St Helena
Between Greensborough and Diamond Creek is the residential suburb of St Helena, 21 km north-east of central Melbourne. It is named after a church built by Major Anthony Beale, who arrived in Port Phillip in 1839.
Beale had been Paymaster-General on the island of St Helena for the British East India Company. He acquired land in the Greensborough area, naming it St Helena Park, which he farmed until his death in 1865. His wife, the daughter of a Governor of St Helena, predeceased him in 1856, and he built the Rose Chapel in her memory. The chapel was bequeathed to the Anglican church which constructed additions to make it a functioning church. It is a tourist attraction, consisting of a traditional English parish church and graveyard, set in the Anthony Beale Reserve.
St Helena has a secondary college (1984) and the Glen Katherine primary school (1986), several neighbourhood reserves and elderly persons' accommodation provided by the Old Colonists' Association. The residential streets are configured so as to reduce through traffic. The schools are in Eltham North and draw students from Diamond Creek and Eltham. In 2014 their enrolments were 1519 and 532 respectively.
St Helena's census populations have been:
| census date | population |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 3446 |
| 2006 | 2846 |
| 2011 | 2818 |
The fall in population from 2001 to 2006 came about from the census area being reduced around St Helena secondary college.
