gardens and
South Surrey Park. Surrey Hills is also adjacent to Wattle Park, which is just across Riversdale Road to the south, in
Burwood.
Sport
Canterbury Sports Ground is located in the north-west of the suburb and has 3 sporting clubs. It is the home ground of the
Australian Rules Football
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 ...
club, Canterbury 'Cobras', who currently compete in the
Eastern Football League,
as well as the Canterbury Cricket Club, which plays on a turf wicket and Canterbury Tennis Club, which has its own clubhouse and 4 en-tou-cas courts.
See also
*
City of Box Hill
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
– Surrey Hills was previously within this former local government area.
*
City of Camberwell
The City of Camberwell was a Local government in Australia, local government area about east of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1914 until 1994.
Histo ...
– Surrey Hills was previously within this former local government area.
References
{{Authority control
Suburbs of Melbourne
Suburbs of the City of Whitehorse
Suburbs of the City of Boroondara