My bayside suburb is split in half by eight lanes of pain

Moorabbin Airport planes constantly fly over my suburb, but it isn’t Moorabbin. The country’s second-busiest airport has been operating there since 1949 and most days, someone still asks when it will be moved.

The Bayside suburb of Mentone is a divided one: beach side of Nepean Highway or non-beach side. OK, it’s not quite the Green Line in Cyprus, but sometimes the hassle of crossing the divide feels just as great.

When I moved to the non-beach side of Nepean Highway, friends in the “Bayside Bubble” assured me they would visit (spoiler: they didn’t much). The psychological repellence of eight lanes of the Nepean Highway can be as much of a barrier as any physical one.

That said, my suburb holds its own against some big-hitting neighbours. It has trodden its own path and a wider range of housing options and industrial spaces have enabled it to embrace change and attract a more culturally diverse community than the suburbs it abuts.

My relationship with Mentone has been a slow burn. I lived next door in Beaumaris for 11 years, and when I first moved to Mentone, I just didn’t get it. It seemed a pick and mix of different things. Was it beach bliss or was it, as I came to realise, something more unvarnished and unpretentious than its neighbours?

This was despite spending time there in my youth, shedding tears and trading gossip on the dance floor about some boy at Mentone pub The Edgy. That pub has since given way to $2 million townhouses on Beach Road. If those sticky floors could talk … but probably best they don’t.

But slowly, we found our rhythm. Mentone’s proximity to the beach is its crowning glory. During COVID, living in Mentone was a godsend. With Beach Road as a border, it never felt claustrophobic. Walking along the beach, you could forget for a moment all that was happening and give yourself over to the sound of the water. It kept me sane.

I have never lived anywhere where people seem so happy to make eye contact and say hello. I play a quiet game daily while walking my dogs along the beach. I pick someone walking toward me and guess if they will say hello or not. Almost always, no matter their age or stage, they do – something that always surprises me. I’m convinced that walking along the edge of the water with an eye to the horizon creates some kind of magic that makes problems and worries seem less so.

The recently redeveloped Mentone Lifesaving Club has been a talking point at local cafes for the best part of two years. Now it’s complete, it has become another magnet, drawing people to the water, with locals lining up to have a drink at the bar, while their children below run up and down the beach screeching with and like the gulls.

So where did the name Mentone come from? A word of local significance? Deep connection with the land? No. It was optimistically named after what was purportedly 19th-century British prime minister William Gladstone’s favourite Mediterranean resort by the French-Italian border.

Candy-coloured Menton on the French Riviera.Credit: Getty

This is supported by the many Italian street names in Mentone such as Venice, Naples, Florence and Como. In the late 1800s, people used to come to the seaside for a “spell”. And while the name Mentone might have a weird origin story, it’s better than Dover Slopes (the area’s original name) – a place where cattle rested before continuing on to Melbourne’s bustling markets.

But Mentone isn’t all beach and Med aspirations. It was for a long time home to a racecourse, hosting Saturday meets and then horse training until 1972 on land that is now a much-loved park and housing.

Close to where the nags used to run, is the somewhat poorly named Thrift Park Shopping Centre. Perhaps that’s where punters down on their luck stopped to grab a bargain on their way home? It’s been there for about 60 years, and while it’s still well-used, a rebranding is long overdue.

The Mentone train station’s level crossing has been removed and locals can’t wait to see how the historic area will be developed. It has the potential to be more than just a walk-through on your way to the new station. Perhaps a piazza in a nod to the suburb’s namesake?

Mentone is also known for its schools – lots of schools, clustered together and holding on to the area’s future promise. I would venture that we have more schools than any other Melbourne area – six in a 500-metre radius.

As the clock ushers the start and end of the school day, the streets of Mentone transform. A torrent of students in a kaleidoscope of uniforms floods the streets like a flock of migrating birds, all headed to one place: the lolly shop on Mentone Parade.

It has taken a while for me to understand this, but Mentone is a suburb that defies easy categorisation. Yes, it’s in the Bayside Bubble but it’s burst beyond the bubble and, like the 1960s nags, runs its own race. It’s a place where the beach serves as a backyard for all, and where the community’s heart beats strong.

Sofia Dedes is a Melbourne media and communications professional.

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