Summerlands is a locality and a former

residential subdivision Subdivisions are the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known as a subdivision. Subdivisions may be simple, involving only a single selle ...

Phillip Island Phillip Island ( Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. The island is named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explore ...

in Victoria, Australia, located in the south-west corner of the island, close to a

little penguin The little penguin (''Eudyptula minor'') is a species of penguin from New Zealand. They are commonly known as little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage and are also known by their Māori name . The Australian l ...

breeding colony. In 1985, the

Victorian government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and ...

decided that, to protect the penguin rookery, further development of the subdivision would be prohibited and all the properties would be progressively purchased by the state.

History

In the early 20th century, the Summerland Peninsula had remained relatively untouched by European settlement compared to the rest of the island. Although

chicory Common chicory ('' Cichorium intybus'') is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant of the family Asteraceae, usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Native to the Old World, it has been introduced to North America and Aust ...

, mustard and

oat The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human co ...

s for horse fodder were grown there, the land was of minimal pastoral or agricultural value. As a result, the penguin colony there survived while others on the island did not. Subdivision of the area was carried out from the 1920s until the 1960s. The first subdivision consisted of 12 large allotments, along with features such as a

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford E ...

and

cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the la ...

trees that were still visible decades later. Between 1927 and 1931, 227 new blocks were created, and from 1929 to 1940 there was a nine-hole golf course on what is now the Penguin Parade car park. In the 1950s, a further 437 blocks were created, and the final subdivisions were carried out in 1958 and 1961 on land closer to The Nobbies. Much of the land was sold to speculators rather than those interested in building on it, and by 1974 only 11 percent of the 986 blocks of land had been cleared or built on.

Land buyback

Progressive residential development on the Summerland Estate was considered a threat to the survival of the penguin colony. The 1989 Phillip Island Penguin Reserve Management Plan called the estate "a major blight on the landscape". In the early 1970s, the local shire had started to buy back land on the estate. In 1985, the Victorian government announced that it would purchase all 774 allotments on the Summerland Peninsula to protect the penguin colony, setting up the "Summerland Estate Buy-Back Programme". The programme had a projected end date of 2000, with the land to be added to the Phillip Island Nature Park. During this period, land owners could not build on their land, improve their properties, or sell them to anyone but the Government. By 2007, 732 properties had been voluntarily sold by their owners, at a cost to the government of around a million dollars a year. The buyback process was finalised in 2007, with the compulsorily acquisition of the final 42 properties (20 empty blocks and 22 with houses, held by 34 private owners) to take place over the next three years, at a cost of $15 million. In 2008, five property purchases were settled and agreement to purchase one property was reached, along with six negotiated purchase offers and one offer for compulsory acquisition. In 2008-09, 14 properties were purchased, taking the total number to 25 and leaving 17 properties still to be acquired. In June 2010, the government announced that the buy-back programme had been completed, and the land involved was in the process of being added to the Phillip Island Nature Park and revegetated. A few scattered houses remained on the subdivision.

References

External links

Summerlands on VICNAMES database
{{authority control Phillip Island Resumed localities in Australia Towns in Victoria (state) Bass Coast Shire