Unlike Balnarring and Hastings, Merricks's early settlers preferred running cattle and sheep to growing orchards.

The Victorian Municipal Directory in 1962 stated that Merricks contained "(only) a general store and post and telegraph office".

[3] Merricks is a tiny settlement along the Frankston-Flinders Road which has changed little over the years from its earlier rural functions, and many of the original settler houses still stand today.

It features a newly restored General Store (built in 1927) incorporating a post office and newsagency, the Peninsula Quarter Horse Association's base and a chocolate factory.

A 6.3 km mostly tree-lined horse riding trail, established by the former Shire of Hastings in the mid-1980s along a disused railway route, runs roughly east–west from Merricks Station Ground Reserve to Red Hill through mostly rural land between the Coolart and East Creeks.