Edithvale

Edithvale is a beach suburb 28 km south east of central Melbourne. It was the last of five suburbs in the former Chelsea city to receive recognition as a place name. Until that came it was treated as a locality shared by Aspendale and Chelsea.

A State primary school was opened in Edithvale in 1913, but named after its bigger neighbour, Aspendale. The Edithvale railway station opened six years later. It is at the end of Edithvale Road which was named after a farm of the same name.

The name of the school was changed to Edithvale in 1921, and in 1923 the Edithvale post office opened. By the end of the 1920s there was a substantial beach suburb, although in most of the short streets between the beach and Point Nepean Road at least half the dwellings were holiday houses. Along Point Nepean Road north of the railway station there were shops, two banks, an estate agent, the Edithvale hall and the fire brigade. Down toward the beach there were a boat club hall and the Edithvale surf life saving club. In Edithvale Road there was a Presbyterian church (1925) and in Clydebank Road there were Methodist and Anglican churches.

Eastwards, towards Secondary Drain, the land was swampy. As drainage works were built the land was used for the Chelsea public golf course and the Edithvale common. On a dry corner of the common the Edithvale bowls club opened in 1968. Across Secondary Drain the land became a remnant wetland, receiving Ramsar classification in 2001. Combined with the adjoining Seaford wetland, the total Ramsar area is 261 ha. Edithvale primary school had 310 pupils in 2014.

The Chelsea hospital opened in Edithvale in 1941, later becoming an aged persons’ hostel.

Edithvale’s census populations have been: