Cressy is a town in

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 ...

, approximately north of Colac on the

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

road. It is divided between

Golden Plains Shire The Golden Plains Shire is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the western part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018, had a population of 23,120. It includes the towns of Bannockburn, Dereel, Gheringhap, ...

, the

Shire of Colac Otway The Shire of Colac Otway is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 21,503. It includes the towns ...

, and

Corangamite Shire The Shire of Corangamite is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 16,140. It includes the towns ...

. At the 2016 census, Cressy and the surrounding area had a population of 175.

History

George Russell, manager of the pastoral Clyde Company, opened up the area to European settlement in 1836. In 1837, a French man named Jean Duverney crossed the Woady Yaloak River, claimed land on both banks, and named the area "Frenchman's Run". Duverney called the small, developing village Cressy, after Crécy in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where he was born. The Cressy

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

opened on 1 January 1858. After the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, an

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

was constructed south of the town towards Colac, and was used by the

RAAF "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

until 1946 as a combat training base and for bombing practice. Cressy airfield had three airstrips, two about long with a drained gravel surface and a grass airstrip about long. Two large Bellman hangars were used for aircraft maintenance. Several RAAF aircraft crashed in the vicinity during the war.

Railways

The first railway to reach Cressy was an extension of the line from Colac to

Beeac Beeac is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. The town is located on the shore of the hyper-saline Lake Beeac in the Colac Otway Shire local government area, 160 kilometres southwest of the state capital, Melbourne. At the ...

. It opened in December 1910, and by September 1911, the line had been extended north to Newtown, where it joined the line to Ballarat. In September 1910, work began at Cressy on the Western Plains Railway. This line joined the line to Ararat at Maroona, and the lines to

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

Gheringhap Gheringhap is a rural township near Geelong, Victoria, Australia, located approximately 83 km southwest of Melbourne, between Geelong and Meredith on the Midland Highway. Gheringhap is located in the Golden Plains Shire. The town is loc ...

. Cressy, being at the junction of the two cross-country lines, became an important railway center, with extensive buildings, railway yards, and a turntable. Buildings included station offices, refreshment rooms, and an elevated signal box. The line from Colac to Newtown was closed in 1953. Few traces of Cressy station now remain.

Cressy in the 21st century

A variety of old buildings remain in Cressy, although many were destroyed in the fires of 1977, which also killed three people. There are two churches remaining, and the Cressy Historical Society is now housed in the

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

, opposite the old Post Office and general store. The church was built in 1862, and is open for research on the first Sunday of every month. The Cressy police station closed in 2010. The old post office and a telephone exchange were built in 1924 for £5,000. After it was closed, it was turned into a family home, and subsequently opened as a café and mixed business, which operated until 2014. The town football team went into recess in 1998, after the Western Plains FL merged with the Lexton FL.

References

External links

Historic photo of Cressy Post Office
State Library, Victoria, accessed 23 March 2015 {{Authority control Towns in Victoria (Australia)