VICRail & telegraph
Pakenham
The railway moved the town three kilometres down the line.
1877Gippsland railway station opens
WHAT STARTED IT
A hotel opened in 1850 where the track into Gippsland crossed Toomuc Creek, becoming a coach stop for the grazing district. When the Gippsland railway was built in 1877, its station was placed about three kilometres to the south-east, and a new town grew around it.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The old village declined while Pakenham East became the district’s court, banking and shire centre. Orchards, dairying and soldier settlement fed cool stores and, from 1952, a vegetable and fruit processing plant.
TURNING POINTS
1877The Gippsland railway opens on 8 October, with a station about 3 km south-east of the coaching village.
1880A hotel is built near the station, and the new town of Pakenham East grows around it.
1902Berwick Shire moves its headquarters to Pakenham East; a shire hall opens in 1912.
1975Suburban electric train services are extended to Pakenham.
1994Pakenham becomes the administrative centre of the new Cardinia Shire.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
The seat of Cardinia Shire and one of Melbourne’s fastest-growing outer suburbs, rising from about 34,000 people in 2011 to more than 54,000 in 2021. Housing now stretches west toward Officer.