Lawn mowing in Patterson Lakes

About Patterson Lakes

The swamp was surveyed in 1866 and divided into 18 allotments; drainage contracts began in 1873, the Patterson Cut to Port Phillip was made in 1876, named for J.B. Patterson, and the swamp was fully drained by 1879, though a large part east of Carrum flooded again in the 1930s and 1950s. Then, in the early 1970s, developer Len Woodward acquired 324 hectares of wetland for a raised estate set in artificial lakes and canals. The first soil was turned in 1974 at Iluka Island on Lake Legana in the north-east corner, the suburb was established in 1978, the primary school opened in 1979, the post office on 1 April 1986 and the St Leonard's College campus in 1987.

The engineers found only a surface layer of peat-like material unsuitable, and underneath it fine dense sand. The peat was stripped to strengthen the levee banks and form the reserves, and the excavated sand formed the residential sites. So the house sites are sand, about 4 metres above the sea, beside water: the Quiet Lakes (Carramar, Illawong and Legana), the tidal canals and their islands, the three harbours, and the Eel Race Drain that becomes Kananook Creek. Roy Dore Reserve, William Salthouse Park, John Lindsay Reserve and the Wannarkladdin Wetlands are the open ground. Population went from 6,606 in 2001 to 7,582 in 2011.

Kingston runs the strips the same way here as along the rest of its coast: residents mow and water, council owns and prunes the trees, two-yearly, and hazards are the only thing that brings a council mower. Plantings other than grass are held to 0.5 m, half a metre off the kerb. The garden-waste bin with the green lid is standard, collected every second week, alternating with recycling, on garbage day.