Vermont South

Vermont South is 20 km east of central Melbourne. It is a residential area north and south of the Burwood Highway, with Burwood East on its western border and the Dandenong Creek/Wantirna as its eastern border.

Until the late 1960s Vermont South was rural with numerous orchards, as it was fairly remote from the railway line to Lilydale in the north and from the Glen Waverley railway terminus to the south-west. An early modern development was the Burvale Hotel at the corner of Springvale Road and Burwood Highway. The Vermont South shopping centre on the Highway was opened in c1974. Nearby there are the Livingstone primary school (1978) and the Vermont South Special school. There are also private schools – Emmaus College (1980) and the Holy Saviour Catholic school (1977).

Vermont South’s civic centre is around the Burwood Highway shopping centre where there are also an indoor sports stadium, Council library, neighbourhood house, a bowling club and two nearby schools. Other authorities might say that Vermont South’s real heartland is to the west, between Burwood Highway and Highbury Road, where residential development began in the 1960s. A small cul-de-sac, Pin Oak Crescent, was the ‘Ramsay Street’ locale for filming the television series Neighbours (1986-88).

Public transport to the Vermont South shopping centre came in 2005 when the Burwood Highway tram was extended from Blackburn Road.

Numerous reserves are distributed in the residential areas, the larger ones being Billabong Park, Terrara Park (both with sports facilities), and Bellbird Dell. The Dell is on former orchard land acquired by Nunawading Council in 1966. The eastern part of Vermont South, abutting the Dandenong Creek, has the Morack public golf course, a lookout on a former council tip and a Bunnings warehouse (2005).

Vermont South’s census populations have been:

At the 2011 census, 12.6% of residents spoke Mandarin or Cantonese at home.