Healesville, Victoria
Encyclopedia
Healesville is a town in Victoria
, Australia
, 52 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district
. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Yarra Ranges
. At the 2006 Census, Healesville had a population of 6567.
Healesville is situated on the Watts River
, a tributary of the Yarra River
.
and Yarra Valley
goldfields in the 1860s resulted in a settlement forming on the Watts River and its survey as a town in 1864. It was named after Richard Heales
, the Premier of Victoria
from 1860–1861. The post office opened on 1 May 1865. The town became a setting off point for the Woods Point Goldfield with the construction of the Yarra Track
in the 1870s.
, a nature park with hundreds of native Australian animals displayed in a semi-open natural setting and an active platypus
breeding program.
The Yarra Valley Tourist Railway
operates from Healesville Station on every Sunday, most public holidays and Wednesday to Sunday during school holidays.
Schools in Healesville include the 125 year-old Healesville Primary School, St Brigid's Catholic primary school, the Healesville High School and Worawa College, an Aboriginal school whose former students include noted Australian Rules Football
er David Wirrpanda
. Much of what is now Healesville lies on the ancestral land of the Wurundjeri
people. The Coranderrk
mission station, set up in 1863, is located just south of the main township.
Industries in and around Healesville include sawmill
ing, horticulture
, tourism
and, more recently, viticulture
.
Swinburne TAFE
has a campus in Healesville.
The Salvation Army
has been part of the community since the late 19th century, with a continued and renewed presence in town.
.
Healesville also has a Tennis
club, Healesville Tennis Club, that competes in the Eastern Region Tennis junior and senior competitions.
Healesville has a picnic horse racing club
, Healesville Amateur Racing, which holds around seven race meetings a year with the Healesville Cup meeting in January.
The Healesville Greyhound Racing
Club also holds regular meetings.
Golfers play at the course of the RACV Country Club on Yarra Glen Road.
A Tourist and Progress Association was created before 1914.
In the 1920s the association published "Healesville, The World-famed Tourist Resort", listing over 40 beauty spots and 20 hotels and guest houses.
The construction of the Maroondah Dam in 1927, replacing the weir, brought several hundred workmen to Healesville. Their departure and the onset of the 1930s depression exposed Healesville's restricted range of industries. Timber and tourism were not stable enough for sustained growth. Notwithstanding the depression, the 1930s saw increased motor tourism (partly bypassing Healesville) and decreased railway patronage. Only 10% came by rail at Easter 1934. Tourism was still active but a local newspaper commented that Healesville would be "heaps better off calling itself the good-time town instead of the world-famed-tourist-resort—that's got whiskers on it".
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, 52 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district
Melbourne city centre
Melbourne City Centre is an area of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is not to be confused with the larger local government area of the City of Melbourne...
. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Yarra Ranges
Shire of Yarra Ranges
The Yarra Ranges Shire is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia, located in the outer eastern and northeastern suburbs of Melbourne extending into the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges...
. At the 2006 Census, Healesville had a population of 6567.
Healesville is situated on the Watts River
Watts River
The Watts River is a tributary of the Yarra River. It rises on the southern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, north east of Healesville, Victoria, Australia and joins the Yarra River near Healesville...
, a tributary of the Yarra River
Yarra River
The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
.
History
The creation of a railway to the more distant GippslandGippsland
Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...
and Yarra Valley
Yarra Valley
The Yarra Valley is the name given to the region surrounding the Yarra River in Victoria, Australia. The river originates approximately 90 kilometres east of the City of Melbourne and flows towards it and out into Port Phillip Bay...
goldfields in the 1860s resulted in a settlement forming on the Watts River and its survey as a town in 1864. It was named after Richard Heales
Richard Heales
Richard Heales , Victorian colonial politician, was the 4th Premier of Victoria.Heales was born in London, the son of an ironmonger. He was apprenticed as a coachbuilder and migrated to Victoria with his father in 1842. He worked for some years as a labourer before establishing himself as a...
, the Premier of Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
from 1860–1861. The post office opened on 1 May 1865. The town became a setting off point for the Woods Point Goldfield with the construction of the Yarra Track
Yarra Track
The Yarra Track is the former name of the gold fields road from Healesville to the Woods Point and Jordan Goldfields, in Victoria, Australia. A direct route via the Yarra River and the Great Divide, was discovered by Reick in September 1862. This became known as the `Yarra Track’. Early in 1863,...
in the 1870s.
Present
Healesville is well known for the Healesville SanctuaryHealesville Sanctuary
Healesville Sanctuary, or the Sir Colin MacKenzie Fauna Park, is a zoo specializing in native Australian animals. It is located at Healesville in rural Victoria, Australia, and has a history of breeding native animals. It is one of only two places to have successfully bred a platypus, the other...
, a nature park with hundreds of native Australian animals displayed in a semi-open natural setting and an active platypus
Platypus
The platypus is a semi-aquatic mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young...
breeding program.
The Yarra Valley Tourist Railway
Yarra Valley Tourist Railway
The Yarra Valley Railway is a tourist railway operating on a section of the former Healesville railway which operated between Lilydale and Healesville in the Yarra Valley area northeast of Melbourne, Australia.- History :...
operates from Healesville Station on every Sunday, most public holidays and Wednesday to Sunday during school holidays.
Schools in Healesville include the 125 year-old Healesville Primary School, St Brigid's Catholic primary school, the Healesville High School and Worawa College, an Aboriginal school whose former students include noted Australian Rules Football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
er David Wirrpanda
David Wirrpanda
David Selwyn Wirrpanda is a former Australian rules footballer, who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League between 1996 and 2009...
. Much of what is now Healesville lies on the ancestral land of the Wurundjeri
Wurundjeri
The Wurundjeri are a people of the Indigenous Australian nation of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance, who occupy the Birrarung Valley, its tributaries and the present location of Melbourne, Australia...
people. The Coranderrk
Coranderrk
Coranderrk was an Indigenous Australian mission station set up in 1863 to provide land under the policy of concentration, for Aboriginal people who had been dispossessed by the arrival of Europeans to the state of Victoria 30 years prior. The mission was formally closed in 1924 with most residents...
mission station, set up in 1863, is located just south of the main township.
Industries in and around Healesville include sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
ing, horticulture
Horticulture
Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...
, tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
and, more recently, viticulture
Viticulture
Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...
.
Swinburne TAFE
Swinburne University of Technology
Swinburne University of Technology is an Australian public dual sector university based in Melbourne, Victoria. The institution was founded by the Honourable George Swinburne in 1908 and achieved university status in June 1992...
has a campus in Healesville.
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
has been part of the community since the late 19th century, with a continued and renewed presence in town.
Sport
The town has an Australian Rules football team, The Bloods, competing in the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football LeagueYarra Valley Mountain District Football League
The Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in Victoria to the east and northeast of Melbourne.-History:...
.
Healesville also has a Tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
club, Healesville Tennis Club, that competes in the Eastern Region Tennis junior and senior competitions.
Healesville has a picnic horse racing club
Picnic horse racing
Picnic horse racing, or more usually picnic races or more colloquially "the picnics" refer to amateur Thoroughbred horse racing meetings, predominantly in Australia. The meetings are organized by amateur clubs, the jockeys are amateur riders, or sometimes former professional jockeys...
, Healesville Amateur Racing, which holds around seven race meetings a year with the Healesville Cup meeting in January.
The Healesville Greyhound Racing
Greyhound racing
Greyhound racing is the sport of racing greyhounds. The dogs chase a lure on a track until they arrive at the finish line. The one that arrives first is the winner....
Club also holds regular meetings.
Golfers play at the course of the RACV Country Club on Yarra Glen Road.
Notable people
- Noted Aboriginal artist and Wurundjeri elder William BarakWilliam BarakWilliam Barak , was the last traditional ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri-willam clan, based around the area of present-day Melbourne, Australia...
spent much of his life at CoranderrkCoranderrkCoranderrk was an Indigenous Australian mission station set up in 1863 to provide land under the policy of concentration, for Aboriginal people who had been dispossessed by the arrival of Europeans to the state of Victoria 30 years prior. The mission was formally closed in 1924 with most residents...
Station, near Healesville. Wurundjeri elder Joy Murphy WandinJoy Murphy WandinJoy Murphy Wandin is an Indigenous Australian, Senior Wurundjeri elder of the Kulin alliance in Victoria, Australia. She has given the traditional welcome to country greeting at many Melbourne events and to many distinguished visitors where she says in the Woiwurrung language "Wominjeka Wurundjeri...
lives in Healsville.
- Andrew Moore, Australian Rules Football player for Port Adelaide.
- Kelvin W. MooreKelvin W. MooreKelvin Moore is an Australian rules football player for the Richmond Football Club.Whilst injuries held back most of his early career, Moore secured a spot in the Tigers' defense in season 2008...
, Australian Rules FootballAustralian rules footballAustralian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
player for the Richmond Football ClubRichmond Football ClubThe Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
. - James WandinJames WandinJames Wandin , also known as Jim, Jimmy, or Juby, was the ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri till his death in February 2006...
(1933–2006), WurundjeriWurundjeriThe Wurundjeri are a people of the Indigenous Australian nation of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance, who occupy the Birrarung Valley, its tributaries and the present location of Melbourne, Australia...
ngurungaetaNgurungaetaNgurungaeta is a Wurundjeri word meaning 'head man' or 'tribal leader'. Ngurungaeta held the same tribal standing as an Arweet of the Bunurong and Wathaurong people...
and Australian Rules footballer with St Kilda Football Club. - David WirrpandaDavid WirrpandaDavid Selwyn Wirrpanda is a former Australian rules footballer, who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League between 1996 and 2009...
, Australian Rules FootballAustralian rules footballAustralian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
player for the . - Lex Lasry, Supreme Court Judge.
- Luke Dennehy, Herald-Sun Journalist.
Tourism
From the late 1890s elaborate country retreat residences were built alongside hotels and guest houses.A Tourist and Progress Association was created before 1914.
In the 1920s the association published "Healesville, The World-famed Tourist Resort", listing over 40 beauty spots and 20 hotels and guest houses.
The construction of the Maroondah Dam in 1927, replacing the weir, brought several hundred workmen to Healesville. Their departure and the onset of the 1930s depression exposed Healesville's restricted range of industries. Timber and tourism were not stable enough for sustained growth. Notwithstanding the depression, the 1930s saw increased motor tourism (partly bypassing Healesville) and decreased railway patronage. Only 10% came by rail at Easter 1934. Tourism was still active but a local newspaper commented that Healesville would be "heaps better off calling itself the good-time town instead of the world-famed-tourist-resort—that's got whiskers on it".