Editing Toorak (section)

==History==
===Toponymy===
Toorak was named after Toorak House, an [[Italianate]] residence built in 1849 by merchant James Jackson. The name of the house may have originated from the [[Woiwurrung language]] of the [[indigenous Australians|indigenous inhabitants]], with words of similar pronunciation meaning "black crow" or "reedy swamp".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://home.vicnet.net.au/~malvern/local_names.htm |title=Local Names |website=Malvern Historical Society |access-date=15 June 2016}}</ref>

===Toorak House===
{{See also|Toorak House}}
From 1854 Toorak House served as the residence of the first [[Governor of Victoria]], [[Captain (naval)|Captain]] [[Sir]] [[Charles Hotham]] [[Order of the Bath|KCB]] [[Royal Navy|RN]] and his successors, until the completion of the present [[Government House, Melbourne|Government House]] (1876) in the [[Kings Domain, Melbourne|Kings Domain]].

Toorak Post Office opened around June 1858.<ref name="a">{{cite web |website=Phoenix Auctions History |title=Post Office List |url=http://www.phoenixauctions.com.au/cgi-bin/wsPhoenix.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&filter=*Toorak* |access-date=7 February 2021}}</ref>

===1880s land boom===
[[File:Wombalano.jpg|thumb|right|"Wombalano", a thirty-room mansion built by [[John Munro Bruce]] in the 1880s]]
[[File:Chastleton House, Toorak, Victoria, Australia.jpg|thumb|right|"Chastelton", characteristic of many 1880s Victorian houses built in the area]]
During the land boom of the 1880s, many large and elaborate mansions were erected in Toorak, often in the [[Italianate]] style. Following [[East Melbourne, Victoria|East Melbourne]] and then [[St Kilda, Victoria|St Kilda]], Toorak, along with [[Brighton, Victoria|Brighton]], became the new favored location for the wealthy.

===1890s depression===
The suburb was hit particularly hard by the [[1890s depression in Australia|1890s economic depression]] and many wealthy landowners declared bankruptcy and were forced to sell. Nonetheless, the suburb remained and is still Melbourne's home of "[[old money]]". During the [[Interwar period]], many houses were built in the [[Tudor Revival architecture|Tudor revival]] style; many houses were also designed by society Architect [[Marcus Martin (architect)|Marcus Martin]] in the [[Moderne architecture|Moderne]] style over a [[Georgian architecture|Georgian]] building form.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/5632|title=42 Wallace Avenue, Toorak, Statement of Significance|website=Heritage Council Victoria}}</ref>

===Post-war era===
In the period of post-[[World War II]] prosperity, rising standards of living and land values caused Toorak to become highly sought after by a new generation of the wealthy, thought by some to be [[social climber]]s and [[nouveau riche]]. For some of these people, the focus was simply to have the postcode of Toorak, which was SE 2 and now 3142. As a result, many of the larger mansions were demolished and large holdings were subdivided to make way for flats, townhouses and apartments.

In the 1980s, larger houses in [[Georgian architecture|Neo-Georgian]] and [[Neoclassical architecture|Neo-Classical]] styles began to appear.

===Contemporary Toorak===
While large mansions have survived in neighbouring [[Hawthorn, Victoria|Hawthorn]], [[Kew, Victoria|Kew]] and [[Armadale, Victoria|Armadale]], only a few of the original 19th-century mansions in Toorak remain, due in part to the high land value. Two of the most notable are Illawarra House, which was acquired by the National Trust; and Coonac, the most expensive house in Melbourne.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/11/20/1037697739246.html |title=Toorak's grandest gets new owner |first=Deborah |last=Gough |newspaper=[[The Age]] |location=Melbourne |date=21 November 2002 |access-date=15 June 2016}}</ref> In Toorak, some of the old property names live on as street names or the names of blocks of flats, carved out of or built on their sites; Dunraven Avenue, Millicent Avenue, Iona Avenue, Woorigoleen Road, Myoora Road, and Scotsburn Grove are examples.