Glen Waverley, Victoria

One of the largest suburbs in Melbourne by land area, Glen Waverley is bounded by Dandenong Creek to the east, Waverley Road and View Mount Road to the south-east, Ferntree Gully Road to the south, Blackburn Road to the west and Highbury Road to the north. Springvale Road, a major north–south distributor, divides the suburb. The geography varies from river flats adjacent to the Dandenong Creek in the east to hilly in the region between the Dandenong Creek and Scotchmans Creek catchments.

Victoria's first McDonald's restaurant located on the corner of Springvale and Highstreet Road after recent 2017 rebuilding.

The area was first settled in the mid nineteenth century and later developed as orchards and farming lands. The Post Office opened on 1 July 1885 as Black Flat in the area to the south of the railway line, was renamed 'Glen Waverley' in 1921, and Glen Waverley South in 1963 on the same day Glen Waverley North office (open since 1954) was renamed Glen Waverley (from 1994 The Glen).[4] The name "Waverley" refers to the Edinburgh Waverley railway station, from a novel by Sir Walter Scott.[5]

Major development occurred in the 1950s to 1970s with rapid infilling of housing built to a generally high standard on large (typically 800m²) blocks. In particular Legend Park Estate was opened by Hooker Rex in 1971.[6] Much of that housing stock is now ageing and renewal is occurring, frequently involving subdivision of the larger blocks into townhouse development. The suburb was also the site of Victoria's first McDonald's restaurant, which opened on 12 September 1973, at the corner of High Street and Springvale Road.[7] It was opened shortly after the original in Sydney. Following the Sydney McDonald's closure, it became Australia's longest surviving McDonald's until it was demolished in 2016,[8] and subsequently replaced with a modernised version.

Monash Council Building, Glen Waverley

The main street of Glen Waverley is Kingsway. In recent years, Kingsway has developed into a vibrant dining and entertainment area, with strong Asian influences. Also on Kingsway is Century City Walk, a cinema multiplex. It houses various eateries, a Strike Bowling Bar and a Village Cinema (equipped with Gold Class facilities). There are now many hotels such as Novotel Glen Waverley, Hotel Ibis, Waverley International Hotel, Apartments of Waverley and the Quest Hotel. There is also a large branch of the Monash Public Library Service. Construction of a 10-storey apartment, office, retail and car parking complex between the railway station and Kingsway will begin in mid-2011.[9] The suburb also has numerous churches, and is home to the Victoria Police Academy, which occupies a former Roman Catholic seminary. Located on and adjacent to Kingsway is also the Monash Council Building and Glen Waverley Library.

Monash Public Library, Glen Waverley branch.

The Glen (formerly known as "Centro The Glen") is a local regional shopping centre owned, (formerly managed and developed by Vicinity Centres). Although smaller than nearby shopping centres such as Westfield Knox or Chadstone, The Glen houses a substantial collection of shops, including supermarkets, a food court named Diners Life and a number of smaller clothing stores. Centro The Glen currently has over 207 specialty retail shops and 11 anchor retailers, thus making Centro The Glen one of the most significant shopping centres in the vicinity. Centro The Glen was the first shopping centre in suburban Victoria to contain a David Jones retail outlet. Construction is currently underway to expand The Glen into a vibrant dining and shopping experience with over 250 stores.

Glen Waverley is also the home of what is considered Victoria's best and one of Australia's best non-selective co-educational public schools, Glen Waverley Secondary College.

The suburb is nicknamed "The Centre of the Universe" (Chinese: "宇宙中心") by the local Chinese residents due to its convenient location, ample amenities, good weather and favourable living conditions.[10]

Glen Waverley has also developed to become somewhat of a business hub in metropolitan Melbourne, with many international companies including Toshiba, Ansell, and NEC all having their Australian headquarters in the suburb.[11]

Kingsway is a major dining and entertainment area with a strong Asian influence and demography.

In the 2016 Census, there were 40,327 people in Glen Waverley. 40.9% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were China 15.5%, India 6.4%, Malaysia 5.5%, Sri Lanka 5.3% and Hong Kong 2.4%. 40.5% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 19.3%, Cantonese 8.5%, Sinhalese 3.8%, Tamil 2.8% and Hindi 2.3%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 32.3%, Catholic 14.3%, Buddhism 10.0% and Hinduism 7.8%.[1]

Most of Glen Waverley's voting booths are within the federal electorate of Bruce (with the remainder in Chisholm). The suburb is traditionally oriented towards the Liberal Party, but has become extremely marginal and competitive in recent years. This is evidenced in the 2010 federal election results, in which the combined booth results for the suburb produced a primary vote of 40.7% for the Labor Party, 46.0% for the Liberals, and 9.8% for the Greens. After preferences, the split was 49.99% for Labor and 50.01% for the Liberals (a difference of 3 votes).[12][13]

University/TAFE

• Holmesglen Institute of TAFE (Glen Waverley Campus)

Secondary Schools

• Glen Waverley Secondary College
• Highvale Secondary College
• Brentwood Secondary College

Primary Schools

• Glen Waverley Primary School
• Glen Waverley South Primary School
• Glendal Primary School
• Mount View Primary School
• Highvale Primary School
• Camelot Rise Primary School

Private Schools

• Wesley College (Glen Waverley Campus)
• St Leonard's Primary School
• St Christopher's Primary School

The suburb has two Australian rules football clubs, Glen Waverley Hawks Football Club,[14] and the Glen Waverley Rovers Junior Football Club both competing in the Eastern Football League.

Soccer clubs include Glen Waverley Soccer Club (founded in 1980), and Waverley Victory Football Club (founded in 2001), they are both members of Football Federation Victoria.

Tennis clubs include Glen Waverley Tennis Club, Glenvale Tennis Club, Glenburn Tennis Club, Legend Park Tennis Club, Notting Hill Pinewood Tennis Club and Whites Lane Tennis Club.

Cricket is represented by the Glen Waverley Cougars Cricket Club and the Glen Waverley Cricket Club, who both compete in the Southern District and Churches Cricket League (SDCCL). In season 2009/2010, the Glen Waverley Cricket Club's 50th year, they won the SDCCL Menzies Shield, defeating Mount Waverley Uniting Cricket Club. The Glen Waverley Hawks Cricket Club compete in Wilson Shield of the Box Hill Reporter District Cricket Association. The Richmond cricket club trading as the Monash tigers are the main cricket club in the area playing Victorian Premier cricket. have been at central reserve since 2011 and were at punt road oval since 1854.

Golfers play at the course of the Glen Waverley Golf Club at Waverley Road in the neighbouring suburb of Wheelers Hill.[15]

Glen Waverley has a major recreational and aquatic centre located on Waverley Rd, the Monash Aquatic and Recreation Centre (MARC). It has a range of different swimming pools to cater for everyone's needs with two kid pools, a 40-metre wave pool, a Learn-to-swim pool, an indoor 25-metre pool, an outdoor 50-metre pool and a hydrotherapy pool.

M1 Swimming Club (formerly Waverley Amateur Swimming Club before 2002) has existed at the Monash Aquatic and Recreation Centre (formerly Waverley Swimming Pool) since 1962. There is a large squad swimming program at the MARC which has been operated by Tateswim since 2001. Tateswim runs squads for competitive and non-competitive swimmers, with competitive swimmers racing under the M1 Swimming Club banner. M1 also has members training in squad programs at the Harold Holt Swim Centre (City of Stonnington) and the Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic Centre (City of Glen Eira).

• Norman Yemm Australian Actor
• Kevin Bartlett AFL Footballer
• Jimmy Hannan Actor and TV
• Paula Duncan Actress
• John Orcsik Actor
• Paul Hester Musician
• Frank Woodley Comedian
• John Blackman Hey Hey its Saturday
• Shirley Strachan Skyhooks and TV
• Marina Prior Singer
• Hamish Blake from Hamish & Andy (radio show)
• Sir Garfield Sobers Cricketer
• Dylan Joel Musician/Singer/Rapper
• [Justice] (Of "Justice & Kaos"), Rapper/Battle, world Winner of Scribble Jam, 2005
• Phrase (rapper) (Harley Webster), MC

• Glen Waverley served as the fictional suburb of Banksiawood in the 1988 ABC children's television series C/o The Bartons by Jocelyn Moorhouse. Some scenes were recorded in the Century City Walk mall, Village Cinema, Townsend Street and the library.

• Glen Waverley railway station
• List of places referred to as the Center of the Universe