Hughesdale, Victoria

Hughesdale Melbourne, Victoria
Euston Rd, Hughesdale.
Population	6503 (2006)
• Density
Postcode(s)	3166
Area	2 km2 (0.8 sq mi)
Location	16 km (10 mi) from Melbourne
LGA(s)	City of Monash
State electorate(s)	Oakleigh
Federal division(s)	Higgins, Hotham
Suburbs around Hughesdale: Malvern East Malvern East Chadstone Murrumbeena Hughesdale Oakleigh Bentleigh East Bentleigh East Oakleigh South

Hughesdale is an inner southeast suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Just 2sq km in size, it is the smallest suburb in the City of Monash, its Local Government Area. With more than one in three residents born outside Australia, the suburb has a strong Greek presence. Fourteen per cent of those living in the suburb speak only Greek at home.

Features

Hughesdale has a small strip shopping centre on Poath Road, and a railway station which is the closest rail access point to nearby Chadstone Shopping Centre. The shopping strip has undergone a revival since the mid-2000s with several new shops opening and the construction of a new retail/residential block, as well as the formation of a local traders' association.

Census figures show that the suburb is ranked 12th out of Melbourne's 328 suburbs in the proportion of employed workers who travel to work by train: one in six use the train to get to work, double the Melbourne average.

Schools

Hughesdale has three schools – Hughesdale Primary School, Sacred Heart Girls' College and St Anargiri Greek Orthodox College.

Hughesdsale Primary School, No. 4176, opened in 1924 as Oakleigh South State School and was renamed Hughesdale Primary School in 1938. It had a peak enrolment of 1296 in 1953, at which point some classes held 65 students.. The school was threatened with closure by the Kennett government in the 1990s as student numbers fell because of demographic changes, but was saved after a vote at an extraordinary School Council meeting in October 1996. Enrolments have risen steadily since then; in 2005 there were 322 students enrolled.

St Anargiri Greek Orthodox College opened in 1983, primarily to satisfy the educational needs of the Greek community of Melbourne's southeastern suburbs. It was initially a Primary to Year 8 school, with 91 students; today it is registered for Primary to Year 12, with enrolments exceeding 740.

Sacred Heart Girls' College was opened in 1957 by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, who came from the convent in Highgate, Perth, Western Australia. Enrolments for Year 7 are taken from surrounding Catholic Primary Schools. Subject to availability, places are then offered to other students, with preference given to Catholics.

The suburb was also the home of Oakleigh Technical School, at the corner of Poath Rd and North Rd, from 1946 to 1991. The school was demolished in 1993, with the site now occupied by a service station, McDonald's restaurant and a sports ground.

Origin of the name

The suburb was named as a tribute to James Vincent Hughes, mayor of Oakleigh from 1924 to 1925 who, with the Poath Road Railway Station League, lobbied heavily for a new station for the area. In 1924 the League suggested the station be called "Hugheston", but in February 1925, shortly before the station opened, Victorian Railways decided its name would be "Hughesdale". A decade later there was a move to rename Poath Rd "Hughesdale Rd", but this was rejected by the then Caulfield City Council.

Trivia

Many street names in Hughesdale are named after historically famous UK train stations. These include Rugby Rd, Euston Rd, Crewe Rd, Swindon Rd, Paddington Rd, Clapham Rd, Bletchley Rd, Willesden Rd, Carlisle Cr, Preston Rd, Skipton Rd, Dalston Rd, Camden Rd, Earlstown Rd.