Boronia

Boronia is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 29 km east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Knox local government area.

Boronia is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 29 km east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Knox local government area. Boronia recorded a population of 22,195 at the 2016 Census.

The area was originally occupied by the Wurundjeri, Indigenous Australians of the Kulin nation, who spoke variations of the Woiwurrung language group.

Prior to European settlement, Boronia and surrounding suburbs were often visited by Aborigines from the Westernport and Yarra Yarra tribes, hunting during the summer months in the Dandenong Ranges and its foothills. The Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation are the acknowledged traditional custodians of the land on which Boronia and all of City of Knox is located (source: Knox City Council publication).

In its early days of European settlement, Boronia was predominantly an orchard, flower growing and farming area.

Boronia was named in 1915 by local Councillor A. E. Chandler (prior to this, Boronia was considered part of Bayswater). Chandler named the suburb Boronia after the plant, boronia, which grew on his property at The Basin. The plant was discovered by Ferdinand von Mueller, an Austrian botanist, who came to Australia during the colonial period.

Boronia railway station opened in 1920, leading to an influx of residents and Boronia Post Office opened on 1 October 1920. A further influx occurred in the 1960s and 1970s.

The flowers most impressive historical building is Miller Homestead. Originally built in 1888 for John Miller, who was originally from Bayswater, London and the first president of the Shire of Fern Tree Gully (from which City of Knox separated in 1963) and justice of the peace. The original property included stables and horse training facilities and was over 77 acres (310,000 m2) in size. The property was sub-divided in 1971. Miller homestead is classified by the National Trust of Australia (Vic).

Boronia is a tree-lined suburb, with views of the National Park and the city of Melbourne (from the foothills themselves). There are also nature reserves and extensive bike paths/lanes. Boronia includes sections of the Dandenong Ranges foothills and thus possesses many hills itself. It has the beautiful, natural, green backdrop of the hills and the Dandenong Ranges National Park. Knox City Council have endeavoured to protect this green backdrop to Melbourne by developing pro-environment planning guidelines.

For years, Boronia had been split in two by the Belgrave railway line and a bottleneck railway crossing across the two main thoroughfares—Boronia and Dorset Roads. This crossing was the scene of a level crossing accident on 1 June 1952 that took 13 lives and was regarded at the time as one of the worst level crossing tragedies in Victoria's history. In the mid-1990s, VicRoads proposed the reconstruction the Boronia and Dorset Roads intersection, with the railway line being located underground and a new railway station built in a concrete cutting—ending the separation of the two-halves of the suburb and uniting Boronia. The new tunnel and intersection opened in 1998, with the land which the railway used to occupy (housing the Country Fire Authority, railway station and large playground/park) being converted into a new shopping centre and carpark.