Wonga Park, Victoria

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Wonga Park
Melbourne, Victoria

Population:

2952 (2001 census)

Postcode:

3115

Area:

9.1 km²

Property Value:

AUD $600,000 ^[1]

Location:

35 km from Melbourne

LGA:

City of Manningham

State District:

Evelyn

Federal Division:

Menzies

Suburbs around Wonga Park
North Warrandyte	Kangaroo Ground	Bend of Islands
Warrandyte	Wonga Park	Chirnside Park
Warrandyte South	Croydon Hills	Croydon North

Wonga Park is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Manningham. Wonga Park is an outer suburban locality 35 km east-north-east of Melbourne, between the southern bank of the Yarra River and Croydon North. The name comes for the Wonga Park grazing property, which itself derives from Simon Wonga elder of the Wurundjeri indigenous people of Melbourne. The area was part of Mooroolbark until the 1890s.

In 1889 the Wonga Park property came into the hands of an insurance company and, along with other holdings, the land was sold by the Wonga Park Land Co. Four years later, when small settlements were a way of relieving unemployment after the failure of the land boom, about twenty members of an Eight Hours Pioneer Memorial Association took up small holdings on a former timber reserve. They succeeded in having a primary school opened in 1895, first called Warrandyte East, but Wonga Park in 1898. The area was a mixture of orchards and grazing properties and timbered land. Most smaller properties had been started with income from firewood that came from clearing the land.

One of the grazing properties, Yarra Brae, was acquired by the Hon. L. Clifford in 1940. After being a war-time army training area, Clifford made it available for Australia's first Pan Pacific Scout Jamboree in 1948. Clifford Park also hosted jamborees during the 1950s.

In 1972 Yarra Brae was the site of a proposed lower Yarra River reservoir, but residents of the nearby Bend of Isles bushland estate persuaded the Victorian Government to abandon the proposal. The allied Sugarloaf Reservoir at Christmas Hills went ahead.

The residential development of Wonga Park came after the subdivisions in Croydon and Mooroolbark, which were on the Maroondah Highway and a railway line. Residential living is most concentrated around the old village settlement where the churches, hall, sports facilities, fire station and a few shops are found. The northern boundary of Wonga Park, where land was acquired for the Yarra Brae storage, is a linear riverside part of the Warrandyte State Park.

[edit] What to do

Considering that Wonga Park is a small residential area with virtually no tourism income, activities for visitors are hard to come by.

However, there are some things to do such as:

Go Kayaking in the Yarra River down Homestead Road
Visit the Kellybrook Winery (has a restaurant open on Friday and Saturday)
Eat at the Jumping Creek Inn for Dinner or Lunch (a small quiet restaurant with a surprisingly good range of appealing meals. Located on the corner of Jumping Creek Road and Dudley Road)
Go horse riding
Visit the nearby Warrandyte State park
some other hidden gems of a satellite suburb...