Berwick, Victoria
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Berwick is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its local government area is the City of Casey.
Places of interest include: Wilson Botanic Gardens, a post office dating back to 1861, a campus of Monash University and Chisholm Institute of TAFE, a well-known pub, a lion in the middle of the main street boulevard, and an historic Cheese Factory, which has been around since the 1800s and is a place for sight-seeing and music.
According to the City of Casey website, the population of Berwick is estimated to be 34,772 as of 2006, making it home to almost one percent of Melbourne. Those who live in Berwick are mainly upper-middle class, Berwick's main street is home to large amounts of coffee shops. Some sections of Berwick have given rise to increasingly large and more expensive houses. Less expensive residential areas are also present, with shopping centres close by.
The township of Berwick was first created as a stopping point on the long mail route from Melbourne to the Gippsland areas. The Berwick Inn was the town's first building, and the town was named after the owner and propieter's home town, Berwick-upon-Tweed, on the border of England and Scotland.
Berwick was also the home of Edwin "Teddy" Flack, Australia's first Olympian and Olympic gold medal winner (800m and 1500m at the inaugural Athens Olympic Games). He was laid to rest in Berwick Cemetery, and is commemorated by a statue in the main street. [1]
The Berwick Inn
The Berwick Inn, at the corner of High St and Lyall Rd, was licensed at Berwick in 1857 as the Border Hotel. The original one-storey section is now the bar. The two-storey section was added in 1877 as the railway approached. The western section was built later in the century. The first licensee was Robert Bain who owned the town's first store/post office and donated the land on which the shire hall was later built.
The Border Hotel was an important local centre in the early days. Aside from being the first pub on the townsite it was also a stopping place for coaches en route to Gippsland. Bain was the first secretary of the Berwick Roads Board (the first form of local government) and its initial meetings were held at the hotel from 1862 to 1865. The first local police court was held at the hotel in 1865 and it also served as a licensing court.
Library
Also in High St is the Berwick Mechanics Institute and Free Library, built in 1862 at the corner of Peel and Edward Streets. In return for a nominal rent Robert Bain agreed, in 1878, to lease a block of his land to the library for 500 years, so long as a library remained on the property for that period. In 1880 it was moved to its present site and extended the following year.
External link
| City of Casey All Melbourne suburbs | ||
| Narre Warren North | Harkaway | NE |
| Narre Warren | Berwick | Beaconsfield |
|---|---|---|
| Narre Warren South | Clyde North | SE |