M is for Mickle. A well known, early family in the area. John Mickle (1814-1885) owned land from the 1850s, with his business partners William Lyall (who built Harewood) and John Bakewell. John’s brother, Alexander Mickle, managed his property at Yallock. Alexander’s son, John, sub-divided John Street, Mickle Street and Alexander Avenue (now incorrectly called Alexandra) in Koo Wee Rup in 1926. David Mickle, the author of local history books Mickle Memories of Koo Wee Rup and More Mickle Memories of Koo Wee Rup, is the grandson of Alexander.
E is
for Education. The first School was established in 1884 between Koo Wee Rup and Bayles
(at Bethunes Road). It was known as the Yallock School until 1903 when the
name was changed to Koo Wee Rup. In 1910, the school moved to Rossiter Road (to
the Secondary College location) and a new building was built in 1915. In 1953,
the Higher Elementary School was completed. This School included both primary
and secondary classes (Forms 1 to 3 or Years 7 to 9). The School became a High
School in 1957 and shared the building with the primary school students until
November 1960 when the Primary School opened in Moody Street. St John the Baptist Catholic School opened in
1936.
R is for roads, rates and
rubbish - the historical purpose of local councils. Koo Wee Rup was part of the
Cranbourne Road Board district when it was established on June 19, 1860. Then
it became part of the Cranbourne Shire when it started on February 24, 1868.
It was then part of the short lived City of Cranbourne which lasted from April
22, 1994 until December 15, 1994, when the City of Cranbourne and was broken up
and Koo Wee Rup became part of the newly created Cardinia Shire.
R is for Recreation and other
Community activities. A Cricket Club started in
1893, the Recreation Reserve opened in 1906, and a football team had started by
1907. The Royal Hotel was erected in 1915. The Masonic Lodge commenced in 1923.
The Wattle Picture Theatre was opened in 1927, the same year the Koo Wee Rup
Electric Light and Power Company supplied electricity to the town. In 1929, the
first Koo Wee Rup Scout Troop was formed. To add further to the amenity of the
town in 1930 the water tower and the water supply system opened and in 1943 the
Fire Brigade was formed.
Masonic Lodge at Koo Wee Rup. The Lodge was built in 1923 and has since
been extended and new facade fitted.
Photo courtesy of Graham Elso.
Y is for Yallock. The first European settlement in the area was
established by Samuel Rawson and Robert Jamieson on the Yallock Creek Cattle run in 1839.
The Yallock Village Settlement, established in
the 1890s, was based around Fincks, School, Hall and O'Briens Roads, off
Koo Wee Rup Longwarry Road. The Bayles Railway Station, which opened in 1922,
was the station closest to Yallock and the township which grew around the
railway station soon overshadowed the original Yallock settlement.
C is for Carlo Catani. Catani
(1852-1918) was a Public Works Department Engineer responsible for the drainage
works on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp from 1893. He also established the Village
Settlements at Yallock, Five Mile, Cora Lynn, Iona etc. The town of Catani is
named after him. His other works in Victoria include the creation of Alexandra Avenue, which runs along the Yarra River, snd the design of the Alexandra Gardens; the reclamation of the St Kilda foreshore and the design of the gardens there, which were named in his honour in 1927; engineering the road to the top of Mount Buffalo and the creation of a recreational lake, Lake Catani; the drainage of the Moe Swamp.
H is
for Historical Society. The Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society was
established in 1974 and operates a Museum at Mallow, 325 Rossiter Road, Koo Wee Rup. Mallow was built by John Colvin for his daughter, Margaret, who married Les O’Riordan in August 1918. Les was born in August 1892 to John and Elizabeth (nee O'Callaghan) O'Riordan and is said to have been the first white child born in the Koo Wee Rup Village settlement. Elizabeth had been born in the town of Mallow, County Cork, Ireland, hence the name of the property.
R is for Religion. In 1896 the
Wesleyan Church from Cranbourne was moved to Koo Wee Rup and became the
Presbyterian Church. The first Catholic Church was built in 1902 and the current
church dates from 1962. The Anglican Church was built in 1917 and closed in
2012 and the congregation moved to the Uniting Church. The Methodist Church (now Uniting) was moved from Yallock to Rossiter Road in 1932. In 1978 this building was moved to a camp in Grantville and a wooden church, the Narre Warren East Uniting Church, was relocated to the site, it was given a brick veneer and a new hall added and opened on February, 3 1980.
St George's Anglican Church, Koo Wee Rup, 1940s. The building opened in 1917.
I is for Inundation. Early
pioneers had to cope with numerous inundations or floods- 1901, 1911, 1916, 1923,
1924, 1934, 1935 and 1937 being some of the worst historically. The 1934 flood
resulted in the Koo Wee Rup township being under two meters of water in places.
S is for Swamp. The Koo Wee Rup Swamp originally covered about
40,000 hectares or 96,000 acres and is part of the Western Port sunkland. The Chief Engineer of the Public Works
Department, William Thwaites (1853 - 1907) surveyed the Swamp in 1887 and his
report recommended the construction of the Bunyip Main Drain from where it
entered the Swamp, in the north, to Western Port Bay and a number of smaller
side drains. A tender was advertised in 1889. In spite of strikes, floods and
bad weather by March 1893, the private contractors had constructed the 16 miles
of the drain from the Bay to the south of Bunyip and the Public Works
Department considered the Swamp was now dry enough for settlement. At one time
over 500 men were employed and all the work was done by hand, using axes,
shovels, mattocks and wheel barrows. By 1904, over 2,000 people including 1,400
children lived on the Swamp. Many more drains have been added over the years.
T is
for Trains. The Koo Wee Rup Railway station was
opened on August 18, 1889. The Station was originally called Yallock and was
re-named Koo Wee Rup in 1892. In 1922, Koo Wee Rup became a railway junction
with the opening of the Strzelecki railway line. This was a boom time for the
Station. In 1926 eleven people were employed at the Koo Wee Rup Station and
they dispatched 50,000 tons of goods and around 7,000 head of livestock were
sent or received there. There were 48 passenger trains and 72 goods trains per
week. The Strzelecki line was closed in stages and the last stretch from Bayles
to Koo Wee Rup closed in 1959. Passenger services to Koo Wee Rup ceased in June
1981, were reinstated December 1984 and ceased again in July 1993.
M is for Medical Matters. A Bush Nursing Centre was established in 1918. In 1923 the Fallen Soldiers' Memorial Hospital opened in Station
Street and moved to a new building, the Westernport Memorial Hospital, in Rossiter Road in 1955. In 1946, the
Infant Welfare Centre was opened in a room at the Memorial Hall and in 1953 the
Pre-School opened.
The Westernport Memorial Hospital in Koo Wee Rup under construction, photo taken February 5, 1955.
Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society collection
A is for Agriculture. By the
1920s, the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp was producing one quarter of Victorian potatoes
and was also a major producer of dairy products. Today, more than 90% of all Australian
asparagus is produced on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp and many other food items are
grown including broccolini, strawberries, cabbage, leeks, celery and lettuces.
If the Government can resist the temptation to rezone all the rich agricultural
swamp land to residential then the Swamp should continue to produce food for at
least another 120+ years.
S is for Shopping. The first
shop was opened by John O’Riordan in 1890 in a tin shed where Light’s Garage is
now located. Many of the shops in Rossiter Road were built in the 1920s and
1930s, as was the old Theatre and a few garages. This was a boom time for the
town with the Hospital, State Rivers & Water Supply Commission, surrounding
farms and the railways all providing a steady source of employment.
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