Growing up in Rowville, a place that desperately lacks public transport, there was an obvious non-negotiable for me when it came to moving out of home. The first thing I did was pull out a map and draw a ring around the Metro train lines, highlighting the stations less than an hour from the city.

I then narrowed my search to suburbs that were within a 10-minute drive of those stations, but not too far from where I was raised. And that’s how I discovered Narre Warren South.

My husband had grown up in nearby Endeavour Hills and we’d shopped or gone to the movies at Fountain Gate Shopping Centre in Narre Warren countless times, so the area wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. Narre Warren South seemed like the younger, safer, fresher cousin of Narre Warren, more suburban than industrial, more affordable than where we’d grown up.

My first step was a rental tucked in a quiet enclave between the swamplands of the Hallam Main Drain and the sprawling acre blocks along Shrives Road. About two years later, my husband and I bought our first home just off Pound Road – a modest three-bedroom, one-bathroom house that fit our budget perfectly. We’ve stayed in the area since, raising our young family here.

The name has a Boonwurrung origin, though whether Narre Warren means “small hills”, “red earth” or “no good water” is disputed. The full name of my suburb is a bit of a mouthful, so it is affectionately nicknamed Narre South. It is split down the middle by the not-so-creatively named Narre........

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