My suburb is one of Melbourne’s tiniest. I want to make it bigger

With the birth of our youngest child 15 years ago, we pulled up stumps and moved from the fashionable beachside suburb of Elwood to the little-known hamlet of Ripponlea. The move was only about 700 metres, but it did put the eight-lane Brighton Road between us and the beach.

Ripponlea is Melbourne’s second-smallest suburb – at just 29 hectares, it’s marginally bigger than Gardenvale, which you’ll find a bit further along Brighton Road (AKA the Nepean Highway). If you’ve heard of Ripponlea, it’s probably because you are a foodie and know about Attica, (which La Liste ranked the eighth-best restaurant in the world last year).

Or maybe you’ve heard of Rippon Lea Estate, the setting for many Australian period dramas. Or maybe you’re old enough to have attended the filming of Countdown at the ABC’s Ripponlea studios.

At this point, I should ’fess up. Despite the names, the Rippon Lea Estate and the ABC’s Ripponlea studios sit in our neighbouring “big brother” suburb of Elsternwick, with which we share the 3185 postcode. When you’re the second-smallest suburb in Melbourne, it’s hard to squeeze in a grand mansion and a TV studio and have any room left for actual residents.

We were drawn to Ripponlea partly by prosaic stuff like proximity to family and the convenience of the train station and shops. Nobody in Ripponlea is more than five minutes away from either, and our new home was even closer.

But Ripponlea has less prosaic charms. There is a well-tended garden next to the station – a common hang-out for picnickers and book readers. The garden has lovely birds of paradise flowers that we can see from our front rooms, attracting the occasional “flower bandit”, engine running and secateurs in hand.

Ripponlea is also the home of the colourful, if somewhat impenetrable to the outsider, Adass Israel Jewish congregation. The congregation’s synagogue was the target of arsonists in December – an event that brought both the prime minister and opposition leader to offer condolences and pledges to fund the rebuild. This community is known for its adherence to ultra-Orthodox Judaism, maintaining a reclusive and strictly observant lifestyle. You will see the married male members of the congregation donning large furry hats, called shtreimel, on Shabbat and other significant Jewish holidays.

Our community is relatively young, with quite a few apartment blocks. The average Ripponlea resident is 34 years old – compared to 38 in our neighbours in Elwood and Elsternwick (who happen to be average for Australia). We are babies compared to our 48-year-old neighbours in Brighton to the south.

The heart of my suburb, the Ripponlea Shopping Village has been through a journey. There are some shops that are seemingly as old as the village, including Andre’s barber shop; when we moved here, most were either boarded up or might as well have been for all their custom. The patrons arriving at Attica in their expensive cars and fine evening wear stark contrasted against the rest of the down-and-out village.

Then something wonderful started to happen. Between the 2011 and 2021 census, there was a 9 per cent rise in 3185 residents – matching pace with Australian population growth generally. This transformed the village.

First came the solitary cafe, which was soon followed by a second, then a third. Our lone affordable restaurant (Attica might be world-class but affordable it isn’t) was joined by three other great restaurants. There are new clothes shops, pedicurists, a gym and even a doggie rehab. My mechanic was forced out by higher rents (sad) but his workspace has been replaced by the hip and happening Garage wine bar.

A similar rebirth has happened to Glen Huntly Road, the main drag in Elsternwick. New residents have reversed what seemed like a fall into the terminal decline of both villages.

Not everyone here is happy about sharing the postcode with more residents. The departure of the ABC studios for Southbank has freed up land to turn into much-needed housing. This has given rise to consternation among a subset of residents who want to limit the density of any new development and have been litigating against higher density for seven years and counting.

Meanwhile, rents have continued to outpace incomes (as they have across Melbourne). But our local council area is, arguably, the epicentre of the housing crisis – with median rents growing 50 per cent over the past three years (compared to a 9 per cent growth in incomes).

Notwithstanding the housing crisis, some politicians are chasing these residents for votes. A few weeks ago, the Victorian shadow housing spokesman, Richard Riordan, was a guest speaker at a rally opposing plans for higher density on the former ABC land. He even called me “a dill” for turning up and questioning whether, given his portfolio, he should be canvassing for votes from an anti-housing group.

Based on my experience in Ripponlea, I am a firm believer that more people would be a “win-win” for old and new residents. Sure, it’s a bit harder to find a park nowadays, and the local roads are a bit more congested, but I would happily trade that off for the greater vibrancy and energy of the community. Then there is the convenience of more frequent trains and trams. Currently, we have to wait eight minutes between trains during peak times and 20 minutes off-peak. With the new Metro Tunnel, there is the capacity to run Sandringham trains every five minutes. But these extra services will only be put in place if there are enough residents to justify them.

Even if your personal preference is for ease of parking ahead of community vibrancy, is it OK to keep new people out of your suburb because you don’t like change? The people at that anti-housing rally don’t think of themselves as self-interested. Many tried to politely convince me that their stance was community minded. Most were aghast at the idea that they could be “the baddies” in this story.

But by shifting the focus from “new residents” to “greedy mega developers” wanting to “cram people into new apartments”, they have distorted the true dynamics. The real political power sits with existing residents who, typically, already own an expensive home and are trying to stop the development of apartments that will house – generally – less wealthy people.

I love where I live and that it’s within easy walking distance of my sister, father and sister-in-law. But the next generation in our family can’t afford to live near us. My oldest daughter is moving out. She wants to spread her wings, and we support that. Do we have to design a city where she can only afford to live an hour away from her family?

People like her are the real victims of the anti-housing movement. As is a teacher who has to travel an hour to her school. Or a young family who can only afford to live in a cramped two-bedroom unit near their work.

Anti-housing protesters everywhere should spare a thought for these people and try to find it in their hearts to share their suburbs and communities with new residents.

They might just find that they enjoy what their new neighbours bring. If we can do that across Melbourne, every suburb might see the blossoming we have witnessed in Ripponlea.

Dr Tom Hird is an economist and resident of Ripponlea.

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