Company Profile

Banyule City Council

The 21 suburbs of Banyule City lie on 63 square kilometres between 7 and 21 kilometres north-east of central Melbourne. These suburbs are: Bellfield, Briar Hill, Bundoora, Eaglemont, Eltham, Eltham North, Greensborough, Heidelberg, Heidelberg Heights, Heidelberg West, Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe East, Lower Plenty, Macleod, Montmorency, Rosanna, St Helena, Viewbank, Watsonia, Watsonia North and Yallambie. The Yarra River runs along the City’s south border while the west is defined by Darebin Creek.

Banyule’s landscape is gently to steeply undulating, apart from some relatively flat land in the west and on the river floodplains. Native vegetation flourishes in the east and north-east, while exotic trees and shrubs dominate the City’s southern and western parts.

Banyule is renowned for its open spaces and plentiful parklands, especially along the Yarra and Plenty River valleys. There are 466 hectares of council-owned open space in Banyule, as well as substantial areas of parkland managed by Parks Victoria. These provide a wealth of recreational, environmental and tourism opportunities for the region. There are sites of botanical, zoological, habitat and heritage significance, including aboriginal archaeological sites and scar trees, and points of interest associated with the Heidelberg School of Artists.

The city is primarily a residential area and retaining the character of these individual neighbourhoods is important to the local community.

There are industrial areas in Heidelberg West, Greensborough/Briar Hill and Bundoora, as well as institutions such as the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre and Simpson Army Barracks. Banyule also has a range of educational, health and leisure facilities.

Banyule is the active resident’s dream place to live, with many excellent community leisure facilities including indoor aquatics and fitness centres at Ivanhoe, West Heidelberg and Watsonia and a 50 metre outdoor pool at Greensborough. Greensborough also has a synthetic athletics track, while a hockey centre and indoor netball stadium can be found at Bellfield and Macleod respectively. There are other playing fields, tennis and bowling clubs throughout the municipality.

Cycling and walking through Banyule is a popular pastime, made enjoyable by the many kilometres of bicycle and pedestrian trails throughout the city, particularly along the Yarra and Plenty Rivers and the Darebin Creek.

For more about Banyule, see Explore Banyule.

Culture and Heritage of Banyule

Banyule’s culture and heritage is rich and diverse and includes features of architectural, environmental, aboriginal, social and cultural significance. Banyule is known for its historic buildings - the Banyule Homestead, Ravenswood and Saxam - and the Heidelberg School of Painters including Roberts, Streeton, McCubbin Withers and Condor, impressionist painters who depicted the Australian landscape. It is also known for the Olympic Village which housed the 1956 Olympians, and Australian architect Walter Burley Griffin who designed Mount Eagle Estate and the Glenard Estate.

Banyule has always nurtured cultural activity, and artists have found inspiration from the unique bush landscape from the turn of the century to the present day. Some artistic groups have existed for more than two decades, including the Heidelberg Theatre Company, Heidelberg Historical Society, Heidelberg Brass Band, Ivanhoe Photographic Society, Ivanhoe Reading Circle, Diamond Valley Choral Society and the Diamond Valley Arts Society.

The Banyule Art Collection, owned by Banyule City Council, comprises more than 300 traditional and contemporary artworks and is one of Australia’s most significant local government art collections. It includes works by artists such as Clifton Pugh, Lloyd Rees, Mike Parr, Susan Cohn, Stephen Benwell, Jan Senbergs and Bea Maddock. Works are displayed in Council Service Centres and community venues.

Banyule is also renowned for its environmental and Aboriginal heritage. The Yarra and Plenty Rivers and the Darebin Creek wind through areas with unique fauna and flora. There are many significant sacred sites, canoe trees and scarred trees in the area.

Welcome to Careers@Banyule

Our people make Banyule a great place for residents and visitors to live, work and play. Here you will find exciting and challenging career opportunities and information about working with us.

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