Hopetoun Victoria
Hopetoun in Victoria is a rural township in the Mallee region of the state. The town came about from a settlement beside Lake Coorong, which is fed by the Yarriambiack Creek. The creek is a distributary of the Wimmera River that has headwaters in the Grampians. The river flows parallel to most of the Henty Highway and ends in the lake.
The Hopetoun district was settled as a pastoral run in 1846, and in 1877 the run was acquired by Edward Lascelles. Despite the depredations of vermin and rabbits, Lascelles undertook clearing and fencing off part of his run for agricultural uses. He had farm and township blocks surveyed in 1889 and persuaded the Victorian Governor, Lord Hopetoun, to visit his pastoral station in 1890.
The naming of the township followed, and the first land sales occurred in 1891. Lascelles’ residence, Hopetoun House was built in 1891.
Sufficient settlers took up farms for a government school to be opened in 1892. In 1893 Lascelles persuaded the Government to extend the railway line from Beulah to Hopetoun. Wheat harvests then had a ready access to markets. By then the township had a newspaper, a Methodist church, several stores and cricket and football clubs.
The Early Years of Hopetoun
In 1910 Hopetoun Victoria had about 880 people, and in 1966 the population had grown to 1024. The steady increase of population was accompanied by increasing amenities:
- A private hospital became the locally-owned bush nursing hospital (1943)
- A swimming pool was opened in 1940, a Catholic school was opened (1954)
- The acquisition of one of Hopetoun’s two hotels in 1958 as a community cooperative venture.
- The higher elementary school (1945) was replaced by a high school in 1960.
The 1970s saw the decline in high prices for wheat, wool and fat lambs. Farmers have diversified into chick peas and canola.
Points of Interest in Hopetoun
- Hopetoun Opportunity Shop – browse the extensive collection put together by its volunteers and pick yourself up a bargain. keep an eye out throughout the town for the decorated bikes pointing you in the direction of the opportunity shop
- Hopetoun House (private residence)
- Dr Pete’s Park and mural
- Pioneer Cemetery
- Memorial Hall c.1923 – built to honour Hopetoun soldiers who went to World War 1 and now contains the WW1 and WW2 honour rolls
- Drinking Fountain c.1929 – a memorial to Edward Harwood Lascelles, considered to be the father of the Mallee
- Hopetoun Community Hotel c.1958 was the first cooperative hotel in Victoria, built after the Commercial Hotel was destroyed by fire a few years earlier
- Pug house – residence of a station employee before 1890 (private residence)
- Church of England c.1907
- Baptist Church c.1922 – the last limestone building to be erected (private residence)
- Site of limestone house ‘Roseneath’ c. early 1890s for George Murdoch, surveyor and town planner, and demolished in the mid-1990s
- Fountain – at the roundabout joining Lascelles and Austin streets lays the fountain, site of the town’s first water supply which was a large tank laid in 1891
- The limestone shops in Lascelles street were built before 1905
Accommodation in Hopetoun
The Mallee Bush Retreat
The Mallee Bush Retreat is on the shores of Lake Lascelles.
The complex provides a range of unique accommodation options including 2 Silos, 2 Cow Sheds, Stables, Machinery Shed and a Limestone Grain Store, with 33 beds available.
The Silo Cabins (pictured above) are just two of the quirky and inexpensive accommodation options built from local materials like wood, stone and corrugated iron.
The Shearing Shed is a fully functional kitchen with fireplace, television, tables and chairs. This facility is used for dining, functions and as a multipurpose room.
Address: On the foreshore of Lake Lascelles 500m from town centre.
Phone: 0439 529 973
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Hopetoun, Victoria, Australia
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