How Melbourne’s most well-known streets got their names

From the punt that carried horses and carriages to Punt Rd and the long-demolished chapel that once stood on Chapel St, these are the stories behind some of the most famous street names in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

Despite the original chapel being long demolished, Chapel St retained its name as it became a commercial hub in the late 19th century.

CHAPEL ST

In 1849, the road that became Chapel St was known as Fitzroy Rd.

In the early 1850s, a church was built near the Malvern Rd intersection — the first parish in the Prahran area — and the road was renamed Chapel St.

The chapel itself was closed in the late 1850s and served as a schoolhouse until it was demolished in the 1880s.

GLENFERRIE RD

A property established by lawyer Peter Ferrie in 1840 near Gardiner’s Creek was named “Glen Ferrie”.

The civic centre and busy thoroughfare that developed to the south of the property was eventually named Glenferrie Rd.

The name was unofficial until the 1880s when the new railway station named Glenferrie opened on Glenferrie Rd.

Local hotels and businesses later adopted the district name.

TOORAK RD

Toorak House, Melbourne’s first governor’s residence, was built in 1859. The suburb and the road took its name.

The suburb and the road take their name from the original governor’s residence Toorak House, which was home to Sir Charles Hotham among others.

Built in 1849 by James Jackson, the house was the first official government residence in Melbourne.

It might have been named using an indigenous word “Turrak” used to describe a swamp filled with reeds.

The mansion, which still stands on St Georges Rd, has been owned by the Swedish Church since 1956.

PUNT RD

Before a bridge connected the banks of the Yarra at Richmond, horses, carts and livestock had another way of getting from one side to another.

Punt Rd was named for the punt service that ferried locals across the river in the mid 1800s.

A footbridge later replaced the punt service until the existing Hoddle Bridge was opened in 1938.

The road continued into Hoddle St, named for early Melbourne planner and surveyor Robert Hoddle.

KOOYONG RD

A late 1800s painting of the creek at “Kooyong Koot” established by John Gardiner and named on early Melbourne surveys by Robert Hoddle, pictured right.

The name Kooyong was used in 1837 to name a homestead set up by John Gardiner where Gardiner’s Creek meets the Yarra River.

The homestead, “Kooyongkoot”, was noted by surveyor Robert Hoddle in early plans of Melbourne.

It may have come from an Aboriginal word for camping place.

The surrounding area adopted the name and the federal seat of Kooyong and the Kooyong Classic tennis competition still carry it.

John Gardiner, a Melbourne pioneer, died in 1878 and places including John Gardiner Secondary College, Gardiner Rd and Gardiner’s Creek were named in his honour.

HOTHAM ST

Sir Charles Hotham was the second Lieutenant governor of Victoria, succeeding Charles La Trobe, and the first Governor of Victoria.

He was born in Suffolk, England, in 1806 and died in Melbourne on New Year’s Eve, 1855 at the age of 49.

It is believed he fell ill after exposure to the cold while opening the Melbourne Gasworks in December that year.

ORRONG RD

The meaning of the word “Orrong” and how it came to be associated with the road connecting Elsternwick and Toorak is unclear.

Some believe the name could be a derivative of the aboriginal word “Wurrung”, meaning lips or mouth.

BALACLAVA RD, INKERMAN ST AND ALMA RD

British and Russian troops fight in the Battle of Balaclava. Many streets in the Balaclava area were named after Crimean War battles.

The Balaclava suburb takes its name from the Battle of Balaclava, a key battle in the Crimean War in eastern Europe in the 1850s.

Subsequent battles at Inkerman and Alma were also honoured with street names in Melbourne.

During the Crimean War the British, Ottoman and French empires fought the Russian Empire in a conflict started over rights in the Holy Land.

The war killed almost 150,000 people and left about 80,000 wounded.

Other battles in the Crimean War included the siege of Sevastopol, the Battle of Malakoff and the Battle of Great Redan, all of which inspired street names in the area.

Other local streets are named after military and philanthropic leaders associated with the war including Florence Nightingale, who pioneered modern nursing while caring for wounded soldiers and after whom Nightingale St was named.

The war itself was honoured with the naming of Crimea St in St Kilda, which connects Wellington St and Alma Rd.

RIVERSDALE RD

The road which connects Hawthorn and Box Hill South was originally called Moloney’s Road in the 1800s.

It was renamed by Victorian parliamentarian Matthew O’Grady, who lived in Hawthorn.

The name is believed to come from the Yarra River valley to which the road leads.

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TOORONGA RD

Tooronga Rd, connecting Caulfield North and Hawthorn East, is named for an indigenous word, the meaning of which is lost to time.

Some speculate it was the original name of the area.

It is also phonetically similar to indigenous words for “modern” and “bulrushes”.