Driving along the bush-lined Nepean Hwy, you’ll see the sign to Mount Eliza. Hidden by lush greenery, you delve in to find a bustling village unveil itself, with excellent shopping, French restaurants and laid back cafes. Delve a little further and prestigious homes and sparkling sea views become apparent.
With its excellent schools, Mount Eliza is primarily home to many families who have kids hitting the books, while the relaxed pace and bay views are a major drawcard for older couples looking for an easier way of life.
Situated at the gateway to the Mornington Peninsula, Mount Eliza Way has luxury bayside charm in spades. Mount Eliza Way, the main shopping area, is a breezy enclave of good supermarkets, pretty gift stores and excellent restaurants like Bistro Maison or the hidden Japanese gem called Oyama 24. You can walk by the beach or through the bush, or stop in at Eden Gardens for afternoon tea amongst the nursery plants.
There’s no shortage of education institutions here, from the famous Toorak College girls school to the Mt Eliza Business School. Public transport is mainly buses, with Frankston being the closest train station.
Mount Eliza is dense and leafy, segueing down towards the bay, where you’ll find magnificent, modern, state-of-the-art homes with equally impressive views. Within Mount Eliza, there are a large number of luxury homes with in-ground pools as well as some older homes with established garden surrounds.While you won’t find many apartments, there are a number of new, modern units catering to couples looking to downsize.
‘Whether you want trees or seas, a modern luxury pad or a neat new unit, you’ll find something to suit in Mount Eliza”.
It’s an hour from the city but a whole world away. With a relaxing shopping village and multiple schools serviced by buses, this is the perfect spot for families and leisure-loving couples.
Enquire today on how Seachange Property can sell or buy your perfect Mount Eliza property.
Mount Eliza was named in 1836 by Captain William Hobson after Elizabeth Callaghan, the wife of John Batman.
Prior to large scale subdivision, Mount Eliza was mainly a location for holiday homes, Mount Eliza Post Office opening on 15 November 1920. This began to change in the early half of the 20th century when many old estates were subdivided. One such subdivision was Ranelagh Estate, designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin in 1924 in tandem with the surveyors Tuxen and Miller.
Daveys Bay was named after James Davey who constructed a jetty in the 1840s to ship his produce to Melbourne. In 1909 the Daveys Bay Yacht Club was established, and winds its way to a walking track overlooking Mt Eliza Beach on the shores of Canadian Bay, which was named after three Canadians who owned a sawmill in the area in the 1950s.
In 1928, the exclusive girls school Toorak College was built and is one of the oldest independent girls schools in Victoria. By the 1950s the shopping precinct began to develop and by the 1960s was a well established shopping village. Hollywood glamour came to Mt Eliza in 1959 when movie stars Fred Astaire, Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner arrived to shoot the Stanley Kramer film, On The Beach, based on the novel of the same name by British novelist Nevil Shute who had lived at nearby Langwarrin.
Adjacent to Sunnyside beach sits a historical property Morning Star Estate. Morning Star Estate is a distinctive example of a Victorian era mansion built as a rural or holiday retreat on the Mornington Peninsula, it incorporates a variety of picturesque styles including Tudor and Gothic revival.Sunnyside estate (now Morning Star Estate) was originally purchased by Londoner Francis Alfred Gillett in 1865 a short time after he arrived in the colony in 1853. Gillett designed the Sunnyside mansion sometime around 1867-1870. In 1932 the property was purchased, with funds from a bequest, by the Catholic Church and became known as Morning Star Boys’ Home. The boys’ home was developed into a country-training centre for delinquent boys, giving them exposure to the benefits of rural life. The boys later became involved in an extensive building program, which lead to further developments of the property. Despite this, the mansion remained the dominant architectural feature of the property.
Renovations and extensions were undertaken by the Franciscans in 1944-1946. Some effort to follow the lead of the mansion was made in the external Tudor/Gothic detailing of the large chapel. A number of courtyards were formed by the new buildings, including a large courtyard which was used for sports and was later enclosed. The remains of a football field lie to the south of the building complex, and a tall angular concrete pillar near the Nepean Highway originally carried a statue of the Virgin Mary sculpted by one of the brothers.Morning Star Estate has been in a number of films due to its picturesque location and historical buildings, including a three-month location shoot around the mansion for the movie Partisan, starring French actor Vincent Cassell occurred in 2014 and in 2013.
The mansion was the location for the Kath & Kim movie spin-off Kath & Kimderella.Morning Star estate is also home to possibly the largest rose garden in Victoria, The extensive gardens surrounding the main mansion are now home to more than 700 varieties of ornamental roses.