Beulah is a town in the southern Mallee region of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The town is in the

Shire of Yarriambiack The Shire of Yarriambiack is a local government area of Victoria, Australia, located in the north-western part of the state. It covers an area of and, in June 2018, had a population of 6,658, having fallen from 7,438 in 2008. It includes the tow ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

, 395 kilometres north-west of the state capital,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. At the 2016 census, Beulah had a population of 329.

History

The town's name is taken from the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC ...

, 62:4. In some English translations the word is given as "married" or "inhabited". Beulah was established on land that was once part of Brim station. Closer settlement began in the 1880s and the town site was proclaimed in 1891. A Post Office opened on May 6, 1891, and the railway from

Warracknabeal Warracknabeal ( ) is a wheatbelt town in the Australian state of Victoria. Situated on the banks of the Yarriambiack Creek, 330 km north-west of Melbourne, it is the business and services centre of the northern Wimmera and southern Mallee d ...

opened on 5 January 1893. The line to Hopetoun opened on 6 March 1894. The town claims to be the closest to the

rabbit-proof fence The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits, and other agricultural pests from th ...

, established to prevent the incursion of rabbit plagues. In January 2020, Beulah became the focus of national news coverage after the owner of a house, Cheryl Lawdorn, flew a large

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

flag featuring a

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

over her home for a fortnight. The flag drew criticism from locals, Yarriambiack Shire Council, the Australian

B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission The Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) is a Jewish-Australian community organisation that was originally founded by B'nai B'rith to combat antisemitism in Australia (originally as the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission).Abramovitch, D. (2015). ...

Victoria Police Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''. , Victo ...

, and the state premier

Daniel Andrews Daniel Michael Andrews (born 6 July 1972) is an Australian politician serving as the 48th and current premier of Victoria since December 2014. He has been the leader of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since December ...

, who referred to the flag as "disgusting". The event led to calls for a ban on people publicly displaying the swastika.

References

External links

Official town websiteYarriambiack Shire Council
- Official council site Towns in Victoria (Australia) Wimmera Mallee (Victoria) {{Mallee-geo-stub