Mount Evelyn, Victoria

Encyclopedia : M : MO : MOU : Mount Evelyn, Victoria

Mount Evelyn (or Mt Evelyn) is a suburb on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Yarra Ranges.

Mt Evelyn township is developing a profile as a [Learning Town]in the [Shire of Yarra Ranges] and the [Mt Evelyn Library]'s strong community focus has contributed to this profile. The Careers Reference Centre, opened in 2002 as a joint project of [Eastern Regional Libraries] and [Morrison House], is a popular resource offering free careers advice to students and people returning to the workforce.

In 2001 the township contained 9,150 people, but many people in the surrounding area, even just outside the post code area, refer to themselves as living in Mt Evelyn, so that 10,000 to 12,000 is a better estimate for the population of this area. Statistics for Mt Evelyn can be obtained from the Shire of Yarra Ranges [Community Profile].

Most of the soil in the township is grey, nutrient poor, and rocky, so attempts to farm at the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth centuries failed, making Mt Evelyn a treed and desirable dwelling place in the twenty first century.

The Warburton Trail, a walking and cycling track, runs through Mt Evelyn. The trail runs between Lilydale and Warburton.

The Mt Evelyn Aqueduct Walk is another trail connecting Swansea Road to Hunter Road and the [Mt Evelyn Forest] (part of the Dandenong Ranges National Park).

History

One book, Placenames of Victoria, by L. Blake, claims that the suburb was named after Evelyn Heales, daughter of former Premier of Victoria Richard Heales, but the Mt Evelyn History Group (a sub-committee of the [Mount Evelyn Environment Protection and Progress Association (MEEPPA)]) disagrees as there is no evidence that Heales ever had a daughter named Evelyn! This chestnut (story) gets repeated though!

Mt Evelyn nestles in a right-angled bend of the Olinda Creek, a large, permanent creek known originally as Running Creek. Different parts of the current Mt Evelyn area were first known as Olinda Vale, Billygoat Hill, McKillop/Valinda and South Silvan. When the (now closed) railway station was opened in 1901, it was named Olinda Vale. It was renamed Evelyn (probably) after the County in which it is centrally placed, probably as part of an attempt by the Victorian Railways to shorten names of stations. Before the 1920s, local progress association members persuaded the Railways to add the "Mt" to promote visitors to the healthy mountain area (which happens to be the highest point on the railway (now Warburton Trail)}.

More information about Mt Evelyn can be obtained from the book Tracks to Trails, a history of Mt Evelyn, described on the [Mount Evelyn Environment Protection and Progress Association (MEEPPA)] website. This and a book on local flora, The Original Garden, Plants of Mt Evelyn and other Victorian Foothill Forests, can be ordered by contacting Paula Herlihy at pherlihy@alphalink.com.au.

External links

Melbourne suburbs near Mount Evelyn
(Shire of Yarra Ranges)
Lilydale Lilydale Gruyere
Mooroolbark Mount Evelyn Wandin North
Montrose Kalorama Silvan

Melbourne suburbs near Mount Evelyn (Shire of Yarra Ranges)
Lilydale	Lilydale	Gruyere
Mooroolbark	Mount Evelyn	Wandin North
Montrose	Kalorama	Silvan

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