Rowville, Victoria

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Rowville is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It is situated in the local municipality of the City of Knox.

Rowville -postcode 3178- is named after the Rowe family whose property Stamford Park was established in 1882. The Stamford Park homestead has in recent years been restored by Knox Council. Physically Rowville is one of the largest suburbs in the South-eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Rowville has developed rapidly over the 1980s and 1990s, especially in terms of housing and light industrial activities. Culturally though, Rowville is, like much of Melbourne’s outer suburbs, still developing. This development has included the construction of a new shopping centre called 'Welllington Village' on Wellington Road which complements the Rowville Lakes shopping centre on Kelletts Road and the largest shopping centre in the suburb, Stud Park. This centre is the location for the Rowville Library and the Rowville Community Centre, where, each October, the Stringybark Festival is held. This popular event, organised by Knox Council, focuses on environmental sustainability. Three golf courses provide Rowville with great leisure outlets for the burgeoning population of mainly young families. The members of the 2005-2007 Knox Youth Council Representatives for this area are Kevin Lam, Hannah Nelson, Joe Strummer, Georgia Knight, and Katie Kallista.

1 Education
2 Transport
3 Governance
4 History - External Link
5 Governance - External Links

[edit] Education

Rowville has one dual campus High School, Rowville Secondary College, with the Eastern Campus (7-10) and Western Campus (7-12). Students from the Eastern Campus move to the Western Campus to complete their VCE. There are 4 government primary schools, Rowville Primary, Karoo Primary, Heany Park Primary, Park Ridge Primary and one Catholic Primary School, St. Simons. When Lysterfild Primary School was relocated to its present site it was in Rowville, however the boundary between the suburbs has changed and Lysterfild Primary is once again in Lysterfield.

[edit] Transport

Rowville is a heavily car dependent community with most families having at least 2 cars with 5 or 6 cars per household not uncommon, depending on the number of children of driving age still living at home.

The current State Government has proposed that the public transport problems will be resolved by the implementation of what is known as the SmartBus system, which includes special bus lanes on major traffic routes. One SmartBus route connecting Rowville to Caulfield has been established, with another route providing a link to Ringwood and Frankston announced by the government which is expected to begin operation in 2008. [1]

Despite consistent lobbying from local councils, residents and the Public Transport Users Association who believe that a heavy rail line is the ideal solution, the State Government will not consider it (despite promising to investigate its viability if elected). The State Opposition has indicated that it will have an investigation into into the viability of a rail service to Rowville if elected.

The general consensus among Rowville residents is that any railway line to Rowville would go along Wellington Road (which was once a railway reservation, but turned into a road by previous governments^{[citation needed]}) to provide a form of mass transit to this growing suburb. The stations proposed for the line are Rowville Parkway and Stud Park. These however, have not been officially guaranteed and there has been much debate over the Victorian State Government’s decision to fund new motor tollways (such as EastLink), rather than providing rail services to Rowville.

[edit] Governance

Federally

Rowville is in the Federal Division of Aston which is held by The Honorable Chris Pearce of the Liberal Party of Australia.

State

Rowville is split down the middle with half of the suburb in the State Lower House seat of Scoresby which is held by Kim Wells of the Liberal Party of Australia and the State Lower House seat of Ferntree Gully which is held by Anne Eckstein of the Australian Labor Party.

Council

Rowville is part of the City of Knox and has 3 ward councillors representing it.

Taylor Ward - Tony Kamitsis

Friberg Ward - Debbie Field

Tirhatuan Ward - Mick Van de Vreede

Melbourne suburbs near Rowville (City of Knox)
Scoresby	Knoxfield	Mountain Gate
Mulgrave	Rowville	Ferntree Gully
Dandenong North	Endeavour Hills	Lysterfield