Mount Evelyn, Victoria

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Mount Evelyn
Melbourne, Victoria

Population:

9100 (2006)^[1]

Postcode:

3796

Area:

13.9 km² (5.4 sq mi)

Property Value:

AUD $278,250 ^[2]

Location:

41 km (25 mi) from Melbourne
5 km (3 mi) from Lilydale

LGA:

Shire of Yarra Ranges

State District:

Evelyn, Monbulk

Federal Division:

Casey

Suburbs around Mount Evelyn:
Lilydale	Lilydale	Wandin North
Lilydale	Mount Evelyn	Wandin North
Montrose	Kalorama	Silvan

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.

Most of the soil in the township is grey, nutrient-poor, and rocky, so attempts to farm at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries failed, making Mt Evelyn a treed and desirable dwelling place in the 21st 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).

[edit] History

Mount Evelyn railway station mid 1940s. Incorrectly labelled 1920 when reprinted in 1986 to mark the opening of the library

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 disagrees as there is no evidence that Heales ever had a daughter named Evelyn.

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 Wandin. 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).

The town has a privately managed website dedicated to the town, Mt Evelyn Online and also a monthly community newspaper, the m2. The views expressed in the website and m2 are the views of the owners, and are not moderated by any process by an elected township group.