Those loos are not the only stinky thing about Clarinda. En route, I find myself spotting an unusually high number of rubbish trucks. Perhaps I'm on the lookout. Maybe it's that "buy a new car then notice them everywhere" syndrome. I've read the reviews of Clarinda online - and, according to some locals, it's a power-line filled stinker.

Outside the squares of residential housing that make up Clarinda, just by the new Dingley Bypass, is a collection of dumps. On Victory Road, Clarinda, Cleanaway has its landfill. The local council, Kingston City Council, has its transfer station at 67 Carroll Road, Clarinda. Transpacific Landfill is just up Osbourne Road in Clayton South. They're sitting cheek by jowl with market gardens growing fruit and veggies. Yes, not exactly a match made in heaven.

Apparently this area was once coastal heathland. It sounds so poetic. And it's not such a farfetched idea: head 11km straight down South Road and you'll find yourself at Brighton Beach. It's not so far, away, but it is so, so, different.

You can just glimpse the waters of Port Phillip Bay from the peak of Bald Hill Park, which is a highlight of the suburb. It's not really a hill. And it's sprinkled with trees, so it's not bald. But it's named after what the suburb was once known as. Bald Hill.

There's an interesting fitness station at Bald Hill Park, though on closer look, a sign tells would-be workouters that it's dog exercise equipment only. The kids playground is a winner, though this park is competing with Namatjira Park, over on the Clayton side of Springs Road. That park's got everything.

According to Con Katos, director at Clarinda's only real estate agency, Century 21 Property Group, Clarinda really is "Clayton South". And the smell from the tips? It's gone. "They're virtually all closed down," Mr Katos says. The one that remains open should be closed soon, too. Yes, Clarinda's not so awesome "claim to fame" has gone.

Katos, who works in Clarinda, remembers that foggy mornings were the worst for the smell. "It used to be all the time," he says. And now there's nothing. "We don't have that problem anymore," Katos says. "I can't remember smelling it for a year or two."

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As might be expected, getting rid of the source of the suburb's stink means it's a nicer place to live and work. And people are working that out. "House prices have changed dramatically," says Katos. "We were always a bit of a forgotten area. Other areas like Oakleigh South and East Bentleigh had higher price rises that we did, but in the last three years it's gone crazy."

Katos says that a good three-bedroom brick veneer in Clarinda will set buyers back around the high $700,000s to low $800,000s. That's up from a $550,000 median in 2014. He says it's a good spot to live.

"The demographic is good. While nearby Clayton has a lot of rentals, Clarinda is family-orientated, safe, and has a low number of rental properties." Sounds as sweet as it smells.

Five things you didn't know about Clarinda

• The Clarinda Art and Craft Market is on from 10am-2pm on the fourth Saturday of every month at the Clarinda Community Centre (next to the Clarinda Shopping Centre).
• The 6.4 kilometre, $156 million Dingley Bypass links Warrigal Road and Westall Road and was completed in 2016.
• A bike and pedestrian path along the Dingley Bypass links to other local paths, including the Eastlink Trail.
• It's 19 kilometres southeast of the CBD.
• The 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) census found that just over half of Clarinda's residents speak a language other than English at home, and the same percentage were born overseas.