Devon Meadows
The landmark Five Ways store on the South Gippsland Highway marks the location of Devon Meadows, 49 km south-east of central Melbourne and 17 km south of Berwick. The name originated from a local landowner, Benjamin Cox, whose property was called 'Devon'. Devon Meadows was established in 1912 when the Sherwood Park Estate was subdivided and a local school was opened in 1916.
By the late 1920s the farming community had built a mechanics' institute hall. The land is generally flat, prone to minor flooding, but productive under intensive cultivation. Vegetables are grown under irrigation. The sandy loam is extracted for top dressing, and subsoil has been extracted for the building industry.
In the 1970s-80s Devon Meadows became a rural/residential locality. There is a community hall, tennis courts, a recreation reserve and a Uniting church. The school had 180 pupils in 1998 and 221 in 2014.
Local industries include piggeries, kennels, egg and broiler production.
Devon Meadows census populations have been:
| census date | population |
|---|---|
| 1921 | 90 |
| 1947 | 236 |
| 1961 | 474 |
| 2006 | 1594 |
| 2011 | 1606 |
Further Reading
Joy Rawson, The history of Devon Meadows Primary School and the community which supports it, Devon Meadows, 1982
