The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 78

YourDOMAIN 3 FEBRUARY 1999 THE AGE 1 3 ti i I Jif Jl ft tvin i trend will extend to Forest Hill, a suburb that, for a long time, has avoided flats. Already developers have begun to build units and townhouses to cater for demand from children who have grown up or parents who have grown old. But as older families move on, new ones move in to take advantage of cheap property relatively close to the city. While new housing development has been occurring steadily over the years, units are relatively new to the area. But they have not proved to be scarring.

Local agents praise the approach of developers and the local council which, keen to preserve the suburb once known as Mount Pleasant, has embarked on the planting of even more trees. Transport Buses run from Forest Hill to Box Hill, Blackburn, Brighton, Burwood, Chelsea, Clayton, Doncaster, Mitcham, Springvale and Upper Ferntree Gully. The closest railway station is the Nunawading stop on the Lilydale and Belgrave train lines. The Eastern Freeway runs to the north of Forest Hill. Why Mitcham mattered The 1997 battle for the seat of Mitcham was a hot one.

The resignation of Liberal incumbent Roger Pescott came in the same year that Labor-leaning independent Ms Susan Davies snatched the safe Liberal seat of Gippsland West. The by-election for Mitcham, which takes in the suburb Mitcham plus parts of grip countries. But, across Melbourne, the number of converts to the ancient religion is growing. In the five years to 1996, the number of Buddhists of various denominations jumped 48 per cent to 200,000, making it our fastest-growing faith. In the City of Whitehorse, which takes in Forest Hill, Asian culture in general is receiving a higher profile.

The city how celebrates the Lunar New Year, a traditional Asian festivity which usually falls during February. This year -the festival is on 16 February and celebrations will include lantern-making, firecrackers, modern and traditional Chinese music and That. Malaysian, Indonesian ana' Filipino dance. Once the home of timbercutters and orchards, Forest Hill became the classic cream-brick suburb. But that's no criticism.

By JUDITH HEYWOOD Schools Other eastern suburbs might boast bigger houses or more nightlife, but few can rival Forest Hill for schools. The suburb of 13,500 boasts a government secondary and primary school and is also home to the junior campus of Emmaus College, a Catholic secondary school. In Nunawading, Seventh Day Adventist education is available at a church primary and secondary school. The nearby Lilydale and Belgrave train line runs through to the inner-eastern network af private schools in Camberwell and Hawthorn. Central Government.

Mitcham mattered, pundits said, because a shift in sentiment there would surely be reflected in other, equally middle-range suburbs throughout Victoria. When the Labor candidate, Tony Robinson, won, his party was thrilled. Hoping for an 8 per cent swing, they'd enjoyed a 16.2 per cent landslide. While the sentiment was not reflected country-wide in last year's federal election, local ALP members are hopeful. With a state election due this year, we may soon see if the rest of the state shares Forest Hill's concerns.

Shopping For all the hulking presence of the Chase, retail life outside the shopping centre goes on in Forest Hill. Brentford Square, the shopping strip just off Canterbury Road, has maintained its market share and, far from being dominated by small-timers, features chain stores like Safeway and Dan Murphy. Garry Scarfe of M. J. Docking attributes the Square's appeal to its community feel and its convenience.

Car parking is a few metres from the shops and shopkeepers are likely to remember your name. But Forest Hill Chase, breathlessly proclaimed to be "modelled on the American pattern" when the blueprint for it was unveiled in 1964, also maintains more community feel than many outwardly similar shopping centres. The brick giant on Canterbury Road has many of the big retailers, like Donut King, Goldmark Jewellers and K-mart, but it is also home to a customer service office, a maternal and child-health centre and a youth centre, all funded by the City of Whitehorse. The Citizens of Nunawading Community Chest also has a shop at the Chase. The local Wat If anything reflects the increasing profile of eastern religions in Australia, the quiet existence of a Buddhist temple, complete with monks, in suburban Forest Hill, does.

Wat Dhammarangsee, on busy Springvale Road, is built in typically suburban cream-brick veneer. With devotions in Thai and Laotian languages, it mainly attracts immigrants from those It FOREST CHASE Vf OHEST HILL BLACKBURN LAKE SANCTUARY fn it FOREST HILL SECONDARY COLLEGE Uwth -V- V- V-' 1 Median prices HOUSES 1996 $126,000 1997 $143,900 1998 $155,000 reserve For years, Forest Hill has traded on its trees. In the early years of settlement before development made it a suburb, Scottish immigrants eked a living sawing away in the heavily wooded hills. Later, as settlement spread and land was freed up, orchards provided a living for local residents. Forest Hill, 17 kilometres east of Melbourne's city centre, has become firmly part of suburbia but, despite years of brick-veneer development, its leafy appeal remains.

Thirty years on, the post-war plots, with their cream-colored dream homes, are surrounded by well-kept gardens and an abundance of community greenery, with leafy parks and reserves nearby. This middle-class suburb has long kept a low profile. Despite the opening of the Chase Shopping Centre and the large Forest Hill Secondary College, the suburb's features, including a television studio and a quaint theme park, Wobbies World, are often attributed to Nunawading, whose postcode Forest Hill shares. Residents of Forest Hill, which shares an abundance of shopping, sporting and community facilities for all ages with nearby Nunawading, Blackburn and Vermont, have for 30 years focused on bringing up families. But, while other suburbs have gone into decline as children have grown up and left the family home, Forest Hill has kept its place as a good community for raising kids, with only a small decline in the early 1990s.

In the last few years, the future has been looking up. The inner-city property price boom may be petering out, but prices have risen enough for city workers looking for a family home on a decently sized block to consider Forest Hill. An easy drive to the city along the Eastern Freeway, Forest Hill is also close to suburbs like Box Hill and Glen Waverley. With Eastland and The Glen shopping centres nearby, plus Forest Hill Chase, parkland, schools and sporting facilities within its bounds, the Hi FOREST HILL SECONDARY COLLEGE (BURWOOD HTS) To June 1998 Source: Real Estate Institute of victoria My Forest Hill "I was at Brentford Square shopping centre for 36 years. In the early days, Canterbury Road was a single bitumen strip and there were orchards throughout the area, but, once the developers came, the orchards gradually disappeared and houses sprang up.

Generally, the people then were just young people going out east to start their lives In what were then modern homes. It was an area where people were prepared to put In, they were down to earth.That Is what has made It what it is today. Some of the people I know, who were my customers for years, have moved out Into units or to the Peninsula, but they are In the minority. Most have stayed." Noel Hall postmaster for 36 years hli "'HI 4 Forest Hill and Nunawading, was tipped as a particularly important test of electoral sentiment towards the Kennett CAJ1 nOcniE requirements of suburban life are easy to till here. The slightly lower prices in Forest Hill, compared to other suburbs nearby, originally attract buyers, says a director of M.

Docking Associates, Mr Garry Scarfe. But convenience keeps them there. "People think they'll move on but they stay 30 years," he says. In neighboring suburbs, like Vermont, developers after blocks big enough for several units have turned to knocking down brick-veneers. Estate agents have tipped that the.