Suburban Heartland: A History of the City of Whitehorse
Australian History Local History Social History Reference Antiquarian & Collectible Young Adult Non-Fiction Urban Planning
Suburban Heartland: A History of the City of Whitehorse is the definitive signed first-edition guide that collectors and local-history enthusiasts have been hunting for since 2010. Author-historian Lesley Alves spent years mapping the transformation of Melbourne’s eastern suburbs from bushland to thriving municipality, and this 312-page paperback is the only stand-alone volume that weaves together planning records, oral histories and more than 40 custom-drawn maps to show exactly how Box Hill, Blackburn, Nunawading and surrounding districts evolved. Because the print-run was small and most copies went straight into Victorian school libraries, clean first editions—especially ones personally authentically signed by Alves on the title page—rarely surface on the secondary market.
What makes this copy irresistible to buyers is its combination of scarcity and condition: a tight, unmarked binding, no ex-library stamps or dog-eared leaves, and only light exterior rubbing that keeps it graded “very good-plus.” The inclusion of fold-out street and parish maps is a huge bonus for genealogists, heritage architects and anyone tracing house histories in the City of Whitehorse. Young-adult and adult readers alike appreciate Alves’ narrative style—she balances academic rigour with true-story anecdotes about post-war migration, tramline extensions and backyard swimming-pool culture—so the book doubles as both a readable leisure title and a reliable reference text for school local-history projects.
If you’re building an Australian history collection, researching family roots in Melbourne’s east, or hunting a gift that will make a Whitehorse resident say, “I didn’t know our council had a book like this,” a signed first edition is the ultimate keepsake. Demand continues to climb as the area’s 1950s–1970s heritage homes attract new owners eager to understand their suburb’s back-story, and once this copy is gone, there is no guarantee when another signed example will appear online.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
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