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Waurn Ponds, Victoria

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Waurn Ponds
Geelong, Victoria
View of the suburb south from Rossack Drive
Population2,326 (2006)[1]
Postcode(s)3216
LGA(s)City of Greater Geelong
State electorate(s)South Barwon
Federal division(s)Corangamite
Suburbs around Waurn Ponds:
Barrabool Ceres Wandana Heights
Barrabool and Mount Moriac Waurn Ponds Highton
Mount Moriac Mount Duneed Grovedale

Waurn Ponds is a mainly residential southern suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia.

The suburb is bounded by Rossack Drive, Princes Highway, the Geelong to Warnambool railway, Reservoir Road, Draytons Road, Pigdons Road, Deakin University and Honeys Road. It is home to the main Geelong campus of Deakin University and the regional Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre.

History

The town was named after the Waurn chain of ponds, a watercourse that flows from Mount Moriac over 30 km into the Barwon River.[2] Two early hotels - the Victoria Inn (1845–60) and the Waurn Ponds Inn (1856) were located on the Princes Highway serving travellers on the road. The Albert and Victoria vineyards, owned by David Pettavel, began growing grapes in 1848 and the area was better known as Pettavel in the 1860s.[3] The Pettavel Post Office opened on 12 January 1865 and remained open until 1952. The Waurn Ponds Post Office opened on 1 December 1871 and closed in 1968.[4]

A quarry for limestone was opened in the 1840s, with quarrying continuing from 1964 to today at the nearby Blue Circle Southern cement works.[5] Kilns for making mortar lime operated until the 1970s.[3]

Waurn Ponds started to become part of the outer suburbs of Geelong from the 1970s, with the opening of the Deakin University campus and the Waurn Ponds Hotel on the highway. Major development did not begin until the early 1990s, based around Ghazeepore Road. The intervening years have seen housing developments spread across the hillside towards Grovedale.

Heritage listed sites

Waurn Ponds contains a number of heritage listed sites, including:

Geography

Looking north towards Highton.

Waurn Ponds is home to the quite small Waurn Ponds Creek. It starts around the Mount Moriac region and eventually flows into the Barwon River near Belmont Common.[2]

As of 2007, it is low on water and is no more than 1 meter deep in most sections. It has a large weed problem which makes the creek look uninhabitable. The creek is home to species of fish (many introduced) including Carp, Redfin, Roach, Tench, Australian Grayling and short finned eels. The creek also is a large habitat of native birds including the pacific black duck. Increase in annual rain will bring the creek back to its original status.

Waurn Ponds has a large linear parkland following the creek. The neighbouring suburb of Grovedale has a skate park and baseball complex.

The boundaries of Waurn Ponds were expanded in 2012 when, as a result of boundary changes related to the development of the nearby Armstrong Creek Growth Area, an area of land in the west of the current suburb between the Princes Highway and the Geelong-Warrnambool railway line was shifted from the locality of Mount Duneed to Waurn Ponds.[8][9][10]

Transport

Waurn Ponds is located on the Princes Highway that links the suburb with the centre of Geelong. It is also the southern endpoint of Geelong Ring Road completed 2009. Anglesea Road heads south through the suburb linking the area to Torquay and Anglesea. Pioneer Road links the region west to Grovedale, the road not being completed eastward across the Waurn Ponds Creek until the mid-1990s.[11]

Public transport to the area is provided by Geelong Transit buses operated by CDC Geelong and McHarry's Buslines, with routes to the Geelong city centre travelling via the university, Belmont, Highton and Grovedale.

The Geelong V/Line rail service has been extended to Waurn Ponds railway station, situated in Sugargum Drive, which opened on 12 October 2014.[12] The new station was named Grovedale in the planning stages, despite being physically located in Waurn Ponds,[13] but the official name of Waurn Ponds was announced in July 2014.[14]

An earlier extension of Geelong line rail services in the direction of Waurn Ponds had been considered when funding was set aside for an extension of the rail services beyond South Geelong station in 2003-04, but this resulted in a new station being built at Marshall, closer to Geelong, instead.[15]

University

Main article: Deakin University

The Deakin University campus at Waurn Ponds had the beginnings in the Gordon Institute of TAFE, who purchased land there in 1969. A building for the Applied Sciences was first built, followed by a library and student lodgings in 1975.[16] In 1976 the Gordon Institute was divided into two parts, with academic courses becoming part of the newly formed Deakin University based at the Waurn Ponds campus.

Deakin enrolled its first students at its Waurn Ponds campus in 1977. Today the university is located on a 365 hectare site, has over 1,000 staff and over 4000 on-campus students.[17]

Deakin offers many social groups for students to join, The main Association is DUSA, followed closely by the Deakin Students' Commerce Society Deakin University Student Association#Deakin Commerce Students' Society

Retail

The Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre, located on the corner of Colac Road (Princes Highway) and Pioneer Road, is a regional-level shopping centre servicing the southern suburbs of Geelong and the surrounding region. It was opened in the early 1990s, and has been continually expanded. The most recent expansion was completed in August 2014, and increased the total area of the centre to 47,000 square metres.

The Geelong Homemaker Centre, located on the Colac Road (Princes Highway) at the intersection and Pigdons Road, opened in mid-2005. It includes Bunnings Warehouse and Harvey Norman stores, as well as a number of smaller stores, such as Supercheap Auto, Beacon Lighting, Snooze, Ray's Outdoors and, most recently, JB-Hi-Fi.

Waurn Ponds Plaza, located at the intersection of Rossack Drive and the Colac Road (Princes Highway), is another shopping centre in Waurn Ponds. It is the location of the office of the federal member for Corangamite, Sarah Henderson.

See also

References

  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Waurn Ponds (State Suburb)". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 2007-10-01.
  2. ^ a b Waurn Ponds Revegetation Project
  3. ^ a b City of Greater Geelong: Waurn Ponds
  4. ^ Premier Postal History, Post Office List, retrieved 2008-04-11
  5. ^ Rail Geelong: Waurn Ponds cement works
  6. ^ "Lime-Burning Kiln (H0866)". Victorian Heritage Register. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  7. ^ "Bridge (H1104)". Victorian Heritage Register. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  8. ^ "General Gazette Number G8" (PDF). Victoria Government Gazette. Government of Victoria. 23 February 2012. p. 36. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  9. ^ Woods, Eleanor (9 August 2011). "Charlemont 3217". Surf Coast Times. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  10. ^ "Charlemont" (PDF). Department of Energy and Primary Industries. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  11. ^ Gregory's 1982-83 Melbourne Street Directory
  12. ^ Linley, Margaret (2014-10-13). "Geelong's newest train station opens at Waurn Ponds". Geelong Advertiser. Retrieved 2014-10-13.
  13. ^ "New station at Grovedale". Public Transport Victoria. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  14. ^ Fowles, Shane. "More parking for $25 million Waurn Ponds train station". Geelong Advertiser. No. 2014-07-31. Retrieved 2014-09-28.
  15. ^ Department of Infrastructure: Marshall Railway Station
  16. ^ Gordon Institute of TAFE: History 1941 - Today
  17. ^ Deakin University: Waurn Ponds campus
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