Harkaway is a suburb in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia, 39 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Casey local government area. Harkaway recorded a population of 1,011 at the . Harkaway is located at the northeast corner of the City of Casey and is bounded by Robinson, Halleur and Harkaway Roads in the west, Boundary Road in the north, Cardinia Creek in the east, and by an irregular border with

Berwick, Victoria Berwick () is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the City of Casey local government area. Berwick recorded a population of 50,298 at the 2021 census. It was nam ...

below Dalton Reserve in the south.

History

Prior to European settlement, the area was home to the

Bunurong The Boonwurrung people are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the c ...

and

Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the Traditional Owners of the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, covering much of the present location of Narrm (Melbourn ...

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

peoples. They maintained a traditional hunting and gathering lifestyle with seasonal movements. A number of stone axe heads have been found in the Harkaway area in a location known as "Bald Hill", and some reports say that a

corroboree A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the l ...

was held there in 1858. However, by 1840, reduction of their hunting grounds, draining of the swamps and introduction of European diseases such as

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

and measles effectively ended their ability to maintain a traditional lifestyle. The area was settled by German immigrants in the 1850s. They initially bought land at

Thomastown Thomastown (), historically known as Grennan, is a town in County Kilkenny in the province of Leinster in the south-east of Ireland. It is a market town along a stretch of the River Nore which is known for its salmon and trout, with a number o ...

with the intention of subdividing a German settlement, but fresh from trying their luck at the Bendigo goldfields, found the fertile land at Harkaway south of King Road (originally Koenig Road, built as a stock route to water the cattle) and settled there instead. They typically built small timber cottages for themselves and practiced small-scale intensive agriculture on family lots, with the families primarily engaged in clearing the land and growing wheat, oats and potatoes, and "also very active in dairying". However, a townsite was never actually declared. Harkaway Post Office opened on 1 January 1865. The settlers also constructed a number of other buildings - a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

church (1869), the belfry of which is still intact and is located on Hessell Road; a single-room brick school (1876), a post office and a community hall (1909).

Notable people

Minnie a'Beckett, who married Arthur Merric Boyd, founder of the Boyd artistic dynasty, was based at "The Grange" in Harkaway in her early years, and Jessie Traill (1881-1967), a noted Australian painter, set up a studio in the 1920s.

Present day

The town can be reached from

and the

Monash Freeway The Monash Freeway is a major urban freeway in Victoria, Australia, linking Melbourne's CBD to its south-eastern suburbs and beyond to the Gippsland region. It carries up to 180,000 vehicles per day and is one of Australia's busiest freeways ...

by exiting at Heatherton Road, which becomes King Road on entering Harkaway. Most services are provided from nearby Berwick and

Narre Warren Narre Warren is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 38 km southeast of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Casey local government area. Narre Warren recorded a population of 27,689 at the 2021 census. ...

. With the exception of Harkaway Road, Marks Court, St Fort Court, and a portion of King Road and Noack Road, all roads outside the main town are unsealed. Harkaway Primary School has an enrolment of about 200 students,Schools Online listing
Department of Education (Victoria). Accessed 23 November 2006. a community hall, tennis courts and numerous walking and equestrian trails. The area is not served by Melbourne public transport. It contained the Pioneer Harkaway quarry on Noack Road, now closed.

References

{{authority control Suburbs of the City of Casey

History

Notable people

Present day

See also

References