3083: A SUBURB OF CHANGE TO SEE
Bundoora is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and is 16km north-east of Melbourne’s CBD.
It is a rapidly growing environment, with universities, shopping centres and residencies expanding the landscape over recent decades. To prove this, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011 and 2016 Census QuickStats, there was an increase of 7,977 people occupying Bundoora in those five years alone (ABS, 2013 & 2017).
This multimedia project is about the suburb my family and I have always lived in, Bundoora, and to investigate and document the developed landscape over time.
The Bundoora area was originally inhabited by the Kurnaj-berring tribe of the Wurundjeri clan. The name Bundoora is thought to derive from an Aboriginal word meaning ‘the plain where kangaroos live.’ European settlers first arrived in the Bundoora area, known at the time as the Parish of Keelbundora, in 1835. The land was surveyed, to allow for the sale of it, in 1837 by William Wedge-Drake. The land was previously owned by members of the Port Phillip Association such as John Batman, who grazed his sheep there without regard for the Wurundjeri clan. The land was subsequently auctioned in Melbourne in 1838 with Bundoora being sectioned off into two areas of approximately 400 hectares. It was primarily used for sheep grazing and grain production.
The Janefield Presbyterian Church, assembled of bluestone, was built in 1861. The gothic appearance was captivating to many when it first opened, with The Advertiser describing it as “a fine model of a country church.” At the time, the community were mainly Scottish settlers in a rural pastoral area. The Church was threatened with demolition in the 1990s following a change in the population and ownership. However, it was saved by community action and purchased by the Macedonian Orthodox Church.
Following conservation works, it was reconsecrated as St Petka’s in 2000, which it still is to this day.
Bundoora has been previously known as Springfield, Prospect Hill and most notably, Janefield, the latter being named after the resting place of the wife of pastoralist James Miller Brock who died in 1851. Yet, Janefield became known as Bundoora in 1863 when the first post office was built on the corner of Grimshaw Street and Plenty Road.
Currently, the site is home to local Thai restaurant, Narai-Thai.
The Primary School building was established in 1877 and was a small, rural school that was in use for over 100 years. It was manufactured out of bricks on a bluestone base which had an iron roof, small porch and consisted of a single room with the dimensions of 30 feet by 18 feet.
Today, the original building has been incorporated into a modern childcare facility.
Isabelle Bruce Reid was the First Woman Veterinarian Registered in the British Empire. After years of study and practice, in 1911 Isabelle and her sister Mary bought 405 hectares of farmland at Bundoora and named it Blossom Park.
Blossom Park Drive is now a place to call home, with the farmland serving as a housing estate today.
In October 1937, the Victorian Government opened Janefield Colony as a centre for children with severe intellectual disabilities. The Janefield Colony was located on the site of the Janefield Sanatorium, a training farm for tuberculosis patients, run by the Australian Red Cross Society from 1920 to 1933. In 1962, Janefield was situated on Plenty Road, Bundoora and became a training centre with a special school, farm, gymnasium and family unit. In 1996, Janefield residents were transferred to other services and the centre was closed.
In 2009, the location became home to many, as the buildings were transformed and sold as apartments.
Larundel was a psychiatric hospital built and developed in 1938 and was part of a larger mental health complex known as Mont Park. At its busiest, the hospital cared for 750 patients. Construction of the asylum began in 1938 but was interrupted by WWII. In the interim, the buildings accommodated a U.S. military hospital, a training depot for the W.A.A.F, a R.A.A.F hospital and a civilian emergency accommodation unit. It formally opened its doors as a psychiatric institution in 1953.
The remains of the Larundel Psychiatric Hospital are currently on the verge of being redeveloped into new apartment buildings and townhouses.
In 1986, traffic congestion in and out of the district was heavy, with 38,000 vehicles per day using Grimshaw Street and Main Street, Greensborough to travel. In response, the Government initiated a plan to establish a 5.5km bypass to relieve the existing heavily congested sections of nearby roads, reduce travel time for motorists passing through the area, and improve safety conditions for shoppers, residents and local traffic.
In 2020, traffic congestion is evidently incredibly worse, with more commuters travelling in, from and through Bundoora, whether they inhabit the suburb or surrounding areas.
Throughout the 1990's, Smorgy’s was a prominent Victorian restaurant chain that employed an ‘all you can eat’ buffet style and service. In late 2013, the location at Bundoora was burnt down due to a suspicious blaze, leaving the site bare and open for sale.
In June 2015, construction began on the Parc Hotel Bundoora, which now houses guests in hotel rooms and residents in apartment buildings.
The area has evidently changed over time, exhibited through the comparisons presented above. One resident who has witnessed a glimpse of the redevelopment and urban expansion of Bundoora is my mother, who has lived in the suburb for 42 years, since 1978.
