A look at Bayswater in Melbourne’s outer east

A number of years ago I was sitting at the hairdresser near my hip inner-north abode, recounting the story of the gentleman friend I had recently started spending time with.

“He lives in Bayswater,” I said casually. “No, I haven’t been out there yet.”

My hairdresser, who hailed from the area himself, paused mid-snip. “Oh Bayswater! Very good if you’re in the market for a second-hand DVD player. You can get anything in that pub’s car park! Seriously though – it’s not as dodgy as it used to be.”

Comforting! I soon discovered that “Bayswater” was something of a misnomer (see also: leftover wine, fun runs). It is nowhere near the bay, and the only water is a pleasantly meandering creek. Safe to say, as an ex-pat Kiwi who had spent years enjoying Melbourne’s cool inner north with its high rents and carefully curated grungy pubs, my expectations were not high. Over the following months, however, I started warming to the idea of spending time further out from the inner city. After all, a bit more space (quite a lot more space, actually) and cheaper living costs might soften the blow of the longer commute. (Meeting one’s life partner who already happened to live there was also a compelling pull factor.)

So, why the misnomer? Well, Bayswater was originally known as Scoresby North, but in 1889 the district was renamed after bookmaker and publisher J. J. Miller’s nearby property at The Basin, itself named after his birthplace in England – being the posh enclave of Bayswater in Westminster, overlooking Kensington gardens.

It’s a fair assessment that “Baysie” is no posh enclave like its namesake – and it does get tarred with the Bogan Bayswater label (I’m looking in your direction, Heathmont correspondent). Tucked into Melbourne’s outer east, it sits near the foothills of the Dandenongs, sandwiched between leafy and lovely Heathmont, Wantirna to the west, and Boronia (somewhat unkindly nicknamed “Borosnia”) to the east and south. The way I would describe it to a Melburnian unfamiliar with the area would be to say: “Right, you know the Yarra Valley? Where we went on that winery tour? Right, so, you sort of go past Bayswater on the way to get there.”

The first thing to know about Bayswater is that it is a good distance from the CBD – 28 kilometres. My commute, when the stars align, is a respectable 39 minutes into town. I excuse myself entirely from the delights of the Eastern Freeway during peak hour, preferring my Kindle and my sanity.

The second thing to know is that apart from around the train station and its colourful cast of characters, Bayswater is a mostly peaceful, family-oriented suburb. The streets bristle with unvaried 1960s red-brick bungalows, increasingly punctuated by a scattering of medium-density modern townhouses. Look a little closer, however, and you start to notice ghosts of its orchard-growing past. For decades the area was dominated by apple and pear orchards, market gardens, dairies and chicken farms, with many operations continuing into the 1950s. The street names themselves carry echoes of that history: Orange Grove, Orchard Road, Lemon Grove.

Enormous turn-of-the-century homesteads are still present – Highmoor, which was regularly visited by Dame Nellie Melba when her sister lived there, and Bona Vista, an 1880s mud brick cottage that feels like a small architectural time capsule. The Bayswater Wine Cellar, now something of a local curiosity on the corner of Mountain Highway and Bayswater Road, is the oldest surviving building in the district and looks every day of it. It was originally built in the late 19th century to provide cold beer for loggers travelling between Melbourne and the Dandenong Ranges, and was sold to a developer in 2017, a reminder that even sleepy outer-east heritage eventually meets Melbourne’s development appetite.

Outside the residential streets, Baysie’s identity is also influenced by its industrial past. Postwar growth saw major manufacturing arrive in the area: Dunlop Rubber established a factory in Bayswater North in 1952 to produce aviation products and much of that industrial footprint remains today in the form of sprawling warehouses and light-industrial estates. But tucked between wholesalers and factories you’ll also find the occasional small surprise – places like Hard Road Brewing, wedged discreetly into an industrial strip and producing some genuinely excellent craft beer.

Baysie had a second wave of German-speaking residents in the postwar years. Many had been internees at Tatura, in the Goulburn Valley, during World War II and were members of the Temple Society religious movement. After their release they settled in Boronia and Bayswater, and even today there are small reminders of this heritage, including the bilingual English-German program at Bayswater South Primary School.

Bayswater may lack trendy boutiques but more than compensates for this with excellent Asian food. Thai Tables serves some of the best Thai in Melbourne’s east and is packed most evenings. And if my blood sugar levels could sustain it, I would happily drink an iced coffee every day at Annie’s Bakehouse on Station Street, arguably the best Vietnamese-style iced coffee outside of Ho Chi Minh City. Still hungry? Head to the delightfully whimsical Hatter and the Hare cafe on Scoresby Road. Or join the queue at Drom Bakery next door, which has quietly become a destination for pastry enthusiasts.

To walk or cycle off that food, the underrated Dandenong Creek Trail snakes through Baysie. On a sunny morning you can follow it for kilometres beneath towering gums and cackling kookaburras, occasionally forgetting you are still within metropolitan Melbourne. And of course, the Dandenong Ranges are only minutes away.

Bayswater might not be the leafy prestige suburb that real estate agents wax lyrical about, but it is peaceful and surprisingly rich in small pleasures. The soil, enriched by decades of orchard farming, is ridiculously fertile. My vegetable garden now behaves like it has something to prove. Not bad for a place that allegedly used to specialise in second-hand DVD players.

Michelle Glennon is a project manager and sometimes writer who lives in Bayswater.

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