City of Knox: History
The City of Knox was named after Sir George Hodges Knox (1885–1960), a former soldier and speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. The City of Knox Crest incorporates his family's motto 'Move and Prosper'.
The area which is now Knox was once part of the Scoresby Riding of the Shire of Berwick. On 23 May 1889, the riding was severed to create the Shire of Fern Tree Gully, which extended as far east as Olinda and Monbulk in the Dandenong Ranges. Post-World War II development in the area closer to Melbourne led to rapid urbanisation and population growth—over 21,000 residents lived in the Knox area by the 1961 Census. A plebiscite to determine local residents' views led to the creation of the Shire of Knox on 9 October 1963, which was proclaimed on 16 November 1963 by the Governor of Victoria. It was declared a City on 4 July 1969.
By the 1986 Census, the area was home to over 100,000 residents. Before the local government reforms of the 1990s, the Cities of Knox and Waverley were the state's two most populous municipalities, with around 125,000 residents each.
The City of Knox was one of the few councils (and one of only four in Melbourne) to survive the statewide amalgamations. On 15 December 1994, its boundaries were extended to add the suburb of Upper Ferntree Gully and part of Lysterfield from the former Shire of Sherbrooke, while it ceded the locality of Lysterfield South to the City of Casey.