Editing Cockatoo, Victoria (section)

==History==

Cockatoo was named after Cockatoo Creek. It was first settled in the 1870s but progress was tardy as the land was difficult to clear.

A Post Office was not opened until 1 November 1901 when the railway arrived and was known as Cockatoo Creek until 1917.<ref name = "a">{{Citation| last = Premier Postal History  | title = Post Office List | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&country= | accessdate = 2008-04-11 }}</ref>

Shortly after the end of the [[World War I]], a large number of immigrants went to live in Cockatoo while working in Melbourne. The most significant wave was made by Italians. Timbergetting was the major source of employment and this industry received a considerable boost when the [[Narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways|narrow-gauge railway]] from Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook was completed in 1900. Moreover, the railway brought leisure-seeking Melburnians into the area and a market for subdivision arose. The [[Heritage railway|railway]] is operated today as the [[Puffing Billy Railway]].

Cockatoo was one of the worst-hit townships during the disastrous 1983 [[Ash Wednesday Bushfires]], where over 300 buildings were destroyed and 6 lives lost.