Elwood, Victoria  Elwood is an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Port Phillip. At the 2011 Census, Elwood had a population of 14,638. Elwood Beach is a popular bayside beach destination during summer, where the beaches are used recreationally for windsurfing, cycling, cricket and walking. The suburb is known for its mix of Edwardian and Interwar architecture character, its beaches and its leafy streets, many of which are lined by London Plane trees. Elwood was originally swampland; installation of the Elwood Canal turned it into an area suitable for residential development. Elwood was initially planned out around the two central geographic features of Elster Creek (now Elwood Canal), and promontory at Point Ormond, once known as Little Red Bluff. Fires burned for centuries on Point Ormond and it was here the Aboriginal Australians would cook shellfish, signal other clans and burn back country. Fever brought the first large group of settlers to Elwood, when the desperate immigrant ship Glen Huntley landed at Point Ormond in 1840, flying the fever flag and initiating Victoria's first quarantine station and St Kilda’s first graveyard. Originally a working middle class suburb in the early part of the 20th century, Elwood has overseen waves of gentrification and is now one of Melbourne's most sought after bayside addresses. Large period houses, many from the 1920s and 30s with art deco touches, along with proximity to beach and foreshore, have made the area very attractive. In the late 1970s, like nearby St Kilda, Elwood was known for its nightlife and developed a reputation as a cabaret area. Many of these venues operated out of some of the suburb's quirkier old buildings. As the scene saw a demise in the early 1980s, many buildings, including Maison de Luxe and Moulin Rouge (which operated out of the 1880s mansion "Pladda" built for Captain A. Currie), were subsequently demolished. Despite its history of adversity, a modern suburb now thrives by the bay in one of Melbourne's most prized locations. Café life in the Elwood village seems a long way from the flood, fire and fever of earlier days. Coloured lorikeets flock to the green corridors of shady trees, a native forest has been planted on the foreshore and the once despised canal area is undergoing rejuvenation as a haven for walkers and cyclists.