In my suburb we’re not snobs. But we look down on Black Rock and Brighton

Thirty-five years ago, we were looking to move out of our house in South Frankston, complete with a swimming pool, to somewhere in Melbourne’s south-east that was close to the bay. A real estate agent suggested Cheltenham. It was not a suburb we had been thinking of, but they showed us a little solid brick 1940s two-bedroom house that we could not resist.

Nor could we resist the local area – Pennydale – a section of Cheltenham that is west of the Nepean Highway. (Across the Nepean there’s another section of Cheltenham that residents call The Golden Triangle.) So, we sold our large, comfortable house for this cute little house without a single power point in the kitchen. It is not the first house that we have owned, but I hope it will be the last.

Apart from the heavy traffic in places, Cheltenham is quite a peaceful area. Not like the first place I lived – London – where there were bombs dropping around me in World War II. Or our family flat over a used-furniture shop in Cairo or a tin cottage in Eritrea, where we kids found live bullets underneath.

Cheltenham was not named after the UK town famous for its racecourse. Well, not exactly. In the 1850s, there was a pub called the Cheltenham Inn, which was a popular stopover on the way to the Mornington Peninsula, and the name of the surrounding area took off from there. Where else in Melbourne is there a suburb named after a pub?

We are 18 kilometres from the city and are under two councils – Bayside and Kingston.

Cheltenham Park is the highest point in the Bayside Council area. No, we are not snobs but we do look down on Black Rock, Sandringham, Hampton and, of course, Brighton.

About 20 per cent of my suburb is parkland and there are two cemeteries. About 10 per cent is factories and the rest is mostly residential. It has three golf courses and two more on the edge of its west and east borders. Oh, and it’s historical – we even have a cobbled laneway!

Many people would ask “why Cheltenham?” Granted, it has a few issues. Since the Mornington Peninsula Freeway link was opened just over a decade ago, traffic has dramatically increased, especially along Park Road, which runs through the heart of Cheltenham. Huge 32-wheel trucks now use this narrow road so they do not bring down the rail bridge over Bay Road.

Let us not mention the high-rise buildings to go up in the near future as part of the development plans for Cheltenham to accommodate about 52,200 residents in the longer term (which would make it one of Australia’s most populous suburbs). We currently have several high-rises and one 10-storey, but it will be a big change.

Then, of course, there are those home owners who knock down a classic old house to build a “castle”. There are rebuilds going on in most streets. I used to quite like my view of the Dandenong Ranges before it was built out. Thinking back to when we moved here, I wish I had walked around and taken photographs for posterity as I did of the interior of our house.

We thank that the rail line went under when the level crossing was removed in 2020 but we lost a piece of our history when the century-old station buildings were dismantled. Apparently, those station pieces will be put back together again at some point by the Mornington Railway Preservation Society, but who knows when that will be?

But there are so many other things to like. It has two railway stations, and in a few years the Suburban Rail Loop will bring a third. Many years ago, there was a tram that went to the bay, from Cheltenham to Sandringham. Hence, the tram-less road in nearby Beaumaris named Tramway Parade. Now, you can get the bus to Sandringham and, if you wish, also to Chadstone.

Charman Road and Station Road shops have more than 20 places to dine plus several that supply takeaway meals, as well as a small supermarket and other shops. But all this is dwarfed by Southland (or Fountain Lakes, as it was known on Kath & Kim). Southland might well be the feature that outsiders best know Cheltenham for. It opened in 1968 and now, with more than 400 shops, is one of the largest shopping centres in Australia. In 1991, it announced it would extend ostentatiously over the top of eight lanes of the Nepean Highway and onto the former Joseph Lucas motor industry parts factory.

TV’s Kath and Kim shopping at Fountain Lakes.

About half of Cheltenham Park is made up of wooded areas, and it has plenty of space to walk your dog off lead, as well as two ovals that are popular for junior cricket and soccer training. The main sports ground is the Jack Barker Oval which is home to Cheltenham Cricket Club and Cheltenham Football Club. The cricket club is one of Australia’s oldest sporting clubs founded in 1872. The football club (nicknamed the Rosellas) was founded a little later in 1891.

Cheltenham has some very nice schools, including Cheltenham Primary, built in 1911. It started teaching in 1855 and is the fifth oldest school in Victoria. One student was Sir Robert Jackson who, following a distinguished naval career, was appointed as assistant to the first secretary general of the United Nations following the conclusion of World War II.

Real estate agents sometimes get a bad rap, but I would love to thank the one who introduced us to Cheltenham.

Colin Hill is a long-time resident of Cheltenham.