Boronia history: Bung Siriboon, Nanette Ellis, Boronia Mall

From the Christmas parade and glory days of the mall, to the notorious level crossing and beloved pool, check out these amazing photos of Boronia.

Nestled at the bottom of the Dandenongs, the suburb of Boronia has a colourful history.

Part of the City of Knox, local councillor A.E. Chandler was asked to name the district in 1915. He chose Boronia, after the flower cultivated at the family nursery nearby at The Basin.

The area was home to orchards and flower farms, including Chandler’s daffodil farm.

The Boronia Daffodil Farm. Picture: The Rose Series, courtesy State Library Victoria

Kathy Trickey started the Facebook group Boronia “The good old days” on Facebook during last year’s Covid lockdown, and the group now has more than 5000 members, sharing photos and memories of the suburb’s history.

Ms Trickey, a 60s baby, said her mum and dad bought a house in Boronia in 1961.

“The main thing was the mall,” she said.

“The (Boronia) mall was such a stand out to us as kids, Knox City (shopping centre) wasn’t build back then, so in the 70s we all hung out at the mall.

Boronia Mall opened in 1973.

Ms Trickey said the mall was the most talked about topic in the Facebook group, with members upset at how run-down and empty it had become.

“It breaks out heart,” she said.

Full metal carpark at Boronia Mall/Boronia Shoppingtown, Boronia Melbourne c1975.

Pic: @naagovau pic.twitter.com/WzvApkSwST

— Old Shops Australia (@oldshopsoz) January 7, 2020

“People are definitely shopping locally a lot more and if they did (the mall up) and put better shops in there, people would shop there more.”

The mall used to be home to popular shops including Just Jeans and Venture, before they moved to Knox City.

The mall in 2011.

Ms Trickey said the Boronia Football Club was also a massive part of many lives, and remained so today.

“And the basketball stadium as we became teenagers; that’s where we hung out,” she said.

“And of course we were a dry suburb, there was no pubs, so that’s why we ventured out to Ferntree Gully and The Middle Hotel and places like that.”

Ms Trickey also has fond memories of The Marching Girls on Dorset Rd, who performed routines in purple uniforms.

She also remembers when the train line cut through Boronia, before the level crossing was removed.

The Boronia level crossing before it was removed in 1998.

“The crossing was such a major thing when we were young,” Ms Trickey said.

“If you got stuck at the crossing you could be there for 10 minutes because a train was coming.

“A lot of oldies would park in Safeway carpark and walk across and we used to walk through the arcades to get to mall.

“And those arcades were thriving in those days; it really was an amazing place to grow up.”

The then Boronia Shoppingtown in 1973.

The dangerous Boronia level crossing was the scene of many tragic deaths, with nine people killed in bus-train accident in 1952.

In 1990 a man in a wheelchair dressed as Santa Claus narrowly escaped being run over after he got caught in the level crossing.

Gary Willox, who was mowing his lawn nearby, ran to save the man, who was trying to cross at the intersection of Central Ave and Power Rd, Boronia, The Sunday Herald Sun reported.

Mr Willox said: “His front wheels were caught in the track because the ground has moved. He was stuck.” He lifted the man out of the way moments before a train went through.

Boronia also used to host a popular Christmas parade, with traffic stopped as local clubs marched down roads.

The Boronia Christmas parade in 1987. Photographer: Chris Rostron

Huge crowds gathered to watch the parade. Photographer: Tom Leigh

Many locals also loved visiting the Boronia Baths.

“My mum and dad caught me smoking there; I was 15 I am now 60,” Diane wrote on Knox Leader’s Facebook page.

“Spent so many summers right there,” Mark said.

On the Boronia: The Good Old Days page, residents also had fond memories of Boronia’s old police station on Chandler Rd, where you could go in on Wednesdays for scones and a cup of tea.

Others remembered going to dances at the Uniting Church Hall on Friday nights.

Another beloved part of Boronia is Metro Cinemas.

Owner Tom Schouten said Metro Boronia started life as an old-fashioned single-screen cinema in the early 1900s.

It had several different operators over the years until the Schouten family bought the business and opened it as Metro Cinemas in 2005.

The then-Century Cinemas in 1994.

Boronia has also been home to tragedy.

Nanette Ellis, 41, was stabbed to death in her Manuka Drive home on Friday, February 10, 1984.

Ms Ellis went to work as normal that day and made plans to go out to dinner that evening with a number of work colleagues.

At about 5.15pm, Ms Ellis was seen by a passer-by pulling into the driveway of her house in her yellow 1982 Toyota Corolla sedan.

Nanette Ellis was murdered in her Boronia home in 1984.

Sometime after entering the house, Ms Ellis was attacked by an unknown offender and stabbed a number of times.

It was just after 6pm when Ms Ellis’ youngest son Greg, then 16, discovered her fatally stabbed to death.

In 2014, Homicide Squad Detective Senior Sergeant Stuart Bailey said 30 years on, the motive for Nanette’s murder was still unknown and appealed for anyone with information to come forward and help provide some answers for her family.

“Ms Ellis was a friendly, 41-year-old single mother working as an advertising manager for the Free Press local newspaper when she was killed,” he said.

There is a $500,000 reward on offer for anyone with information on her death.

And this year marked the 10th anniversary of Siriyakorn “Bung’’ Siriboon’s disappearance from the streets of Boronia.

Bung, then 13, disappeared on June 2, 2011, after setting off from her home in Elsie St, Boronia to make the 10-minute walk to school.

Bung went missing on June 2, 2011.

Detective leading Senior Constable Justin Tippett of the homicide squad said police still held out hope of solving the case and urged anyone with information to come forward.

He said information continued to surface on a weekly basis, via phone calls and emails.

Bung’s stepfather Fred Pattison told the Sunday Herald Sun: “We’ve got to believe that she’s alive, we can’t believe otherwise.”

There is a $1 million reward for information on Bung’s disappearance.

The suburb has also not been without controversy, especially when it comes to development.

Many residents have protested the rising number of new units, after Boronia was identified as a Major Activity Centre.

The property development on Woodvale Rd attracted lots of attention for its strange design. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Six two-storey dwellings being built in Woodvale Rd back in 2016 looked more like Federation Square, a local development protest group said.

And police targeted Boronia Junction shopping centre in 2017 after traders raised concerns about the area becoming “progressively worse” with people taking and dealing drugs, indecent exposure, graffiti, property damage and attempted thefts.