My suburb is so small, our primary school was cut in half

Our small suburb hosts only half of Glen Huntly Primary School. The school has two campuses dissected by Grange Road – one campus in Glen Huntly and the other across the road in Carnegie. Tiny Glen Huntly shares its 3163 postcode with both the much larger and better-known suburbs of Carnegie and Murrumbeena.

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In my memory, some houses closer to the Caulfield Racecourse had stables; in the early morning, the racehorses would trot across for track sessions and return with their flanks steaming. Unfortunately, this sight is no more, after the stables at Caulfield moved to Cranbourne. Glen Huntly also has a less salubrious connection to racing with the failed shooting of legendary racehorse Phar Lap, in Manchester Grove in 1930.

The name Glen Huntly has ignominious origins dating back to an emigrant ship from Scotland in 1840. Declared a fever ship after an outbreak of typhus, it was quarantined at Point Ormond in Elwood. The track to the temporary quarantine station was named after the unfortunate vessel, and so was the subsequent suburb.

The area was largely market gardens before more housing was built between 1910 and the 1920s. As a result, many houses are of the Edwardian, California bungalow, and art deco style. Many older homes that have reached the end of their life now fall to the bulldozer, replaced by townhouses and apartments.

For many years, the concrete walls of the long-decommissioned Caulfield Service Reservoir occupied a block on Booran Road. It was for years expected that the site would be transformed into public open space. With three young children we were excited, as Glen Huntly lacks public parks. Unfortunately, glacial progress meant our children, now adults, didn’t experience what has become a massively popular park. One of my favourite events there is the annual Diwali Festival — a riot of colour, street food, and joyful children.

One thing that Glen Huntly lacks, compared to its larger neighbours, is a community centre or a library for local gatherings. As a kind of proxy, I’ve seen the development through the hard work of local community members of an impressive reflection garden. It stretches for about 100 metres alongside the railway line. In the evening, people often sit and chat among the twinkling fairy lights and clunking bamboo wind chimes. A number of once-overgrown laneways have also been transformed by residents with native plantings and a small outdoor art gallery to support local flora and culture.

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Like many established suburbs close to the CBD, Glen Huntly is undergoing enormous change. The state government has declared the area a Major Activity Centre, due to its proximity to infrastructure and public transport. It will be a fine balancing act to welcome development while retaining the attributes that make Glen Huntly so liveable.

My partner and I have had many long conversations about downsizing from our large and largely empty family home. But we always get stuck on where else we’d rather live. And we keep circling back to a location that replicates exactly where we are now.

Maybe that’s Glen Huntly’s ultimate cachet: slightly anonymous, but close to everything you need.

John Dodson is a former HR manager and avid traveller who has called Glen Huntly home for 27 years.

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