Mooroolbark

Mooroolbark is a suburb 35 km east of Melbourne, and immediately to the west of Lilydale.

In 1837 the cattle overlander, John Gardiner, took a lease over land between Brushy Creek and Olinda, calling his run Mooroolbark, thought to be an Aboriginal word for red earth. In 1845 a cousin of Gardiner’s, William Fletcher, purchased part of the run and called it Mooroolbark Park. The resulting homestead is now incorporated in Chirnside Park, an area severed from Mooroolbark. In 1855 the area was surveyed as the Parish of Mooroolbark.