Blackburn

Blackburn is a residential suburb 17 km. east of Melbourne, between Box Hill and Nunawading. About 400 metres south of the township is the Blackburn Creek, thought to have been named after an early settler or after James Blackburn, the designer of Melbourne’s Yan Yean water supply. The first settlement was along the creek and was called Blackburn Creek.

A hotel was built on the site of the present Blackburn Hotel in Whitehorse Road in 1861, serving travellers to Healesville and the Gippsland goldfields around Woods Point. Another was opened near the creek in 1865. A post office was opened in 1876 and the Box Hill to Lilydale railway in 1882. The 1880s saw a spate of development, partly induced by the railway and strongly promoted by subdividers. The most active was the Freehold Investment and Banking Company which acquired thirty small farms and laid out a model township distinguishable by the triangular street design south of the railway station. The company is credited with building the public hall (1888), and damming the creek to form the Blackburn Lake (1889). One of the company’s officers, T. Morton, lived in Blackburn, was active in building the first Anglican Church (1890), and is commemorated by Morton Park. The Methodist Church was opened two years before, and the primary school in 1889. The main industries were a brickworks, orchards and other farming.

The 1890s depression curtailed land development schemes. The Adult Deaf Society purchased land adjoining the lake in 1919 and built a large home. It also established a flower farm of about 5 ha. The Society still has land north-west of the lake. Blackburn underwent steady growth between the first and second world wars. An open-air primary school for children in need of recuperation was opened in 1913 and one in Blackburn South in 1920. A cool store was opened in 1918 and the Blue Moon Fruit Co-operative built its fruit cannery in 1930. Blackburn was described in The Victorian Municipal Directory in 1940 as –

During the early 1950s Blackburn’s residential growth quickened. Its shopping centre attracted an aggressive price cutting grocer, Anstey’s, whose self-service supermarket contributed to the end of retail price maintenance. He was situated in an area with increasing numbers of growing families who wanted food and groceries at discounted prices.

Ever since the early subdividers created the Blackburn Lake the community was conscious of its local bushland. In 1959 a tree-preservation society was formed, alarmed by the loss of tree cover in residential subdivisions and alongside roads. Their activities have probably encouraged tree planting by residents in their house allotments, as well as the more obvious plantings in public areas.

In 1956 a high school was opened and four year later a technical school (Blackburn North). In the 1960s and beyond residential growth occurred in Blackburn North which extends to Doncaster and in Blackburn South which extends to Burwood East.

The strip shopping centre near the railway line is moderately active, and about 600 metres north of the Maroondah Highway there is a drive-in shopping centre, North Blackburn Square. In addition to the natural landscape around the Blackburn Lake there is a linear park along the Blackburn Creek and a reserve with an oval and other facilities near the shopping centre.

Blackburn had census population of 1,158 (1911) and 2,616 (1933).

Further Reading:

• Da Costa, Robin, “Blackburn: A Picturesque History”, Pioneer Design Studio Pty. Ltd., 1978.