VICPlanned settlement
Hawthorn
A township across the Yarra that bridges and the railway made a suburb.
1837Township reserve surveyed
WHAT STARTED IT
Hawthorn’s township was reserved on rising ground just east of the Yarra, where the road from Melbourne crossed the river. A road bridge in 1851 and a railway bridge in 1861 put it within easy reach of the city.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
By the 1860s market gardens, brickfields and the homes of Melbourne business people covered the slopes, and from the 1880s houses and shops spread around Glenferrie as the railway extended east. Burwood Road became a mix of shops and factories, including Fowlers’ home-bottling works.
TURNING POINTS
1837A township reserve is surveyed just east of the Yarra, where Church Street now meets Burwood Road.
1851A bridge over the Yarra makes Burwood Road a main road out of Melbourne.
1860Hawthorn becomes a separate municipality, dropping the final ‘e’ of its early spelling.
1861The railway bridge over the Yarra and the line to Hawthorn are inspected and opened in April.
1890Hawthorn is proclaimed a city.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A middle-ring suburb in the City of Boroondara, where more than half of all dwellings were flats or apartments at the 2011 census. Christ Church and the Invergowrie homestead mark the original township beside the river.