Heathcote, Victoria

Infobox Australian Place | type = town
name = Heathcote
state = vic


caption = Main street
lga = City of Greater Bendigo
postcode = 3523
est =
pop = 2686 (2006)Census 2006 AUS | id = SSC25753 | name = Heathcote (State Suburb) | accessdate = 2007-10-01 | quick = on]
elevation=
maxtemp =
mintemp =
rainfall =
stategov = Rodney
fedgov = Bendigo
dist1 = 109
dir1 =
location1= Melbourne
dist2 = 47
dir2 =
location2=Bendigo

Heathcote is a town in central Victoria, Australia, situated on the Northern Highway 110 kilometres north of Melbourne and 40 kilometres south-east of Bendigo via the McIvor Highway. Its local government area is the City of Greater Bendigo, Heathcote is part of the federal electorate of Bendigo and is in the state electorate of Rodney. At the 2006 census, Heathcote had a population of 2686.

History

The first known European known to have visited the area now known as the Heathcote district was Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836, and fifteen years later about 400 Europeans lived on some 16 pastoral properties in the vicinity.

Late in 1852 gold was discovered at McIvor Creek, and within six months some 40,000 miners were encamped in the vicinity. It proved to be one of the richest finds during the Australian gold rushes, but the gold was so easily found that it was soon largely exhausted and by the end of the year a large proportion of the miners had already left for other recent finds (although deeper deposits continued to be mined for many years). This was not before the Victorian Government gazetted the township of Heathcote on the site and ordered the construction of several official buildings. The Post Office opened on 1 July 1853 as McIvor Creek, six months later on 1 January 1854 being renamed Heathcote.Citation

last = Premier Postal History | title = Post Office List | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&country= | accessdate = 2008-04-11 ]

With the decline of gold mining the region took on an increased importance as a pastoral district.

Heathcote was served by railway from 1889 to 1968 ["The Heathcote Junction to Bendigo and Associated Railways" Turton, Keith Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, April, 1970 pp69-88] .

The most famous incident during the gold rush era was the Melbourne Private Escort Robbery on 20 July 1853. This took place very close to where one of Australia's worst aviation disasters occurred in 1945.

The Town today

Heathcote is the closest major town to the Heathcote-Greytown National Park and Lake Eppalock. The town hosts a rodeo at Easter and an agricultural show in November.

It is reputed as having the longest main street in Victoria.cite web
url = http://www.visitvictoria.com/displayObject.cfm/objectid.00090D3E-E190-1E67-9AE980C476A90000/vvt.vhtml
title = Emeu Inn Restaurant, B&B and Wine Centre
work = Visit Victoria
publisher = Tourism Victoria
accessdate = 2007-03-28] The town is the centre of the recognised Heathcote wine region, notable for its Shiraz wines.cite web
url = http://www.wineaustralia.com/australia/Default.aspx?tabid=747
title = Heathcote, Victoria
work = Wine Regions
publisher = Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation
accessdate = 2007-03-28]

The town has an Australian Rules football team playing in the Heathcote District Football League.

References

*J. O. Randell, "McIvor, A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote", published by the author, East Melbourne, 1985.