Maryknoll is a town in Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, 61 km south-east of Melbourne's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

, located within the

Shire of Cardinia The Shire of Cardinia is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, in the south-east of Melbourne between Western Port and the Yarra Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne. It has an area of 1,283 square kilometres, and had a population of ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

. Maryknoll recorded a population of 646 at the 2021 census. Maryknoll lies adjacent to Bunyip State Park, and is one of the youngest towns established in the

History

Father Wilfrid Pooley of the Catholic Church envisaged a new religious

intentional community An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

in West Gippsland where residents could live rural lifestyles ideal for the raising of families and practice of the Catholic faith. The name Maryknoll replaced the original name of St Mary's in 1955, and the Maryknoll Post Office opened on 3 October 1955. The original settlement consisted of about 30 families. By the mid-1980s, the Maryknoll cooperative society formally closed. This had been an economic society, not connected with the social make-up of the community. Restriction of residents to Catholics had not been implemented since the 1960s. Father Pooley and Des O'Connell were founders of Maryknoll. Pooley was the leader of the community and lived in Maryknoll until he moved to the presbytery of Iona when the two parishes were combined. He died in 1968, and O'Connell died 2017 at 102 years of age.

Facilities

Facilities include a CFA, community hall, Catholic Church, milk-bar and recreation reserve which contains Maryknoll Tennis Club and Nar Nar Goon-Maryknoll Cricket Club. Numerous forested parks and walking tracks are scattered throughout the locality. Maryknoll no longer has a school, with children often commuting to Pakenham, Warragul, Drouin or other places for education. Maryknoll also has a lawn cemetery.

Flora and fauna

Maryknoll is abundantly covered in forest, with eucalypts, wattles, banksias and sheoaks being common species. Ferns, pittosporum and introduced species can also be found, and types of rare orchids have been discovered in the area. Kangaroos, wombats and possums are very common native species, and koalas have been occasionally sighted.

References

External links

{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Intentional communities in Australia Shire of Cardinia

History

Facilities

Flora and fauna

See also

References

Further reading

External links