The area within the Pakenham East Precinct Structure Plan (PSP) is under development and will support over 7,000 new homes. Because of the scale of this development, we must create a new suburb name as required by Geographical Names Victoria (GNV). The legislation which applies to this process does not allow Council to name this new suburb Pakenham East or East Pakenham.

We asked you to vote on your preferred names chosen by our Place Names Advisory Committee and in consultation with the Nar Nar Goon Progress Association, Koo Wee Rup Swam Historical Society and Berwick Pakenham Historical Society. The names that had been chosen were female commemorative names of women who were from Cardinia Shire and are deserving of recognition.

Thank you for your input on the new name for the Pakenham East suburb. We received an overwhelming response to the voting poll with a total of 1,840 valid responses.

As a result of the voting poll, ‘Honora’ received the most support and was endorsed by Council at the 15 July Council Meeting to be adopted as the new suburb name. You can view a copy of the Council report here.

Geographic Names Victoria has informed Council that the name requires a suffix to comply with the naming rules. In consultation with the family, the recommended suburb name is ‘Honora Fields’.

Honora Fields pays homage to Honora Carney, a Cardinia Shire local whose family has significant ties to land between Pakenham and Nar Nar Goon, dating back to 1869. It is also the land where Honora, together with her husband Michael and their 7 children, operated their farming business for many years. Members of the Carney family currently still live within the suburb area.

We will look to register the new suburb name with Geographic Names in September following a 30-day consultation period, with homeowners within the suburb boundaries contacted should they like to make a submission in support or objection of the use of ‘fields’ within the name. Submissions must be received by 12 September 2024 via email to mail@cardinia.vic.gov.au.

All submissions must comply with Naming rules for places in Victoria – Statutory requirements for naming roads, features and localities – 2022.