Ormond

Ormond is a small residential area 12 kilometres south-east of Melbourne and bordered by the neighbouring suburbs of North Brighton, Caulfield South, Carnegie, Mckinnon and Bentleigh East. It was named after Francis Ormond, a grazier and philanthropist. The area was agricultural during its early days, but experienced some rapid growth between the World Wars, when the suburbs's vineyards started to be subdivided into housing estates.

The median land value of the typical Ormond home saw a dramatic rise over the past 5 years. What was once an area with an older demographic is quickly becoming filled with young newly-wed professionals. Nowadays, it seems older residents are passing away or choosing to sell their homes and live in smaller retirement villages. Most homes in the areas are Californian bungalows, most of which have undergone a renovation in the past 5 years. Some developers saw Ormond to be a prime location and started buying off lots and building units and flats. Many residents did not want their beloved suburb to be overrun with apartments, and so the Glen Eira council declared most of Ormond a heritage area in the late 90's in order to preserve the suburb.

Ormond lies north and south of North Road, which features it's own shopping strip on either side of the Ormond train station (which is situated on the Frankston line). In 1933, North road flaunted 70 shop's and businesses, a number which increased to 100 by 1950. The road once had it's own movie theatre around the mid 1900's, which will come as a surprise if you tell that to any youngster living in the area today. It was at some stage also widened, and today suffers from a huge amount of traffic during peak hours. Local businesses in the shopping strip are now struggling to cope, due to the traffic and crime, and many residents are chosing to shop at the nearby Bentleigh shopping strip or Southland and Chadstone shopping centres instead of North road. However, the years have brought with it a McDonald's, KFC stores and pizza shops.

The local primary schools provide rather good educations, which are just as good as the private schools provide which some parents spend thousands of dollars on.

Ormond Primary School was founded in 1891 and has boasted alot of academic success over the past 20 or so years (I attended the school myself, as so did my mother and a few elderly neighbours of mine. Yes, quite a number of people have lived in Ormond all their life). They were the first Victorian primary school to teach the Korean language. Unfortunately, the school has recently been treated more like a business than a school by its newly appointed headmaster. A couple of years ago it had one of the highest student to teacher ratios in the state, to which I recall being in a class of 34 students in grade 6, but the average class size has now been reduced.

Ormond East Primary School also does well academically. It was opened in 1930 and at the start of the new millenium, it was more suitably renamed to Mckinnon Primary School.

Ormond Girls' School was opened in 1923. It was later moved to another site and changed its name to Kilvington Baptist Girls Grammar School. It is situated right near the Ormond train station and is known for its successes in technology subjects. The school is private and each student uses a laptop to assist with their studies.

St. Kevins Catholic School is run by one of three of Ormond's churches. Students here receive compulsory catholic education. The school is also located right near the Ormond train station.

Ormond has a few pretty parks, such as the popular E.E.Gunn Reserve and Wattle grove park. The latter used to have some wonderful play equipment for children until, for reasons unknown, the council downgraded it to a cheap structure aimed for 3 - 5 year olds. Like many other areas in the world, Ormond has its secrets. Alot of local children are unaware of the couple of secret laneways that exist behind the back fence of some homes, or that some of their houses are situated on land where a creek used to be. A neighbour of mine who has lived in Ormond all her life told me of how she used to play with her husband in an old drain when they were both children -- a drain that is now closed off and hidden away.

Written with the assistance of
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ncas/multimedia/gazetteer/list/ormond.html
and some local knowledge.