Surrey Hills, Victoria

Surrey Hills is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km east of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area are the Cities of Boroondara and Whitehorse. At the, Surrey Hills had a population of 13,133.Surrey Hills is a classic leafy eastern suburb,situated eleven kilometres from the city. It was settled in the late 19th century and evolved with slightly smaller blocks and slightly simpler housing than its neighbour Canterbury.Most of Surrey Hills' streets are lined with now-mature European trees, mostly plane and pin oak, that create the much-lauded leafy look that took nearly a century to achieve.It is bordered by Elgar Road in the east, Riversdale Road in the south, Union Road in the west and Maroondah Highway in the north. The hills in the suburb's name are most obvious near the corner of Canterbury and Elgar roads, which is also the site of the local water storage reservoir.HistoryThe Surrey Hills area was acquired from the Crown by Henry Elgar, as part of his Special Survey purchase in 1841.The Surrey Hills area was first developed by a Real Estate consortia, following the extension of the railway line from Camberwell to Lilydale in 1882. Surrey Hills Post Office opened on 1 October 1884. Housing estates were laid out and lovely period homes built in either brick or weatherboard, with most designs being influenced by the Victorian, Federation and Edwardian era. The streets were planted mainly with avenues of Pin Oak and Plane trees, which are now mature and offer a pleasant shady vista. The streets have impressive names such as Empress, Kingston, Surrey, Balmoral, Leopold, Windsor, Albert and Wolseley, but the area was considered too distant from the nearest shopping districts: Camberwell to the west and Box Hill to the east. The economic depression of the 1890s brought development to a halt and the next major phase of suburban development didn't take place until after the First World War.