diff --git a/cluster/gke/config-common.sh b/cluster/gke/config-common.sh
index bc5e078dc21c2..279b65a21b632 100644
--- a/cluster/gke/config-common.sh
+++ b/cluster/gke/config-common.sh
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ CLUSTER_API_VERSION="${CLUSTER_API_VERSION:-}"
 # TODO(mbforbes): Actually plumb this through; this currently only works
 #                 because we use the 'default' network by default.
 NETWORK="${NETWORK:-default}"
+NETWORK_RANGE="${NETWORK_RANGE:-10.240.0.0/16}"
 GCLOUD="${GCLOUD:-gcloud}"
 GCLOUD_CONFIG_DIR="${GCLOUD_CONFIG_DIR:-${HOME}/.config/gcloud/kubernetes}"
 ENABLE_CLUSTER_DNS=false
diff --git a/cluster/gke/util.sh b/cluster/gke/util.sh
index 123e8a6a463d7..ab99b6d554df9 100644
--- a/cluster/gke/util.sh
+++ b/cluster/gke/util.sh
@@ -87,6 +87,14 @@ function verify-prereqs() {
 function kube-up() {
   echo "... in kube-up()" >&2
   detect-project >&2
+
+  # Make the specified network if we need to.
+  if ! gcloud compute networks describe "${NETWORK}" &>/dev/null; then
+    echo "Creating new network: ${NETWORK}" >&2
+    gcloud compute networks create "${NETWORK}" --range "${NETWORK_RANGE}"
+  fi
+
+  # Bring up the cluster.
   "${GCLOUD}" preview container clusters create "${CLUSTER_NAME}" \
     --zone="${ZONE}" \
     --project="${PROJECT}" \