Shoreham - Culture and History

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This was published 15 years ago

Shoreham - Culture and History

This part of the coast is really very beautiful and quite exclusive. All of the land between Flinders and Point Leo was once part of a large pastoral property which has since been broken up, but not in a suburban manner. The smaller subdivisions take the form of small acreages rather than urban allotments. One reason for this remarkable lack of restraint may be the kinds of people who own land in the area - Lindsay Fox, Daryl Somers, the proprietor of Spotlight Fabrics. At any rate the local council appears to have set ideas about preserving the area's beauty, its estates and fine coastal views across Western Port to Phillip Island and out through the headlands, The Nobbies and Seal Rocks to Bass Strait.

The first run in the area was established in the 1840s and the township began to emerge in the 1870s. Dairying, farming, timber and pastoral enterprises have long characterized the local economy, although the emergence of a few bed and breakfasts, holiday homes and a camping ground in recent years reflect the growing attraction of the area for holiday-makers. The township itself has a general store, an early church hall (the size of which suggests the congregation was never very large) and allegedly the oldest sawmill in Victoria. The main beach gathers about the estuary of a creek and its reefs and rock pools render it of interest to families. It is possible to walk north to Point Leo and, on the rare occasions when the tides are right, south to Flinders. Merricks, Shoreham and Point Leo had a combined population, in 1996, of 1394. Ashcombe Maze is a major local attraction.

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