Bipartisan moves: ALP candidate John Pandazopoulos, MP Rob Jolly, Kay Charles representing her then husband MP Bob Charles, Berwick mayor Trevor Smith, post secondary education minister Tom Roper and Member for Eumemmerring Fred van Buren at Casey airfield, to announce the site would become a university campus.BERWICK Village could not hold back elation at the news on 17 September 1992 that Monash University would build its new campus at Casey airfield.
The quest for the campus had united community, commercial, and political interests, and the announcement ended six months of controversy over the suitability of Berwick over the rival site at Dandenong stockyards.
Real estate agents predicted an immediate rise in property values in Berwick, and the chamber of commerce predicted a commercial boom.
The announcement signalled State Government acquisition of the land. The Federal Government would then fund the buildings.
Chairman of the South Eastern Area University Planning Council, Ian Chisholm, called for a guarantee of temporary classes within two years so that local students would not miss out on university places.
The campus was to be completed by 1995.
The working party envisaged an education precinct including a secondary college.
“It has been a long haul,” the Gazette quoted Mr Chisholm as saying. “We started off with bipartisan support, and I hope we have it again.”
The decision was a heralded as a victory for the Berwick community, who petitioned to win the campus and who fought a plan for industrial development at the site.
Casey airfield had been one of Berwick’s historic sites, part of the estate owned by Australian governor-general Lord Casey, who with his wife Maie was an aviator.
