Trentwood Drive-In Shopping Centre

Until the extensions of the Eastern Freeway in 1982, the Koonung Creek provided a boundary for the Greythorn district. The original inhabitants of the land, the Wurundjeri People, may have fished in the creeks and streams that flowed down towards the Yarra River valley. When Sir Albert Jennings purchased the land for a new Trentwood subdivision, the area was home to orchards and farmland, and he recalled that blackberries dominated the landscape.

It’s not surprising that A V Jennings included a baby health centre and kindergarten in the estate’s design – an average of 50,000 babies were born in Victoria each year during the 1950s. The rapid succession of local schools that opened their doors in the 1950s tells the story: Greythorn Primary (1953), Koonung State School (1954) – now Boroondara Park Primary, Bellevue Primary School (1957) and Greythorn State School (1958). In the shopping centre, families could shop locally for babywear, school uniforms, shoes, and toys. Ewen Parsons was one of the first to target this market, in his clothing and haberdashery store, as did Evie Kay’s Toys, and then, in the 1970s, Junior Bazaar.

The statue’s plaque reads:

Hi there, Maddie and I have been visiting the Greythorn Community Hub. We are going to hike up to Wildlife Parade. It’s named after the former Greythorn Wildlife Sanctuary (1939-1953). Bill Maughan and his family kept more than 200 animals on his reserve. What’s your favourite Australian animal? I love koalas.

Something to think about:

Wominjeka yearmann koondee biik Wurundjeri balluk – Welcome to the land of the Wurundjeri people to whom we pay our respects to past, present and future generations. Father and child represent the generations that have lived in the district. Maddie’s pants are decorated with yam daisies, a species of murnong that was the main staple food for the Wurundjeri people. The first kindergarten in this strip was part of the original Jennings Estate, when Greythorn was part of the City of Camberwell. The crest on the father’s t-shirt, gives you a clue to what the area was known for. It became the City of Boroondara in 1994. Children and parents have been gathering in this garden since it opened in 1960.

Meet the Faces | Evie | Don | Ferdi | Maria | Lily

Introduction | History of Greythorn | Meet the Faces of Greythorn | Project Creators