Casey Airfield at Berwick

The Casey Airfield was established at Berwick in 1938 by Colonel Rupert Ryan, who owned the Edrington property with his sister, Lady Casey. Ryan's brother-in law, Lord Casey owned a Perceval Gull monoplane and flew to and from Canberra, where he was a member of the House of Representatives. Lady Casey was also a pilot. From 1948, until the early 1960s the airfield was also used by the Victorian Motorless Flight Group for gliding. In 1968, Colonel Keith Hatfield and Major Ron Kerrison took over the airfield and operated a flying school under the name Group Air P/L. Sadly, less than two years later, Major Kerrison and his passenger, Mrs Roma McLeod, were killed in  an aircrash at the field. Colonel Hadfield was born in 1919 and served in the British Army in World War Two, then joined the Australian Army after the War  and flew with the American Air Force in Korea. When the airfield was established in 1938, Berwick was a small country town, however by the 1990s, it had developed into a suburb of Melbourne and it appears that a small airfield had no place in Berwick anymore. The beginning of the end came in 1992 when the Berwick Campus of Chisholm TAFE was constructed and it finally closed in 1994 when it was announced that the Berwick Campus of Monash Universtity was to be built on the site.

 The Airfield, photograph undated, possibly 1940s.

This photograph of the Airfield is from the book, Berwick Nostalgia, published by the Berwick Pakenham Historical Society.

Aerial photograph of the Casey Airfield, taken December 27, 1963. The road bi-secting the photograph is Berwick-Clyde Road. The Railway line shows up as a curve from the top left to the bottom right of the photograph. You can see the criss-crossing of the runways. The hangars appear in the centre of the photograph, they are the white dots, the dark dots are the rows of cypress trees, still seen in the 1992 photograph further below.

 An air show at Casey Airfield. The Photograph is most likely from the 1980s.

 The photographs, above and below, were taken in October 1992.

This was also taken in October 1992 and shows the construction of the Berwick Campus of Chisholm TAFE in the background.

The official announcement that the State Government had obtained the Casey Airfield site for the Berwick Campus of the Monash University. Photograph dated January 6, 1994. Left to right are Federal Member for Latrobe, Bob Charles; Tertiary Education Minister, Haddon Storey; Monash University Deputy Vice Chancellor, Ian Chubb; City of Berwick Mayor, Cr Norma McCausland and the State Member for Berwick, Robert Dean.

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Narre Warren Library - 'turning the sod' 1992

These photographs were taken in February 1992  at the 'turning of the sod' for the new Narre Warren Library. The Library was opened November 21, 1992 and you can read more about the history of public library services in Narre Warren here. The Narre Warren Library has come a long way since 1992, in the 2011-2012 financial year the Narre Warren Library  had 766, 373 loans, nearly 27 per cent of the total loans for the Casey Cardinia Library Corporation and over 350,000 visits from our patrons.

This is Kirsty Lottkowitz, the Shire of Berwick Mayor, at the time, 'turning the sod'. As with many Government occasions, the 'official' function often happens after a building has been opened or, in this case, work has already started, because you can see in the photograph below, that Cr Lottkowitz and Neil Lucas, are standing in front of a  substantial hole. Mr Lucas, was the CEO of the City of Berwick. 

 These two shots show the excavation work for the Narre Warren Library, with Fountain Gate Shopping Centre in the background.

Finally, a view of the excavations looking towards the Civic Centre. If you are interested in construction photographs, then you may be interested in the post on the construction of the Endeavour Hills Leisure Centre which was opened in November 1990 (click here) or the construction of the City of Berwick Civic centre in 1978 (click here)

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Main Street Pakenham

Here are some views of Main Street in Pakenham. I don't have  a date for the first three photographs, but I would guess they were taken around 1900.

This is Main Street, looking towards McGregor Road. 

 State Library of Victoria Image H82.96/138

Main Street Pakenham, looking towards the Railway Station. The same view is below. The verandah on the right is the same verandah on the building on the right, below. This store was originally owned by Mr Crump, later taken over by McAfees, then sold to Robinsons.

You can see Robinson's SSW supermarket, in this 1980s photograph. It was later taken over by Safeways and is now the IGA. Safeways moved to its new building behind Main Street around 1984. This was the beginning, in my mind, of Pakenham's transition from being a country town to a suburb, when people no longer did all their shopping at small, independently owned businesses  in the Main Street.

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Hallam Regional Shopping Centre 1974

I came across a report for a 'Proposed Regional Shopping Centre' at Hallam. The report was dated June 1974 and was prepared by Hanover Holdings. The project was to 'provide outstanding regional shopping facilities in the location most appropriate for the people of Berwick, Hallam, Dandenong, Pakenham and surrounding districts and South Gippsland'. Commencement date was to be early 1975, however it was never built and 'regional shopping facilities' ended up being provided by the Fountain Gate Shopping Centre, which opened on March 11, 1980. It is interesting to think how much different both Narre Warren and Hallam would be if Fountain Gate Shopping Centre was not built and the Hallam Shopping Centre was.

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Concept plan by Architects Norris & Partners P/L

This map shows the proposed location - on the south side of the Princes Highway and the east side of Wedgewood Road. The Highway gave easy access to  Dandenong and Gippsland. It also had access to the Mulgrave Freeway (or Monash as it is now called), however we are still waiting for the completion of the Dingley by-pass and what they call the La Trobe Valley by-pass road (and we now call  the Hallam by-pass)  was only opened in 2003, nearly thirty years after the proposed shopping centre.

Some concept drawings - the tower over the main entrance  was a 'four sided symbol in the form of an "H" representing Hanover'. As the report goes on to say, 'it is apparent that this symbol would be  a dominant feature of the landscape and would become a landmark'. The Developers were prepared to replace the "H" symbol with 'a monument or another appropriate structure, such as a monument to the pioneers of the Gippsland district.' 

Other features of the Complex included a Community Hall, an Auditorium, a Creche and  a swimming pool with a  cabana.

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Pakenham - the early days

The Pakenham area originally formed part of the I.Y.U Estate, first taken up by Dr W.K Jamieson in 1839. The original town of Pakenham was on the Highway, near Toomuc Creek and grew up around the Latrobe Inn, established around 1850 by Michael and Kitty Bourke. Michael Bourke also acted as Post Master for nearly 30 years. Kitty Bourke kept the Hotel and Post Office from the time of her husband’s death in 1877 until 1910. The Latrobe Inn was a Cobb & Co. coach stop and for obvious reasons was later known as Bourke’s Hotel. The town, which developed around the Railway Station, was officially known as Pakenham East until the 1960s. Pakenham grew as the service centre for the surrounding farms, especially the orchards at Pakenham Upper and Toomuc Valley, but it also had a number of other sources of employment, such as Nestles who established their plant in 1960 and sold out to Simplot in 2009.

This is a picture of the Auction Mart, which was near the Railway Station, in fact you can see a train in the back ground on the right. The  Pakenham Gazette of October 7, 1917 told us that William Close opened his auction mart on October 11, 1917 and sold  a whole range of goods from live stock to farm machinery to 'useful sundries'.

Pakenham Gazette, October 7 1917.

Report of the opening of William Close's Auction Mart from the Pakenham Gazette of October 12, 1917. If you click on the image, you will get a clearer copy.

In 1901, the Shire of Berwick moved its headquarters from Berwick to Pakenham. The first meetings at Pakenham were held in the Mechanics’ Institute until the new Shire Offices were built in 1912.  This building was  on the corner of Main Street and John Street and remained virtually intact in spite of the modernisation of 1962. The building was moved its current location in 2004 and is the home of the Berwick Pakenham Historical Society.

The Shire of Berwick Offices, after their 1962 modernisation - it's the building on the corner with the brick parapet. The small building behind it is the original office of the Pakenham Gazette and beyond that is the (now demolished) bell tower of the Presbyterian/Uniting Church. This photo was taken in the late 1970s/early 1980s during a Yakkerboo Festival.

The Mechanics’ Institute Public Hall was opened by Mr James Gibb, M.L.A on August 8 1884. A report in the South Bourke & Mornington Journal of August 13 tells us that the Hall cost 200 pounds to build, plus fit-out costs and was built by McCartney and Delaney. It was 65 feet in length (about 19 metres) and 25 feet wide (about 7.5 metres). There was stage and dressing rooms. There were 250 at the opening and they were entertained by a concert and  a Ball.  The building was used as a Hall, a Library and a Court House, however its role as a Public Hall declined when the ‘new’ Hall was built in 1959 (which was demolished in 2010) and it was put up for auction by the Council in December 1960. It didn’t sell and was thus able to be used again in 1962 for Council Meetings when the Shire Offices were being modernised. It was finally sold by the Shire of Berwick in December 1962.

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Cockatoo - the early years

The original Europeans in the Cockatoo area came for gold that was found in the region around 1859.  The diggers had followed the Yarra River and then its tributaries including the Cockatoo Creek. The diggings were not rich and most of the miners soon left the area, however in the 1870s some settlers looking for land came to the area including Alexander Crichton, a butcher from Berwick, who selected 1500 acres (607 hectares) of land at the head of the Nangana Creek in 1874. Other early selectors were Henry Smartt and Matthew Kirkpatrick. Crichton opened a store on his land between Cockatoo and Gembrook. 

 

From the State Library of Victoria Collection Image H32492/2330 

George Simmons is credited with opening the first store in the Cockatoo township in 1895, however the seminal event in the history of the development of Cockatoo was the opening of the narrow gauge railway line on December 19 1900. The railway, now known as the Puffiing Billy line, connected the town (as well as Emerald and Gembrook) to the existing line from Melbourne to Upper Ferntree Gully. This opened up the timber industry in the area and the establishment of saw mills including the Belfrey sawmill owned by John James Bell as well as Goldsack and Smith Brothers. Shops and businesses opened around the Cockatoo Railway Station including James McBride’s store in 1903. McBride was also the post master and the source of the name McBride Street.

Cockatoo School, No. 3535 opened in March 1907 in a corn store and moved into a new building in Ivy Street in 1918. This building was re-located to its current site in 1951. A Public Hall and library opened in Cockatoo in 1914, was enlarged in 1934 and had a supper room and kitchen added in 1957. Sadly, the hall along with many other buildings and houses were lost in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires.

From the State Library of Victoria Collection Image H32492/422

The railway line also brought tourists and week-enders to Cockatoo to enjoy the fresh mountain air, fishing  and other attractions and guest houses were established, such as Eastgate.

The Argus Saturday April 30, 1949, page 36  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22725516

The area was originally named Cockatoo Creek by the gold diggers, apparently because of the abundance of cockatoos, however the railway station was  called Devon when the Puffing Billy line opened in 1900. The name was changed to Cockatoo Creek in 1901and then shortened to Cockatoo in 1904, though the Post Office retained the named of Cockatoo Creek until the First World War.

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Cockatoo kindergarten is heritage listed

The history of Cockatoo has twice been recognised at  an official level recently. Firstly, the fight to have the McBride Street kindergarten placed on the Victorian Heritage Register has been successful and secondly the community has received a Local History Grant.  The kindergarten had been nominated to be included on the Victorian Heritage Register in 2011 and it was rejected on the grounds that it wasn’t of State significance. The decision was appealed and in April 2012 the Heritage Council reversed the decision and the kindergarten was  placed on the Victorian Heritage Register.  The Kindergarten was built in 1976 in an interesting twelve sided design, designed by Richard Allen.  However, its importance to the Cockatoo community is its role as a refuge during the Ash Wednesday  fires of February 16, 1983 when 300 people, including 129 children, sheltered inside and survived the fires that devastated the Cockatoo community and much of the rest of Victoria.

 

In the end the Appeals Committee found that the kindergarten was of historical and social, significance to the state of Victoria and meets the significance threshold for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register. The battle to save the kindergarten is a testament to the strength and tenacity of the people of Cockatoo to  stand up and fight for their community.To see the Statement of Significance for the Kindergarten, click here or go to the Victorian Heritage Register http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au  and type Cockatoo into the search box. 

There is an interesting community website, called Victoria's Heritage and Cockatoo's Ash Wednesday story, at https://sites.google.com/site/cockatoosheritageashwednesday/  which was set up during the battle for Heritage listing, which has photographs and the history of the kindergarten and information about the township and the bushfires.The picture of the kindergarten,below, is taken from the website.

Source: Victoria's Heritage and Cockatoo's Ash Wednesday story website

The other goods news for the Cockatoo community is that the Cockatoo History Committee has been awarded a $4,729 Local History Grant. These grants are presented each year and are administered by the Public Records Office of Victoria. The Grant for the Cockatoo History Committee is to undertake a project to preserve Cockatoo’s existing oral, photographic and documentary history and make widely available for the community. Funds will be used to transfer interviews from cassette tapes to CD, to have audio files transcribed and purchase archival supplies.

In the end that’s good news for Cockatoo and good news for history.

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