As it is Holiday time I thought you might be interested in a few local day trips. The trips originally featured in the book
The Herald Short Tours. I picked it up for $2.00 in a second han
d book shop. There is no publication date, but the original owners had annotated the book with the dates on which they did some of the drives, so this puts the date of publication sometime after February 14 1966 (the day we changed to Decimal currency) and April 14, 1968 - the first date listed in the book. It has a number of tours varying in length from 29 miles (about 46 kilometres) to 226 miles (360 kms). Below are some of the drives that take in parts of the City of Casey and Cardinia Shire.
This first trip,
Go south to Beauty, covers much of the Shire of Cardinia - it starts at Dandenong then goes through
Berwick,
Pakenham, onto Bunyip (the easternmost town in the Cardinia Shire) onto Gippsland to Drouin, Triholm, Nyora. We then re-enter the Cardinia Shire at
Lang Lang, travel around Western Port Bay to
Tooradin, then back to Dandenong via
Cranbourne. This would still be a good trip today, it is 150 miles (or about 240 kilometres) though perhaps the part from Dandenong to Pakenham could no longer be described as leisurely. The deviation at Pakenham East (as the town which developed around the Pakenham Railway Station was officially called at this time) onto the back road to
Nar Nar Goon is still a good option as it takes you through not only Nar Nar Goon but
Tynong,
Garfield and
Bunyip. Views of French Island can be seen from Lang Lang and Tooradin and
Koo-Wee-Rup was once a part of the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp but is now the biggest producer of asparagus in Australia.
The second trip,
Trip to Fishing Village, which is 82 miles or 131 kilometres also goes through
Tooradin. Tooradin is still picturesque and a good spot for a picnic and for fishing, but is no longer a commercial fishing centre. Just out of Tooradin, off the Tooradin Baxter Road, are the three coastal towns of
Cannons Creek, Warneet and Blind Bight, on Rutherford Inlet. Cannons Creek and Warneet were initially fishing camps with a few holiday shacks. It was around the late 1960s and early 1970s that the permanent residents moved in. Blind Bight is a newer town, with the first land sales held in 1974. The coastal towns are
well worth a visit as there is significant remnants of coastal vegetation, interesting cliff formations, mangroves and a good spot for bird watching and fishing.
The trip then goes onto
Pearcedale, which was known as Langwarrin until 1905. Pearcedale is at the south western end of the City of Casey and is still market garden area. The trip then takes you to Frankston, a popular sea side resort, back to Carrum Downs to Dandenong. Carrum Downs, now in the City of Frankston, was part of the Cranbourne Road Board when it was established in 1860 and in the
Shire of Cranbourne Boundaries until the 1994 Council Amalgamations.
Our last trip, the
Varied Scenic Run, takes us through the northern section of the City of Casey. It is a run of 60 miles or about 96 kilometres. In the late 1960s you would have seen bushland, new housing areas, market gardens and an occasional orchard. If you done this drive in 1968 and not been back to the area in the intervening 42 years, then you might be surprised to find that your trip along Heatherton Road now takes you through
Endeavour Hills. The first land sales for this suburb were held in 1973. In 1968 you would have passed Brundrett's Roses in Narre Warren North which was established in 1926 and is now a Housing Estate. Another surprise would be the
Fountain Gate Shopping Centre. The area occupied by the Shopping Centre, which opened in 1980, was a farm in 1968.
The book suggests that this would be an ideal drive to run in a new car or for a new driver. The drive would be a bit busier today than it would have been in 1968, however if it was undertaken in peak hour it would certainly give Learners experience in driving along busy roads!
This is an aerial shot of Cranbourne taken February 3, 1964. (Click on the photograph to enlarge it). On the bottom right is the Cranbourne Racecourse, above the sandpits. The South Gippsland Highway travels past the Racecourse, and up through town, the last major cross-road is Clarendon Street. To the right of the Highway, bordering Clarendon Street, are the three empty blocks where Cranbourne High School was built in 1976. As you can see there is very little development in High Street, the Shopping Centre opened in 1978. On the left of the highway is the subdivision bordered by Clarendon Street and Fairbairn Road and includes Campbell Street, Cranbourne Drive, Cochrane Street and Taylor Street, Lurline Street and Lorna Street.
This is a hairdressing salon, with a big advertisement for Turf cigarettes. Take off the tension with Turf filter tips, it says. These type of prominent cigarette advertisements are as much a thing of the past as vacant blocks of land in High Street are.
In the foreground is a 1960 FB Holden, I am reliably informed. Across the street is a BP garage.
This is taken just a bit further up the street than the previous photograph. The car is thought to be a 1961 EK Holden.
Finally, Kelly's Motor Club Hotel. This building is still a land mark in High Street. A hotel has been on this site since the Mornington Hotel was established in 1860s. The Kelly family operated the Cranbourne Hotel, which was located where the Shopping Centre now is, from around 1917 and at one stage operated both the Cranbourne and the Mornington Hotels. This building was erected about 1926.
