THE END OF OUR JOURNEY
And so we have reached the end of our long journey through
the Dandenong Police Paddocks and Churchill National Park, which has spanned some 180 years!
My first memories of Police Paddocks was
way back in 1959, having just obtained my Driver's Licence and becoming the proud owner of a beaten-up 1948 Ford Anglia Tourer!
I can recall driving with my brother "in the country" south along Stud Road, at a time when much of the surrounding land
was still used for farming and agriculture.
I remember looking across to the east towards the hilly, wooded area - the Paddocks was a desolate
tract of blackberries, thistles and weed-infested scrub.
In December 1964, I returned to the Paddocks, as a visitor to the 7th Australian National Jamboree
with a mate who was a Rover Scout in a Dandenong troop.
I had little further contact with the Paddocks and Churchill NP until 1975, when I had become aware of
the network of walking tracks which had been opened up there through the (then) Victorian National Parks oganization
(which became Parks Victoria)..
Since then, I have completed all of the recognized tracks and trails.
Prior to about 1980, there was little
meaningful public information or maps available about the area, or the adjacent Lysterfield Park.
The first edition of the Melways directory
(1966) contains only rudimentary details about the region - the 1968 edition showed the
road networks which had been built for the 1964/65 Jamboree. In those years, the content of outer suburban areas around Melbourne
published in Melways lagged by about two/three years.
This improved when Parks Victoria published its popular guide
to Melbourne's Parks and Gardens, in 1996, which included information and basic maps about the
region.
Research
This Project has consumed several months of detailed
investigation!
