Harkaway is a suburb in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, 39 km south-east of Melbourne's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center 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 wit ...

, located within the

City of Casey The City of Casey is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Casey is Victoria's most populous municipality, with a 2021 population of 365,239. It has an area of . The city is named afte ...

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 federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

. 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 The Cardinia Creek is a freshwater stream southeast of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, that flows from the Cardinia Reservoir in the Dandenong Ranges into the Western Port Bay between Tooradin and Koo Wee Rup. The creek forms majority of the ...

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 named ...

below Dalton Reserve in the south.

History

Prior to European settlement, the area was home to the

Bunurong The Boonwurrung, also spelt Bunurong or Bun wurrung, 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 ...

and

Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Aboriginal peoples, Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language, Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of ...

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

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 ...

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 (W ...

and

measles Measles (probably from Middle Dutch or Middle High German ''masel(e)'', meaning "blemish, blood blister") is a highly contagious, Vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine-preventable infectious disease caused by Measles morbillivirus, measles v ...

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 with the intention of subdividing a German settlement, but fresh from trying their luck at the

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is an Australian city in north-central Victoria. The city is located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2022, Bendigo has a popula ...

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 a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church (1869), the

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

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 Arthur Merric Boyd (19 March 1862 – 30 July 1940) was an Australian painter. He and his wife Emma Minnie Boyd, Emma Minnie (Given name#Name at birth, née à Beckett) established a lifestyle of being artists, which many generations followed t ...

, 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), 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 Australi ...

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 ce ...

. 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. In 2023, Harkaway Primary School had an enrolment of 116 students, 58 female and 58 male,
Department of Education (Victoria). Accessed 06 February 2025. 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