Opinion pieces from local writers exploring their suburb’s cliches and realities and how it has changed in the past 20 years. See all 53 stories . My parents’ first date in the 1950s was at a party in Beaumaris.
It was, my dad explained, an “interesting” suburb. The area was popular at the time with creative types such as writers, artists, actors, fashion designers – Prue Acton, Linda Jackson, and Jenny Brown grew up in Beaumaris – and for some reason, airline pilots. (Dad worked in travel and Mum was an airline hostess).
Years later, when I was at art school, Beaumaris again popped up on my radar, thanks to a fellow student who lived there. I knew it was out of the city and by the bay, and it always sounded a bit exotic to me. I imagined a lifestyle among the trees, drinking wine, painting and lazing on the beach.
My husband and I grew up in the suburbs and had become avowed inner-city dwellers. Then children came along. Two boys and all that energy, combined with some wonderful holidays out of the city, made us yearn for more space, even a garage.
We were missing trees and sky. It’s funny how you can subconsciously mimic your parents. We had just completed a renovation on our “forever house” in East St Kilda and were not looking to move – but somehow, 23 years ago, found we’d bought a mid-century modern home in Beaumaris.
When you see a map of the bay, Beaumaris is the place that protrudes out before the long curve of beaches to Frankston. It has a rich history, beginning with the Bunurong people of the Kulin nation and their middens can still be discovered on guided coastal walks. Close to the border of Mentone, there are spectacular cliffs with views back east and down to the Peninsula, including “Table Rock” featured in the paintings of the Australian impressionists(Heidelberg school artists) from the 1900s and Clarice Beckett in the ’20s and ’30s.
At the base of the cliffs are world renowned fossil deposits where you can still discover shark teeth. Above the cliffs, on Beach Road, was the striking Beaumaris Hotel (previously known as the Great Southern Hotel), opened in 1889 as a seaside resort. It was extensively damaged in 1944 fires, rebuilt in the 1950s, and recently restored and rebuilt as apartments with its 1889 facade.
The cliffs and the coastal path wind all the way around to Ricketts Point, with its tea house and marine sanctuary – perfect for bird watching and snorkelling. You can keep walking to Quiet Corner at the Black Rock boundary via a path adjacent to bluestone sea walls built by workers during the Depression. The walk is a delight with its indigenous vegetation and habitat, making it hard to imagine you are only around 20 kilometres from the centre of a major capital city.
When we moved to Beaumaris, we found it was half an hour to the city by train from Sandringham and even longer by car. (It’s too bad that the electric tram from Black Rock to Beaumaris was closed in 1931.) Yes, it did seem like a long way out .
.. but a long way from what? With boys aged six and 10 it was the perfect place for us to live with its beaches, parks and nature reserves.
The scouts were Sea Scouts, with their own jetty and sailing boats, and in winter, the scout hall even had an open fire! It felt safe, the kids roamed free and rode their bikes to friends’ houses and to the video shop. They could walk to school. The Concourse shopping centre on one of the central roads was a revelation.
It was designed in a U-shape with its open space and trees almost hiding the shops. Good shops, too – great fruit and vegetables, a deli and a fabulous bookshop. In recent years, more cafes, restaurants, wine and fashion shops have added to the mix.
.
