Maryknoll

St Mary’s Cooperative Settlement was founded by Father Wilfred Pooley in 1949, 62 km south-east of Melbourne and 11 km north-east of Pakenham. It was planned as a Catholic ‘City of God’ in the bush and was designed to allow city families to experience a rural lifestyle. The chosen site was 540 acres at North Tynong, originally owned by Mr Reg Sykes. It was renamed Maryknoll in 1955.

The cooperative settlement was supported by the prominent church leader, Archbishop Mannix, and accorded with the aims of the National Catholic Rural Movement.