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Park Orchards

(3114, 22 km E, Manningham City, Maroondah City)

This residential suburb was created in 1925 when timber merchants Australis Sharp and John Taylor launched the Park Orchards Country Club estate. Saxil Tuxen, employed to subdivide the estate, had worked with Walter Burley Griffin on the Ranelagh estate at Mount Eliza. Tuxen incorporated many of Griffin's design principles into the Park Orchards subdivision. But buyers were not attracted to the estate, and for many years all that existed were a clubhouse and various sporting facilities. During World War II the Army set up a signals training centre. Demand for land and housing in the 1950s finally spurred development. At the 1996 census the suburb had the highest rate of motor car ownership in the metropolis, with 36% of households owning three cars or more.

Mary Sheehan

References
Green, Irvine, and Betty Beavis, Park Orchards: a short history, Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society, Melbourne, 1983. Details