My suburb has a secret treasure that was locked away for 50 years

Growing up in Frankston South, you could guarantee to be the recipient of the full force of negative tropes associated with “Frankston”. If you were to gently put extra emphasis on the “south” the jibes would continue, this time with questions about how you would dare separate yourself from the suburb’s north (fun fact: Frankston North is a different postcode). It was a quandary – claim your rightful address and you were a snob like those on the other side of the highway in Mount Eliza, if you didn’t linger long enough on the “south” you were, in today’s terms, an eshay. But not any longer! Frankston South has come of age.

So, yes, Frankston CBD is suffering an ongoing identity crisis as local residents cry out for it to be “cleaned up” but I’m here talking Frankston South, aka the last suburb of metropolitan Melbourne before the official Mornington Peninsula starts across the road in Mount Eliza. My childhood was spent across Frankston South and Mount Eliza, and by the time I finished school, the thought of living here any longer, 43 kilometres south-east of the CBD, was the dullest thing I could imagine. Three decades later, having lived overseas, in Melbourne’s inner suburbs and in regional Victoria, there is nowhere I would rather call home.

Frankston South is a curious mix of gentrification and originality, reminding me of a Spanish saying from a turn-of-the-century tobacco advertisement: “disfruta tus contradicciones” – enjoy your contradictions. You can be anyone you want to be in Frankston South. Professionals who commute coexist with tradies and small business owners, not to forget the large number of retirees.

Locals typically put the appeal of the area down to its sense of space and nature. You can breathe and unwind here. Many people really care about the place, evidenced by all those who volunteer to keep Sweetwater Creek weed free.

Eucalypts and other mature trees are a common sight thanks to the limitations on subdivisions, which have maintained the character of the area. Of course, many empty nesters would love to subdivide their two-thirds-of-an-acre blocks to downsize in situ but, instead, the well-loved family homes are put on the market ripe for renovation or rebuilds by the new guard. Houses in the middle of the suburb often look towards the Dandenong Ranges to the northeast or Westernport Bay to the east, while houses on Oliver’s Hill capture Port Phillip Bay and Melbourne CBD skyline views from their elevated position on the mountain.

If you wander down the Sweetwater Creek boardwalk and cross over Nepean Highway, you might just spot a dolphin or two. And make sure you take a stickybeak at Villa Ulibarri, a Spanish-style clifftop mansion at 23 Gulls Way that has just been sold for $17 million. That eye-watering sale price is the highest for a residential property in the area. More so, even, than Mount Eliza. Not that there’s any competition …

Not all homes in Frankston South are quite at that level. Many new homes and townhouses are being built convenient to the Norman Avenue shopping strip that has undergone a transformation since last century. There is, of course, a hairdresser and two real estate agents but we now also have two thriving cafes, a general store with an extensive wine and spirits collection, and Tasting Room upstairs, which does an excellent job of compensating for the fact that the suburb doesn’t have any bars.

Frankston South is home to the “high-performing” Frankston High School and our local property agents are well aware of the zone’s boundaries. It is a large school and its senior campus over the road is, if we want to get technical, in Frankston. Fun fact: international students are accepted as fee-paying students at the school through the international student program. The only difference from local private schools with boarding facilities is that the students are placed in secure homestays.

My suburb’s best-kept secret, though not for much longer, is Frankston Nature Conservation Reserve, which sits right in the middle. Growing up, the “ressie”, aka Frankston Reservoir, was out of bounds, a mysterious place behind cyclone fencing. In 2016, it was opened to the public for the first time in 50 years. A prescient move, as during the COVID lockdowns, it was a place to restore sanity for those of us lucky enough to have it within our five-kilometre radius. If you’ve got a kayak or paddleboard that needs a dust off, bring it down. For nature lovers, the reserve is a thriving habitat for 1000 mammal, bird, reptile, frog and fish species, including echidnas, blue-tongue lizards and even the odd koala in the manna gums. In the evenings, the microbats come out to play. Walk along the Heathland Bush Circuit, abundant with wildflowers, and you feel miles from anywhere.

Nature brings all comers to Frankston South, as it did in 1935 when they had the first Australian Scout Jamboree – a mass gathering of scouts – here. It was attended by the founder of the Scouting movement, Sir Robert Baden-Powell, and Baden Powell Drive now winds through Frankston South in recognition of the event.

Overport Park is home to Overport Tennis Club, PLOS (Peninsula Light Operatic Society), the Dolphins Football and Netball Club HQ, Baden Powell Cricket Club, Peninsula Arts Society and the new and highly anticipated Overport Bike Track, aka pump track. Not to be outdone, there is Baxter Park – 59 hectares of Crown land with soccer and football fields, tennis and netball courts, cricket ovals, archery and equestrian clubs which, despite the name, is actually in Frankston South.

Finally, I’m going to use this opportunity to debunk a local misapprehension concerning Thomas McComb, who became a central figure in the area’s history after purchasing land here in 1854. When referring to McComb Boulevard, the prominent road named after him, South Frankstonians typically pronounce McComb like “tomb”. However, a friend who happens to be a descendant of Thomas assures me her surname is pronounced McComb as in hair comb. Let it be known that this is the correct pronunciation!

Sara McMillan is a former editor of Habitat magazine and a Frankston South local.

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