Toorak
Surrounded by the suburbs of Armadale, South Yarra and Malvern, and a mere 6 km from the CBD, Toorak is situated on the south side of the Yarra, on a rise at a bend in the river. The name Toorak has become synonymous with wealth and privilege. The suburb has long had the reputation of being Melbourne's most elite, and ranks among the most prestigious in Australia. It has the highest average property values in Melbourne, and is one of the most expensive suburbs in Australia. It is also listed as the highest money earning suburb in the country.Located on a rise on the south side (or left bank) of a bend in the Yarra River, Toorak is bordered by South Yarra, at Williams Road on the west, Malvern, at Glenferrie Road on the east, Prahran and Armadale, at Malvern Road to the south and the suburbs of Richmond and Hawthorn on the north side of the river. The suburb's main street is considered to be Toorak Road, in which the commercial area of Toorak Village is located. Toorak is 5 km south-east from Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Stonnington. At the 2011 Census, Toorak had a population of 12,871.
Toorak, followed closely by Canterbury and Hawthorn, is the suburb many Melbournians aspire to reside in as it not only provides status but also means as an individual you have done very well in your area of expertise and truly deserve to live here as a culmination of your finest achievements! They will tell you that Toorak is Melbourne's answer to Beverly Hills in Los Angeles. A place of leafy tree-lined streets, high gates and big gardens, Toorak is largely about money - those who've made it, who have money and aren't afraid to show it. If you want a grand home and to make a grand statement with it, then this is the place.
Titans of politics, industry, business and sport - Dame Zara Bate, Sidney Myer, Dame Elizabeth Murdoch, Hartold Holt, Malcolm Fraser, Ted Baillieu, Sir Rupert Hamer, Michael Gudinski, Lou Richards, Nathan Buckley, Andrew Demetriou, John Gandel, Solomon Lew, Lindsay Fox and Ron Walker - to name a few, and media personalities like Eddie McGuire, have all called Toorak home. A recent trend in the suburb is the building of fancy apartment complexes and they're attracting some wealthy occupants who have decided to downsize from their mansions into something much more manageable and more secure.
Toorak is known for its well presented, open, tree-lined streets, pwith parks inclding Como Park and the Botanical gardens only a stone throw away. High street is known for great coffees and lifestyle options, further down the road is Toorak Village, an old and quaint shopping area with high end boutiques and elite spending options from cigar stores to high end clothing. With over 270 shops and businesses, Toorak Village is famous for its fashion boutiques, sunny street cafes, fine dining, luxurious beauty parlours, glamorous hair salons and the best in professional business advice. Complemented by the Hawksburn Village shopping precinct, Toorak Road has an abundance of up-market specialty food, fashion, gift and home ware stores and boutiques. And when the shopping is done there is no shortage of great cafes, bars and restaurants to keep you going on into the night.
Getting there: Toorak's only railway station is Heyington, on the Glen Waverley line, which crosses the Yarra from Richmond on the Heyington Railway Bridge, to the suburb's north. Despite its name, Toorak railway station is located in Armadale. The Pakenham, Frankston and Cranbourne railway line group to which this station belongs runs close to Toorak's southern boundary. Other nearby stations include Hawksburn, in South Yarra and Kooyong, in Kooyong.
Trams have run down Toorak Road since 1888. Melbourne tram route 8 runs along Toorak Road to Glenferrie Road, at the suburb's eastern boundary. Melbourne tram route 72 runs along Malvern Road, the suburb's southern boundary.
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Mandeville HallOne of Melbourne's oldest and best known reservoirs, Maroondah is somewhat of a magnet on sunny weekends and school holidays as it has plenty of room for big crowds, large lawns with room for ball games, large picnic and barbecue areas, all set within the shade of tall eucalypt trees.
Toorak HouseToorak House is a mansion built in 1849 by well- known Melbourne merchant James Jackson. It is notable for its use as Melbourne's first Government House and having inspired the name for the suburb of Toorak.
Toorak Village has been the local shopping place for Toorak residents for one hundred and fifty years, and is one of Melbourne's earliest suburban shopping precints as well as most exclusive. In 1854 the State Government leased James Jackson's Toorak House for use as the Governor's residence, and Gardiner's Creek Road (subsequently Toorak Road) was transformed from a rough bush track into a made road. The presence of the Vice-Regal residence attracted wealthy merchants, pastoralists and politicians to the area and a small village gradually developed around Notley's Hotel at the foot of Orrong Hill, to service the mansions and villas of the gentry. This group of modest shops and dwellings would later be known as Toorak Village.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the area had broadly developed its current form of a shopping strip with retail premises on each side of the road and workers' cottages to the south. At that time, the Toorak village was broadly comparable to other shopping strips found throughout the inner suburbs of Melbourne. The wealth of the Toorak area ensured the prosperity of the businesses along Toorak Road, and unlike in some less wealthy areas the buildings have been continually updated. In the late 1920s and 1930s, noted architect Robert Bell Hamilton, possibly with others, undertook the refurbishment of a number of properties within the village in a Tudor Revival style, creating a character that distinguishes the Toorak Village from other small shopping strips in Melbourne. The village retains a number of early buildings, as well as a collection of Tudor Revival shops by noted architect and Tudor Revival stylist Robert Bell Hamilton and others which define the character of the village.
Toorak was named after Toorak House, an Italianate residence built by James Jackson, a merchant, in 1849. The name of the house may have originated from Woiwurrung language, with words of similar pronunciation meaning black crow or reedy swamp. From 1854 Toorak House served as the residence of the first Governor of Victoria, Captain Sir Charles Hotham KCB RN and his successors, until the completion of the present Government House (1876) in the Kings Domain. Toorak Post Office opened around June 1858. Toorak mansion known as "Chastelton", characteristic of many 1880s Victorian houses built in the area. During the land boom of the 1880s, many large and elaborate mansions were erected in Toorak, often in the Italianate style. Following East Melbourne and then St Kilda, Toorak, along with Brighton, became the new favoured location for the wealthy.
The suburb was hit particularly hard by the 1890s economic depression and many wealthy landowners declared bankruptcy and were forced to sell. Nonetheless, the suburb remained and is still Melbourne's home of old money. In the 1920s, a favoured style was Tudor revival. In the period of post World War II prosperity, rising standards of living and land values caused Toorak to became highly sought after by a new generation of the wealthy, thought by some to be social climbers and Nouveau riche. For some of these people, the focus was simply to have the postcode of Toorak, which was SE 2 and now 3142. As a result, many of the larger mansions were demolished and large holdings were subdivided to make way for flats, town-houses and apartments.
In the 1980s larger houses in Neo-Georgian and Neo-Classical styles began to appear. While large mansions have survived in neighbouring Hawthorn, Kew and Armadale, only a few of the original 19th century mansions in Toorak remain, due in part to the high land value. Two of the most notable are Illawarra House, which was acquired by the National Trust; and Coonac, the most expensive house in Melbourne. In Toorak, some of the old property names live on as street names or the names of blocks of flats, carved out of or built on their sites.
