Village sports a vice regal heritage

THE township of Berwick was founded by Captain Robert Gardiner, whose name appears on maps as one of the early landholders in the area.
At the time Cardinia Creek was navigable by boat for about 20 miles from Westernport Bay, and it is believed Gardiner may have travelled along the creek until he found the good natural pasture land near present-day Berwick.
He later sent Terence O’Connor, his superintendent, down the creek with a flock of sheep to settle the land until Captain Gardiner himself could take over. His house was about a quarter of a mile north of Inglis Road, and south of Guys Hill.
Soon after, he built a stone house on high ground west of Cardinia Creek and named it Melville Park after one of his sons.
That property eventually became the home of the Governor General Richard Casey and is today the Edrington Park Retirement Village.
Andrew Chirnside had occupied it in 1911 and named it Edrington after a family home in Scotland.
The next owners were Lt Col Rupert Ryan (MHR for Flinders) and his sister Maie, who was the wife of Lord Casey. Thus, the property has become well known as the home of Lord and Lady Casey.
The name Berwick itself derives from the Anglo-Saxon “Ber” meaning barley and “Wick,” a farm.
* Source: In the Wake of the Pack Tracks, published in 1982 by the Berwick-Pakenham Historical Society.