Hopper family memorial plaque
Ms CONNOLLY (Tarneit) (12:55): With works finally wrapped up on the removal of the Old Geelong Road level crossing at Hoppers Crossing station, it was a great opportunity to unveil a brand new plaque there down at the station. As part of the works at the station precinct, a brand new plaque commemorating the Hopper family was commissioned and installed, celebrating the early history of the area. For years people have assumed Stephen Hopper was the gatekeeper, opening the gates on the railway between Melbourne and Geelong and for whom the suburb was named. As history would uncover, he did not do it alone. While Stephen was in fact an engineer who worked on the rails at the crossing, it was his wife, Elizabeth, who was the gatekeeper and worked day and night to connect what was the only route through Skeleton Creek at the time. After Stephen, sadly, died, Elizabeth would go on to raise their 11 children and set up a thriving community in the area. In fact two of their living descendants, Paul and Les Hopper, were present at the unveiling on Saturday morning. For the time that was the late 19th century, Elizabeth was a trailblazer, a working mum in a time when there were so few women railway workers, and it is fantastic to see her contribution to what is now a thriving community recognised on par. It is an unusual thing for a family to be awarded a boom gate; however, in this instance there is absolutely nothing more fitting to honour a pioneering couple and their descendants, who played such an integral part in the history of the original level crossing. I am sure that the Hopper family will pass down their boom gate for generations to come.