By Corey Everitt
From the completion of massive projects to natural disasters to a population boom, the face of Cardinia Shire has changed dramatically as it looks back on its 30th birthday.
The vast majority of today’s municipalities were created on 15 December 1994, when the then Premier Jeff Kennett restructured Local Government by dissolving Victoria’s 210 councils and amalgamating them into 78 new council areas.
Uniquely for Cardinia, it was incorporated as the edge of Metropolitan Melbourne’s South East.
Its creation could be seen as the confirmation of Pakenham’s transition from a largely rural area to an extension of Melbourne’s urban sprawl.
In those 30 years, the shire has grown by upwards of 80,000 people, making Pakenham one of the fastest-growing areas in Victoria.
“There has been significant growth over the three decades, we’ve gone from a small shire to much more,” Cardinia’s longest-serving councillor Brett Owen said.
“What I love is that it still has the country feel, when talking to people who come from all over, they love our shire, love the community feel.”
With the growth came demographic changes, new needs and a lot more traffic.
Edwin Hume, the very first mayor of Cardinia, said the first-term councillors were a team prided by the launch of such a significant development.
“We were a considerate council, they certainly wanted to make the shire work well,” he said.
“We are proud of the fact that we launched this great organisation into the stratosphere and look where it is today.”
One of the first major campaigns was for the Pakenham Bypass which was secured in 2005 and completed in 2007 after extensive advocacy from the council and community.
The new council represented a significant expansion from the previous Shire of Pakenham.
Cardinia incorporated a diverse area from Kooweerup and Lang Lang, previously in the Shire of Cranbourne, to Emerald and Cockatoo, previously in the Shire of Sherbrooke.
Managing the varying needs was and still is a unique factor of Cardinia. Responding to this, early mayor Max Papley would lead the creation of township committees throughout Cardinia.
These committees ensured that each community’s voice could be put forward on its own and be heard by the council.
“It was about clearly getting the development of the shire right and ensuring community facilities were keeping up,” Hume said.
“We were very optimistic, very proactive and we appointed a very good CEO with Don Welsh.”
Though an upgrade is widely called for today, Cardinia Life is still the jewel on the council’s crown when it comes to recreational facilities.
Constructed in 2006, Cardinia Life was built to serve as the hub for health and wellbeing in the shire and is still planned to remain so with the hope of future upgrades.
The council’s actions were not all for facilitating growth, it had to manage a population boom while ensuring the protection of farmland and conservation zones.
Cardinia would inform the Kooweerup-Longwarry Flood Protection District as well as pivotal Green Wedge Management Plans in the Western Port area.
For Owen, it was as much about the things that were saved as well as built. Thinking of moments in his almost 20 years on council, he raised the ‘significant community outcomes’ when the Pakenham Outdoor Pool and the golf course at Deep Creek Reserve were saved by residents.
Another longtime councillor, Collin Ross said Cardinia is one of the ‘best examples’ of ‘how to do it’ in Victoria.
“We have transitioned from being a very small shire on the edge of Gippsland to turning into a medium-sized metro council with a growth corridor while keeping the uniqueness of our smaller towns within Cardinia Shire,” Ross said.
“I think it is one of the best examples of how to do it in all of Victoria, that we have managed to cater for the needs of residents.”
One of the most recent transformations in Cardinia has been the removal of the level crossings in Pakenham with the construction of the skyrail which has transformed the landscape of the town.
Ross remembers advocating for the level crossing removal when he was mayor in 2018 and meeting with then Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan.
“It was a real achievement to get rid of those crossings and improve McGregor Road,” he said.
“I walked with her when she was transport minister, I remember going through the details of each crossing with her.”
Cardinia has had to deal with a significant share of natural disasters as well. From significant storms and flooding to bushfires.
The eastern part of the shire faced both the Black Saturday Bushfires in 2009 and the Bunyip Complex Fires in 2019 which displaced many people within the vicinity of Bunyip State Park.
Bill Pearson and Graeme Moore were mayors for the years, respectively, and had to lead the community amid the crisis that saw many residents lose their homes.
These are among many significant events and achievements of the three decades of Cardinia where residents have maintained the spirit of the shire in the face of its continuous change.
“I think the amazing thing would be, if you put a person in a time capsule 30 years ago and drove them around then you took them to now they would be shocked that it is the same place because it looks so different,” Collin Ross said.
