Cardinia Shire's history and heritage
Key points
- Council helps to identify, preserve, manage and promote Cardinia Shire’s heritage assets, through initiatives including our Heritage Grants program.
- Local historical societies and museums, run by volunteers, are a great place to start if you are planning to research local history.
- The Connected Libraries website is an excellent resource if you are wanting more information on local history and heritage.
Historical societies and museums
These local organisations are run by volunteers who generously donate their time and energy.
They may be able to give you advice on researching family, property and township history.
- Beaconsfield Progress Association (Beaconsfield history) - visit their website
- Berwick Pakenham Historical Society - view our directory listing or their website
- Bunyip Historical Society - visit their website
- Cockatoo History and Heritage Group - visit their website or Facebook group
- Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society - view our directory listing, their Facebook page or their blog
- Lang Lang and District Historical Society - view our directory listing, their website, their Facebook page
- Maryknoll Historical Society - view our directory listing
- Nobelius Heritage Park and Emerald Museum - view our directory listing or their website
- Upper Beaconsfield Association - view their history page on their website
- Upper Beaconsfield history - view their website to find historical resident information
Connected Libraries for local historical information
Connected Libraries
An excellent resource offering a wealth of local historical information.
The Local History section of the Connected Libraries website includes:
- information on the services offered by the local history librarian, who can support you in researching local history
- a local history enquiry form
- links to articles, reports and compilations on topics including indigenous heritage, war and military, place names and township history
- oral history interviews
- information on heritage groups
- a blog written by the local history librarian which covers the post-contact history of people, places, organisations and events in Cardinia Shire and the City of Casey.
Visit the Connected Libraries website
Heritage Grants program
- Council helps to identify, preserve, manage and promote Cardinia Shire’s heritage assets, through initiatives including our Heritage Grants program.
- To be eligible for the program, the site or place must be in an area covered by a Heritage Overlay as outlined in the Cardinia Planning Scheme
More information: Heritage Grants Program
Avenues of honour
Avenues of honour are trees planted to commemorate the men and women who have served our country.
Cardinia Shire has Avenues of honour in:
More information: Casey Cardinia history blog
Key periods in Cardinia Shire's history
- Indigenous cultural landscape at first contact (c1835–c1860)
- Pastoral era and land settlement (1838–c1870)
- Selection era and establishment of service communities (c1860–c1940)
- Post war residential expansion (c1945 to present day).
More info: Key periods in Cardinia Shire's history
Researching your family history
Other resources for historical information
National Library of Australia archive
Trove features books, images, historic newspapers, letters, diaries, maps, music, archives and more.
Heritage Council of Victoria
The Heritage Council of Victoria website includes features such as:
- the Victorian Heritage Database – this lists Victoria’s most significant heritage places, objects and historic shipwrecks protected under the Heritage Act 2017. It includes all properties in Cardinia Shire that are subject to a heritage overlay, with their citations from our heritage studies.
- a guide for owners of historical houses
- criteria for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register
- resources for students and teachers.
More information
Contact our Sustainability and Heritage Planner on 1300 787 624 or mail@cardinia.vic.gov.au