Forest Hill was recently ranked 93rd on Melbourne's most liveable suburb list, which was higher than other nearby popular suburbs such as Bentleigh, Mount Waverley and Glen Waverley.[4]
The suburb is primarily made up of low to medium density residential housing.
History
Forest Hill Post Office opened on 1 March 1874 in the then rural area. It closed in 1895, reopened in 1902 and closed in 1976. The Forest Hills Centre office opened in 1965 shortly after the centre opened and was renamed Forest Hill in 1985.[5]
In the 2016 census, the population of Forest Hill was 10,626, approximately 52.5% female and 47.5% male.
56.6% of people living in the suburb of Forest Hill were born in Australia. The other top responses for country of birth were China (excludes SARs and Taiwan) 9.8%, India 3.4%, Malaysia 2.8%, Vietnam 2.4% and England 2.2%.
In Forest Hill 57.4% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 11.0%, Cantonese 6.8%, Greek 2.9%, Vietnamese 1.7% and Italian 1.7%. 47.6% of Forest Hill households spoke a language other than English.
The religious makeup of Forest Hill is No Religion, so described 33.1%, Catholic 20.2%, Not stated 7.6%, Anglican 7.5% and Buddhism 6.2%. Christianity was the largest religious group reported overall (50.8%) (this figure excludes not stated responses).
Industry
Fremantle Media's Melbourne production facilities are located on Hawthorn Road Forest Hill,[6] where the soap opera Neighbours is produced.[7]
Education
Forest Hill has one school located within the suburb, Parkmore Primary School. Other public and private schools are located nearby in adjoining suburbs and within short walking distance: Burwood Heights Primary School, Forest Hill Secondary College, Emmaus Catholic College and St. Timothy's Catholic Primary School.
Sport
Local sport includes many regular events and team sports.
Nunawading Aqualink is located within the suburb, (Husband Road) containing an indoor, olympic-size swimming pool and children's pool. It also has a football Club The Forest Hill Zebras (Australian Rules Div. 4 Eastern Football League) at the Forest Hill Reserve (Husband Road), and a cricket club the Forest Hill Zebras (various divisions) at Mahoneys Reserve (Mahoneys Road) which also includes various soccer clubs, a clinic, a table tennis club, multiple badminton clubs and the 2nd Tally Ho scouts.