Frankston North
Frankston North is between Frankston and Seaford, 38 km south-east of Melbourne.
When first recognised as a suburb in the 1960s Frankston North included several golf courses: Peninsula Country Club, two courses (1925) and Long Island Country Club (1938), which are now in Frankston. Beyond the golf courses there was open country dotted with Monterey pine trees and an early attempt at a pine plantation.
In the summer of 1955-56 the area was badly burnt. The State Housing Commission had been building an estate in Frankston and acquired 300 acres of the burnt land for the Frankston Forest housing estate. The Commission planned the estate with some imagination, basing it on neighbourhood units of about 500 houses for each primary school and with limited access roads for traffic safety (1957-58 annual report).
Beginning in 1961 several State schools opened:
| name | date opened | situation in 2011 |
|---|---|---|
| Frankston Forest primary | 1961 | Closed c2004; aged care facility |
| Monterey primary | 1965 | 140 pupils |
| Monterey high | 1967 | Closed c1995; community park |
| Armata primary | 1967 | Closed 1986; park and Orthodox church |
| Monterey technical | 1968 | Secondary college; 434 pupils |
| Aldercourt primary | 1971 | 188 pupils |
East of the estate, in the direction of Carrum Downs and Skye, the country was still open in the late 1960s. The Department of Agriculture had a vegetable research station in Ballarto Road and opened the Keith Turnbull research station (pests and noxious weeds) next door in 1967. Several hundred acres remained undeveloped and were saved from subdivision. They became the Pines Flora and Fauna Reserve (1980s).
The independent school St Anthony's Coptic Orthodox College (1995) at Frankston North closed in 2012.
Frankston North has the Pines Forest neighbourhood shopping centre, a swimming pool, three sports reserves and other open space, two kindergartens and Anglican, Catholic, Salvation Army and Presbyterian churches. Its census populations have been:
| census date | population |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 5762 |
| 2006 | 5492 |
| 2011 | 5626 |
At the 2011 census, nearly all the houses were freestanding, with about 150 out of 2450 being semi-detached or apartments. Residents were not high income, and Frankston North bears the imprint of its public housing history:
| % of total (2011) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Frankston North | Victoria | |
| Single parent families | 37.2 | 15.5 |
| Workforce: | ||
| Labourers | 20.1 | 9.0 |
|
Technicians and trade workers |
17.8 | 13.9 |
|
Machinery operators and drivers |
15.1 |
6.1 |
The median personal income at the 2011 census was 68% of the Victorian median.
