By Violet Li
As the City of Casey had its 30th anniversary on Sunday 15 December, Star News talked with former councillors to look back at the history. The amalgamation of Berwick and Cranbourne at the inception seems to be the inevitable starting point of the conversation.
Casey’s longest-serving councillor and the first mayor Wayne Smith, who came from the Cranbourne side before Casey Council, said there was a lot of anger against Casey being formed because it was two different cities, Berwick and Cranbourne, being brought together.
“Both councils forced very hard not to have that happen,” he recalled.
“These two cities were pretty different. Cranbourne saw itself as part rural, which it was. And Berwick had a little bit of rural, but not much. The rural aspects of Berwick had been some hobby farms and things up in the hills, whereas Cranbourne had foreign farms, dairy, poultry and veggie farms.
“I don’t know if it was necessarily the right decision, but in the end, we made it work.”
In late 1994, significant reforms took place in Victoria’s local government, resulting in the consolidation of 210 municipalities into 78.
City of Casey was established on 15 December 1994 through the merger of the majority of the City of Berwick, portions of the Shire of Cranbourne, including the town of Cranbourne, and the Churchill Park Drive estate from the City of Knox. It was named to honour the significant contributions of Lord Richard Gavin Gardiner Casey and Lady Maie Casey to the region and Australia.
Lord Casey, who served as governor-general of Australia, and Lady Casey, an accomplished artist, author, and aviator, made their home at the Edrington property in Berwick.
At the time, the merger led to a population of 145,000.
“The merger worked in that there were economies of scale. Going for bigger cities was, in the long run, a more economical way of doing it,” Wayne said.
“Casey became bigger. Now, all of a sudden, that was a much bigger city. Therefore, much more powerful in terms of government. So, the government really had to start paying attention to Casey.”
Former chief executive officer of the City of Berwick and ex-mayor of Casey, Neil Lucas, looked back at the demise of Berwick City and said it was a tough time for the staff.
“It changed the careers of a lot of people. It gave other people great opportunities,” he recalled.
“Many of the people who took other opportunities to go into private business to contract to the councils rather than working for them did very well.
“Other people were quite hurt by the change.”
Regardless of whether people were happy about the merger, Neil believed the City of Berwick had no alternative.
He remembered that he received a letter on a Monday, which said, the City of Berwick would cease to exist next Friday.
“That was pretty blunt, wasn’t it? And you had to accept it,” he said.
“And then I got another letter saying next Monday, you’re to report as interim chief executive of the Shire at Mornington Peninsula.
“All the councillors ceased to be councillors on that Friday. And many of the staff were quite traumatised by it all.
“It was not a happy time. We had some wonderful people working for us, and on Friday, I wanted people to look to the future, not get stuck in recriminations.”
Neil could still recall that council staff at Berwick City ordered a balloon with a big long string on the end.
“All the staff and the councillors came. And I said this is the old City of Berwick now. It’s going to let go of the string,” he said.
“Well, people were crying because they loved the place. They loved working there. And we let go of the string and off went the balloon into the sky.
“That was a sort of symbolic thing to try and get them to draw a line in the sand. And, yeah, there we go.
“It was a very emotional time.”
Though absent from the Casey Council in the first several years, Neil said he could see how difficult it was for the merger of the two cities.
“It was because they were different. The councils had different policies in some areas. And the way they operated was different,” he said.
“That was a difficult time. There were new relationships being formed. There were different ways of doing things.”
The conversation about splitting the two cities has never faded away over the years.
“It’s too late,” Wayne believed.
“When Casey first started, that’s what people said was going to happen in 20 years. And 20 years went by, and nothing happened.
“I just can’t see it ever happening. They’d have to find new premises. They’d have to have two council offices.
“I just think economies of scale are working.”
Perhaps the ending of the merger could be told by an anecdote shared by Neil.
“Berwick and Cranbourne didn’t get on with each other because of the football and the netball,” he recalled.
“Cranbourne and Berwick footy used to have a few punch-ups, so no one from Berwick ever went to Cranbourne. And Cranbourne people never came to Berwick.
“Then all of a sudden, they joined together, and they found out that people were just normal.”
