Cockatoo is a town in Victoria, Australia, 48 km south-east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Cardinia local government area.

[2] Shortly after the end of the World War I, a large number of immigrants went to live in Cockatoo while working in Melbourne.

Timbergetting was the major source of employment and this industry received a considerable boost when the narrow-gauge railway from Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook was completed in 1900.

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.

The Cardinia Shire Council provides a mobile library service at the McBride Street carpark on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings.

[3] The town's other sporting teams include netball, cricket, tennis, equestrian, basketball, athletics and soccer.

The forest has scars of the Ash Wednesday fires that swept through the area in 1983 with some trees still showing charred bark.