Above: The Toomuc Creek bridge is one of Pakenham Rotary’s proud achievements.Picture: Stewart Chambers
By Emma Sun
ROTARY Park and the bridges over Toomuc Creek have quite a significant place in the history of Pakenham Rotary.
Pakenham Rotary member Ken Rook said the concept of having a Rotary park in Pakenham originated in the early ’90s and members started looking into potential places to work with.
“The logic was that lots of towns have Rotary parks, and Pakenham Rotary has always had the idea,” he said.
“We looked into it in 1991-’92 but couldn’t figure out where.”
Rotary hoped to provide the community with an additional recreational facility and Toomuc Creek was deemed a suitable place.
There was a large amount of vegetation surrounding Toomuc Creek so in order to make the park more accessible to the public, Rotarians went about cleaning up the area.
“We held a number of working bees to clean it up in 1994-’95,” Mr Rook said.
The first Toomuc Creek bridge was built in 1997, after Rotary members saw an immediate need for it.
“We became aware that children at the Pakenham Consolidated School had to go onto the highway to cross over Toomuc Creek to get to the footy reserve,” Mr Rook said.
“We realised it was very dangerous – it was only a matter of time before an accident happened. It was an ideal location for a footbridge so we convinced the council.
“The school was really appreciative of what we’d done.”
To complement the bridge, Rotary members built a gravel path down the west side of the creek in 1998-99, which has since been concreted.
A second bridge was built at the south end of the path in 2001-’02, which completed a walking track around the creek.
Pakenham Rotary contributed $45,000 towards the cost of the $60,000 bridge after 18 months of intensive fund-raising. The rest of the money came from a Cardinia Shire Council Community Grant and a Parks Victoria Grant.
“We decided to build a suspension bridge because the span of the creek was wider at that point,” Mr Rook said.
“The main reason for building the second bridge was to complete the walking track – wading through water wasn’t ideal through winter.”
In 2003, Toomuc Creek Park was officially renamed as Rotary Park.
Rotary Park became home to the Rotary Shelter Shed in 2004, which was built as a result of a grant from Parks Victoria.
During Rotary’s centenary year in 2005, the walking path was renamed Rotary Centennial Walk, to highlight Rotary’s contributions.
Mr Rook said he might bring up the possibility of naming one of the Toomuc Creek bridges as a tribute to Pakenham Rotary’s 50th anniversary.
“That wouldn’t be out of the question,” he said.
