Lower Plenty, Victoria
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Lower Plenty Melbourne, Victoria |
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 Lower Plenty
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| Coordinates | 37°44′02″S 145°06′58″E / 37.734°S 145.116°ECoordinates: 37°44′02″S 145°06′58″E / 37.734°S 145.116°E | ||||||||||||
| Population | 3,782 (2011 census) | ||||||||||||
| • Density | 548/km2 (1,420/sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 3093 | ||||||||||||
| Area | 6.9 km2 (2.7 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Location | 21 km (13 mi) from Melbourne | ||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | City of Banyule | ||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Eltham | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Jagajaga | ||||||||||||
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Lower Plenty is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16 km north-east from Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Banyule. At the 2011 Census, Lower Plenty had a population of 3,782.
Lower Plenty, in earlier times part of Eltham, almost certainly got its name from the Lower Plenty Toll Bridge, built in 1860 to collect tolls across the Plenty River. This bluestone bridge still stands as part of the Lower Plenty Trail. A report of a court case, in The Argus newspaper, dated 1 May 1879, reveals two lads, Corkhill and Hodgson, "broke the windows of the old tollhouse, Lower Plenty bridge", some 19 years after the bridge was built.
The suburb is bounded by the Plenty River in the west until it joins the Yarra River, which forms the southern boundary. Fitzsimons Lane forms the eastern boundary and Airlie Road north of Main Road (a continuation of Lower Plenty Road from the west) forms the northern boundary.
In February 1855 Hungarian immigrant Sigismund Wekey purchased 211 acres (0.85 km2) in what is now Lower Plenty, via The Victoria Vineyard and Garden Fruit Company of which he was manager, with a vision to start a wine industry in the new settlement of Melbourne.
In March 1855, Wekey held a meeting at the Bulleen Hotel and called for shareholders, each "according to his means", for a proposed toll bridge, the first bridge ever built over the Upper Yarra, joining Lower Plenty to Templestowe, and replacing a punt being operated by the company. The bridge would cut five kilometres off the trip from the Eltham township to Melbourne, it was claimed at the meeting.
A plan, backed by a group of Melbourne businessmen who would form the ‘Templestowe Bridge Committee’, attracted the necessary shareholders and the project was underway. Colonial Architect of the day, James Balmain did the design as a private commission, engineers and builders were Allott and Greenwood. The foundation stone, laid by John Hodgson M.L.C., on 18 August 1855, concealed a manuscript giving details of the ceremony.
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