About Wonga Park, VIC

Wonga Park is a locality on the edge of Greater Melbourne, beyond the Melbourne Metropolitan Urban Growth Boundary area, 28 km north-east from Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Manningham and Maroondah and the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government areas. Wonga Park recorded a population of 3,843 at the 2021 census. Wonga Park is bounded in the west by Jumping Creek, in the north by the Yarra River, in the east by Brushy Park and Old Homestead Roads and in the south by Holloway Road. The name comes from the Wonga Park grazing property, which itself derives from Simon Wonga, elder of the Wurundjeri indigenous people of Melbourne. The area was part of Mooroolbark until the 1890s. == History == Eight Hour Pioneer Settlement Post Office opened in 1902, was renamed Wonga Park around 1907 and closed in 1989. It reopened in its current location in 1994.One of the grazing properties, Yarra Brae, was acquired by the Lord Clifford in 1942. He made part of it available for Australia's first Pan Pacific Scout Jamboree in 1948. Clifford Park hosted another Jamboree in 1955 and is now a major Scout campsite, available for use by non-Scouting organisations as well.In 1972, Yarra Brae was the site of a proposed Lower Yarra River Reservoir, but residents of the nearby Bend of Isles bushland estate persuaded the Victorian Government to abandon the proposal.The residential development of Wonga Park came after the subdivisions in Croydon and Mooroolbark, which were on the Maroondah Highway and a railway line. Residential living is most concentrated around the old village settlement where the church, hall, sports facilities, fire station and local shops are found.