Ashburton

Ashburton is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 km (7.5 mi) southeast of Melbourne's Central Business District.

Ashburton is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 km (7.5 mi) southeast of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Boroondara. At the 2016 census, Ashburton had a population of 7,751.Ashburton is known for the Ashburton Village shopping strip, the Ashburton Community Centre and the Ashburton Library on High Street. Nearby Warner Avenue hosts the Ashburton Pool and Recreation Centre and the Ashburton Seniors Centre. It is in close proximity to the Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, Monash University (Caulfield and Clayton campuses), Deakin University (Burwood campus) and Swinburne University (Hawthorn campus).

In 2021, Ashburton residents were found to have the longest lifespan of any residents in Victoria.

Ashburton is located on Wurundjeri land.

The Outer Circle Railway, originally from Oakleigh to Melbourne via Fairfield, was abbreviated to spur lines from Camberwell within a few years, northwards to Deepdene and southwards to Norwood Station by 1891. Norwood was changed to Ashburton, at the suggestion of a former local councillor, E. Dillon who had lived in Ashburton Terrace, Cork, Ireland. The area took its name from the station.

An unrealised objective of the railway line was to stimulate residential development, but at the time the locality was best known for the Ashburton Forest, overlooking Gardiners Creek, as a site for picnics. The 'Ashy Dasher', a dedicated steam train, brought day-trippers to the Forest.

In the 1920s Ashburton had a few shops, orchards and market gardens, supporting sufficient population for a primary school to be opened in 1928 (549 pupils, 2014). There was a public hall in High Street Road near Johnston Street where Catholic and Presbyterian church services were held in the late 1920s. By the end of the decade, sub-divisions on the north side of High Street Road began to urbanise the area. Ashburton Primary School on Fakenham Road opened in 1928.

In 1948 the railway line was extended by one station to Alamein Station to accommodation the residents of the housing built by the Victorian Government's Housing Commission. In honour of returned servicemen and women who occupied much of the new estate, the streets of the new area were named after World War II sites in the Pacific and Western Desert campaigns, and war-time aircraft and flying boats. Street names include Victory Boulevard, Benghazi Avenue, Tobruk Road, Ambon Street, Huon Court, Lancaster Street, and Liberator Street. The Solway school opened in 1950 with the name Darling East. It was renamed Solway in 1956 after the Postmaster-General's Department opened in Solway post office near Solway Street.

The rail line was electrified in 1924, and the Ashburton Post Office opened on 15 December 1927. Another office was opened at Solway (in the south-west of the suburb) and operated from 1954 until 1978.