My suburb has the best of all worlds. For years, there was a whiff of discontent

“We’ve always been a village, even when we weren’t officially called one.” I have often heard that expression since my family and I moved here. Big changes are in the wind, though.

Officially, we became a village in 1991, after a community campaign persuaded the Place Names Committee that Dingley didn’t just imagine itself as “a small community in a rural town”, but could claim to be one, separated as it was from the rest of Melbourne by market gardens and four golf courses. As the campaigners put it, we were simply “putting the village back in Dingley”.

Dingley Village, or DV as I like to call it sometimes, isn’t big, it never was. Just over 10,000 people live here. In 1856, when farmers named it after Dingley, Northamptonshire, it was on Melbourne’s south-east outskirts. But even as the city has grown around it, it has retained that country feel with market gardens and old farm buildings on the village fringe. It is a welcome retreat from the organised chaos of Melbourne, which was part of the reason our family moved here in 1987.

The appeal of that community with great facilities hasn’t subsided. People are keen to join us here; in recent years, the population that largely had English, Irish and Scottish ancestry has been joined by increasing numbers of Asian Australians.

Our village is mostly self-contained. We have good restaurants, sports facilities, places for worship, three great primary schools (the Dingley Primary School marks its 100th anniversary this year) and excellent community services, including the new Dingley Village Neighbourhood Centre, a new library and Anzac memorial – a striking sculpture inspired by the rising sun badge – all on Marcus Road.

To me, the location is a big plus. We are in a prime position if we decide to enjoy the beach (20 minutes), or the hills (30 minutes) or to find a fast route to the Peninsula (five minutes).

The longer we have lived in the village, the more we have come to understand its community spirit and the friendly nature of the locals. Our first visit to the area made a big impression. We came to visit a huge fern market – now a relatively new housing estate – and felt the spread-out nature of the place, with spacious market gardens all around leading us to a wide, open streetscape. At that time, we lived in a suburb enclosed by others.

We didn’t know about the monthly Dingley market until we moved here. What is now a farmer’s market offers fruit and vegetables, cakes, meals and crafts, and the added opportunity of grabbing a coffee and having a natter with locals.

The pioneer-built Christ Church is another reminder of the past. Early English Gothic in style and “one of the most picturesque churches in suburban Melbourne”, according to Heritage Victoria, it proudly looks down Centre Dandenong Road, through the heart of the village. A small retail strip sits in its middle, and while the shops there seem to satisfy most of our needs, it would be nice to see more of the vacant signs on storefronts removed.

It hasn’t all been a walk on the bright side. Major new roads built around us, such as the Mornington Peninsula Freeway and the Westall Road extension, have brought the noise of cars, motorcycles and trucks to some villagers, just as the drone of light planes to and from Moorabbin Airport can test others.

I haven’t mentioned the rubbish tips yet, have I? Well, they are no longer around, but we lived with them for quite a while. The smell was challenging, especially on warmer days. The tips have gone now, overlaid by new parks, a home for walkers, ducks and friends.

If we want a walk on the nature side, we often go to nearby Braeside Park, a 310-hectare gem. Walks, cycle paths, a waterbird hide, small lakes for ibis and ducks, a playground, picnic areas. It’s where Phar Lap was trained, and there’s even a cattle farm sidling right up against it.

Quiet residential streets were a welcome feature of life in the village, but new major roads have led to a growth in traffic and overhasty drivers. A permanent limit of 40km/h would make sense at our small retail strip. The Hawthorn Football Club is establishing a new headquarters in our area, the Kennedy Centre, which is expected to bring even more visitors to our village.

The redevelopment of the former Kingswood Golf Course – which sold to developers in March 2024 for about $215 million – into a housing estate with about 800 houses is expected to bring another 2000 new residents.

A render of a proposed water park in Dingley Village.

Dingley Village is a bayside suburb that isn’t quite on the water, but it turns out the water is coming to us. After years of planning, a massive 3.8-hectare aquatic park with wave pools – the biggest of its kind in the southern hemisphere – is due to be built within the next couple of years.

Our suburb may be small, but prominent villagers have included the rock group Jet, who started out playing at local fetes, golfer Bob Shearer and journalist Marcus Clarke, famed for reporting on Melbourne’s slums and writing the Australian classic, For the Term of His Natural Life.

The impact the new developments will have on our lives remains unclear, but one aspect isn’t. A large recent community meeting revealed a commitment by all to work together to maintain all the benefits of a special, friendly and supportive environment.

Warren Duncan is a long-time resident of Dingley Village.

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