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Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
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(3155, 29 km E, Knox City)
This mainly residential outer eastern suburb near Ferntree Gully lies between Dandenong Creek in the north and Blind Creek in the south. Boronia was one of the first parts of the Shire of Knox to be transformed from agricultural land to a suburban residential area. In 1915 local councillor A.E. Chandler was asked to name the district, which in the 19th century formed part of Bayswater. He chose Boronia, after the flower cultivated at the Chandler family nursery nearby at The Basin. Boronia railway station opened in 1920, making it practical for city-dwellers to move out to cheap blocks of land in ensuing decades. Boronia experienced a further wave of suburbanisation in the 1960s and 1970s.