VICRail & telegraph
Oakleigh
A roadside pound that became the Gippsland railhead.
1853Township surveyed and allotments sold
WHAT STARTED IT
Oakleigh began where an 1842 animal pound and the South Yarra Inn stood on the road to Gippsland, near its junction with the road to the Dandenong Ranges. In 1877 it became the starting point of the Gippsland railway, and the town’s centre moved about a kilometre south to the station.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Timber cutting, market gardens, brickworks on the local clay and sand pits supported the early town. After the direct line from South Yarra opened in 1879, Oakleigh grew into a railway suburb, becoming a borough in 1891 and a city in 1927.
TURNING POINTS
1853Oakleigh township is surveyed near Scotchmans Creek and its allotments sold.
1877The Gippsland railway’s first section, Oakleigh to Bunyip, opens on 8 October.
1879The line from South Yarra to Oakleigh opens on 2 April, linking Gippsland directly with Melbourne.
1891Oakleigh becomes a borough, separate from the surrounding shire; it is proclaimed a city in 1927.
1994Oakleigh city merges with Waverley to form the City of Monash.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A middle-ring suburb in the City of Monash, with its shopping centre clustered around the station. The old civic precinct, mechanics’ institute and pioneer cemetery remain near the first township.