Bittern is a town on the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Ge ...

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 me ...

, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the " cit ...

, located within the

Shire of Mornington Peninsula The Shire of Mornington Peninsula is a local government area in southeastern Metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located to the south of the Melbourne City Centre. It has an area of 724 square kilometres and in June 2018 it had ...

local government area. Bittern recorded a population of 4,276 at the 2021 census. Bittern is part of an urban enclave on

Western Port Western Port, ( Boonwurrung: ''Warn Marin'') commonly but unofficially known as Western Port Bay, is a large tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia, opening into Bass Strait. It is the second largest bay in the state. Geographically, it ...

comprising Bittern,

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west a ...

, Crib Point, Somerville, and

Tyabb Tyabb is a township and semi rural locality on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local government area. Tyabb re ...

. It is served by Bittern railway station on the Stony Point greater-metropolitan line and by the 782 bus route operated by Peninsula Bus Lines between Frankston and Flinders. Bittern is named after the shy wetland bird, the

Australasian bittern The Australasian bittern (''Botaurus poiciloptilus''), also known as the brown bittern or matuku hūrepo, and also nicknamed the " bunyip bird", is a large bird in the heron family Ardeidae. A secretive bird with a distinctive booming call, it is ...

, which reflects the town's location amongst significant areas of native bushland and dense coastal vegetation.

History and Present Day

The town was part of the Coolart pastoral run of the 1860s. Bittern Post Office opened on 5 January 1891. The railway opened for Bittern in 1889 and small scale commercial development began during the early 1900s. The town also has a primary school, Bittern Primary School, and a small basketball and netball stadium known as Graham Myers Sports Stadium or Bittern Memorial Stadium, which features an indoor court used for basketball, netball or floorball and four outside courts used for netball. There is also a small oval located outside the stadium.

References

{{authority control Suburbs of Melbourne Mornington Peninsula Western Port Coastal towns in Victoria (Australia)

History and Present Day

See also

References