The EastLink tollway runs through Wantirna with interchanges at Boronia Road and Burwood Highway.

Wantirna was first settled by Australians of European descent in 1840 when Mrs. Madeline Scott established the "Bushy Park" cattle run on the banks of the Dandenong Creek.

[2] In 1912 the need for a school to serve the local area soon became apparent in this small but fast-growing area; the Finger family donated two acres of land on the southern side of Mountain Hwy (then known as Wantirna-Sassafras Rd) and a timber schoolhouse was opened.

The Finger and Fankhauser families were prime movers in the erection of the Methodist Church opened opposite the school in May 1914, and a parish hall was built on Burwood Highway in 1924.

Locations in Wantirna, especially Westfield Knox, are occasionally used to shoot the soap opera Neighbours.