You are bypassing Pakenham –
what!
Settlers have occupied land in the Pakenham area since the 1830s,when the squatting run of I.Y.U was taken up by Dr William Kerr Jamieson. This was a run of nearly 13, 000 acres on the edge of the Great Swamp and was occupied in 1838. A two storey home was built there in 1858, sadly destroyed by fire in 1929. The site of the home is on McGregor Road. 'Toomah' was another large Pakenham property. It began as the Toomuc Creek Run of 13, 500 acres leased in 1840 by Captain John Howey. The lease was taken over by Dr James Bathe in 1853 and he purchased the pre-emptive right of 640 acres in 1854 renaming the property 'Pakenham Park'. This property was close to where the town is today and was owned by the Henty family from the 1860s. Other significant properties in the district include 'Mount Bourke' now called 'Koo-Man-Goo-Nong'. Pakenham was originally part of the Berwick Shire. The Shire began its life as the Berwick District Road Board in 1862 and became the Berwick Shire in 1868. The first offices were in High Street Berwick, at the top of Berwick Hill. The Council re-located to Pakenham in 1901, holding its meetings in the Pakenham Mechanics' Institute, until the new offices were built in 1912. These offices are now located on the Princes Highway and will be the headquarters of the Berwick Pakenham Historical Society. The Berwick offices were demolished by the Shire, but the steps can still be seen at the top of High Street.
As the centre of the Shire activities, Pakenham has enjoyed a key role in the region to this day. The Berwick Shire split in 1973 into the new City of Berwick and the Pakenham Shire. Pakenham Shire then became the Cardinia Shire in 1994 incorporating parts of the former Sherbrooke Shire. Municipal headquarters have been located in Pakenham since the move in 1901 and continue today.
Horse racing and orcharding are among the diverse attractions of the district since its settlement. The Pakenham Race Club has been an important organization in the town, established in 1875. The Racecourse has been a popular venue for community activities, including the annual Pakenham Agricultural and Horticultural Show, as well as for football and cricket club matches. Orcharding was a primary industry, embodied by the Toomuc Valley Orchards. This business, established in 1880, became a self contained community of workers. The Kitchen family were largely associated with this business and their home remains today, named 'Seven Oaks'. A community oral history project was undertaken in the early 1990s and documents some of this fascinating Pakenham district history. It culminated in a book titled 'tell me about the time' and is available in the Pakenham Library. The tapes from the project are available by appointment in the Casey-Cardinia Local History Archive at the Narre Warren Library.
There were originally two distinct sides of the Pakenham township. 'Old' and 'New' Pakenham is a phrase that appears in the Berwick Shire Rate Books in the early 1900s. The 'Old' refers to the first township that started near the Princes Highway, on the Toomuc Creek. This was centered around Bourke's Hotel, which was run by Catherine Bourke. Traffic would pass along the highway on its way to and from Gippsland and the hotel was valuable for resting horses and refreshing weary travelers. The Bourke family were well known in the district for their association with the Pakenham Racing Club and with the Shire. The Gippsland Railway was through by the early 1880s and spawned a whole new community of railway workers down near the line. Shops and businesses sprang up to satisfy the need of the new settlers and it soon became clear that the 'new' Pakenham township would be developing away from the highway. The railway brought many changes because farmers and shops relied on the transport to Melbourne for delivering and receiving goods and produce. People now wanted to live and work nearer the railway. Old and New merged to form one township, Pakenham.
It is believed that stone from the Henty family's property quarry was used for the construction of the Pakenham section of the new railway line. The new businesses that began in 'new' Pakenham included a saddler, blacksmith, bootmakers and general store. The Mechanics' Institute began in Station street and would occupy a central role in the community for many decades. The Institute served as a public hall, a library, a court house and between 1901 and 1912 was where the Berwick Shire met. Pressure was removed from the Institute when the new public hall was built in the late 1950s.
A number of different schools have been established in Pakenham. The first recorded school is number 515, started by the Catholic School under the Denominational Board and operated between 1862 and 1868. There were reportedly ten boys and twelve girls in attendance. The State School system did not begin in Victoria until the late 1870s. Pakenham South School, later Pakenham Consolidated, began in 1875 on Toomuc Creek. It moved to a new site facing Main Street in 1891. In 1951, the school moved again and absorbed students from many surrounding schools, including Tynong, Toomuc Valley and Nar Nar Goon North. The high school was established in 1967.
Happenings in Pakenham have been reported by the Pakenham Gazette newspaper since the early years of the Berwick Shire. The Gazette began its life as the Berwick Shire News in 1909. It re-located to Pakenham soon after the Shire headquarters moved, in 1907 and changed its name to the Pakenham Gazette. The paper is available on microfilm from 1909 to 1965 in the Pakenham Library by appointment.
AND, you just wanted to ByPass it all. Tut,tut,tut.
Having done this cache, you have found out heaps about a place you would have just bypassed.
How good is geocaching ;-)
Next!