Canterbury

Canterbury is an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 10 km from Melbourne's Central Business District.

Canterbury is an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 10 km from Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Boroondara. At the 2016 Census, Canterbury had a population of 8,056.

Famed for its leafy green boulevards and substantial, opulent historic residences, Canterbury is one of Melbourne's most expensive and exclusive suburbs.

The railway station is in many ways responsible for the suburb's existence: before the opening of the railway to the City in 1882, the area was a semi-rural area. Even then, it was occupied by the well to do. Many of these early residents and in some cases, their properties, are remembered in the street names of the suburb, notably Logan Street and Monomeath Avenue.

Canterbury Post Office opened on 22 November 1870 (it was closed between 1887 and 1892).The first subdivision in the area came in 1885, when Michael Logan created the 'Claremont Park Estate' within the area of Canterbury Road, Bryson Street, Prospect Hill Road and Logan Street.

At around this time, Edward Snowden settled on 7 hectares in the area centred on a manor he named Monomeath. In 1900 Snowden's estate was subdivided and sold off to form what is now Monomeath Avenue and residents such as notable architect Percey Kernot and prominent citizen George Coghill moved in. The road was paved in 1911 and lined with oak trees. Over time it has gained much cachet in Australian society, famed for its wealthy and sometimes eccentric residents.