There was something about the names of the streets around Essex Heights Reserve that made me go hmm … so I could not help myself but do a little digging. Here’s what I discovered:
“Essex is a county in southeast England, between London and the North Sea. The town of Colchester has Roman ruins and the Norman-era Colchester Castle, with a museum. Colchester Zoo is home to orang-utans and white rhinos. Southwest, 18th-century Hylands House in Chelmsford is set amid vast parklands.”
Then I had another thought, what of Mount Waverley? In this, Wikipedia was quite helpful (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Waverley,_Victoria).
“The Mount Waverley area, then part of the Parish of Mulgrave, was divided by straight roads running north-south and east-west, each exactly one mile apart, by Assistant Surveyor Eugene Bellairs, in 1853. Mount Waverley Post Office opened on 9 October 1905.
Mount Waverley is famous for its heritage streets. The suburb was a new estate in the 1930s. Due to the onset of the Great Depression, the building of houses on the estate did not get off the ground until the early 1950s. According to Lachlan Bath, president of the Ashburton Historical Society, the suburb's streets had been laid down, but no houses were built; merely a row of cardboard boxes housed the first few residents who had migrated east from the slums of Ashburton to enjoy a better standard of living, only to be bitterly disappointed with the estate agents who promised milk and honey but instead delivered a mosquito infested swamp. The Ashburton immigrants, while disappointed, all agreed that the "swamp" was a major step up from their former homes.
The Post Offices at Mount Waverley North (opened 1959 closed 1983), Mount Waverley South (opened 1968 closed 1973), and Mount Waverley West (opened 1964 closed 1977) chart the wider residential development of the suburb.
Close to Mt Waverley Village are the suburb's first streets, once designed to become the very epitome of prestigious country estate living and an extravagant idea decades ahead of its time.
Sherwood Park was part of the prestigious Glen Alvie estate that sought to form country club type living to Waverley.
Top quality land was acquired - 25 acres were bought from Mr Jack Lechte in 1928, and some from Mr Cornell, as well as a large parcel of land from Mr F. Closter - in all about 50 acres.
This fertile land had been dairy farm - Ayrshire-Jersey cross cows, with some pigs, a plum and apple orchard, and stock feed crops - canola, maize and lucerne (alfalfa).
Glen Alvie Estates Limited allocated five of the fifty acres for recreation facilities. There was to be a club house, six tennis courts, a bowling green, a croquet lawn, a mashee lawn, and a large swimming pool. These were to be laid out adjacent to Sherwood Park, a huge central area, lined with date palms that are still seen today.
Large houses around the periphery were to be built, and one-way roads would be constructed to prevent traffic problems; and also elsewhere in the estate - tucked between the large unfenced building sites and gardens to give a sense of living on a country estate.
A golf course had been established nearby by 1930; St John's Wood Golf Links, (now Riversdale Golf Club), the gardens of which were designed by Edna Walling, and a school was also nearby; Mount Waverley Primary School. This was to be garden suburb living.
The suburb's original streets, including Park Lane, Virginia Street and Sherwood Road, were built of concrete, not the less expensive asphalt.
Council intended to charge an extra rate to residents of the estate to cover the huge loan of building these concrete streets.The surface is still the same as it was in the 1930s, with only minor maintenance over the decades. Residential development did not resurge until the 1950s.
In early 2008, a new smoother asphalt surface was finally laid along the strip of Stephensons Road between Waverley Road and Mount Waverley Village shopping centre. Stephensons Road is the main road of Mount Waverley that goes straight through the middle of the suburb from south (where it becomes Clayton Road) to north (where it becomes Middleborough Road).
Significant parks within Mount Waverley include Valley Reserve, Damper Creek Reserve, and Federal Reserve. All reserves contain significant areas of remnant native bushland. Significant wetland areas in Mount Waverley are found within Valley Reserve and in the Scotchmans Creek valley.
The popular Melbourne Street Directory Melway was first produced in a garage in Mount Waverley in 1966. It is now published from premises in Ricketts Road in Mount Waverley.”
Then I further discovered, according to the St Stephen and St Mary’s website (https://www.stephenandmary.org.au/?page_id=3956) that:
“2015 was the 150th anniversary of the construction of the original church of St Stephen, at 383 High Street Road, Mount Waverley. It is believed to be the oldest building still in use in the area and the oldest continuing church in the City of Waverley/Monash.
The Church of St Stephen was built in 1865 at a cost of 330 pounds and was designed by well-known architect and St Stephen’s Parish Treasurer, Nathaniel Billing, who also designed All Saints, East St Kilda and various other buildings around Victoria.
When the church of St Stephen was built in 1865, most parishioners walked to church across the fields, whilst the lucky ones rode on horse back or by horse and cart. "
Now, about this CACHE, it is another of my ‘plum sized’ caches hidden within easy reach. There is a convenient park bench next to it. So if you just skipped to this paragraph, and there are muggles about, you could genuinely have something to read on your phone while you waited (!).
Please ensure that the cache is well sealed, and returned to sufficient camouflage to keep the fun going for those coming after you. As per geocaching etiquette, do share your adventures, but keep any spoilers to yourself. Thanks! BYO pen.