Millbrook is a rural district in the state 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, located north west of

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 ...

. It was formerly called "Moorabool" but the name was changed to avoid confusion with a locality near Geelong. The name "Millbrook" was adopted because of a flour mill erected by Matthew Butterly on the West Moorabool creek. At the time of the 2016 census, Millbrook had a population of 156 down from 550 in 2006, partly reflecting changing boundaries. The soil is volcanic and well-adapted to cereals, potatoes and grazing. The landscape is undulating and preserves remnants of the original open forest. The West Moorabool creek runs through the district. The earliest inhabitants of the area were the

Wathaurong The Wathaurong nation, also called the Wathaurung, Wadawurrung and Wadda Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin al ...

, and the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

were prominent among its European settlers in the mid-19th century.

History

Millbrook adjoins or is near to other districts of the

Moorabool Shire The Shire of Moorabool 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 34,158. It includes the towns of Ballan, Bacchus Marsh, Balliang, ...

such as Ballan, Egerton,

Gordon Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

, Wallace and

Bungaree Bungaree, or Boongaree ( – 24 November 1830), was an Aboriginal Australian from the Guringai people of the Broken Bay north of Sydney, who was known as an explorer, entertainer, and Aboriginal community leader.Barani (2013)Significant Aborig ...

and its early history is inseparable from theirs. The Wathaurong people are the original inhabitants. The first European colonists in the region were graziers known as the "Over-Straiters", who had originally come over Bass Strait from

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...

(now Tasmania) in the 1830s. They were succeeded by small farmers, many of them Irish, who took advantage of the 1860 Land Act allowing free selection of crown land, including that covered by pastoral leases. The old road from

to Ballarat, which passes through Millbrook, was a highway for the miners during the gold rush of the 1850s. The Moorabool region was rich in native flora and fauna when the European settlers arrived. Casualties of European settlement included

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

s, dingos,

bandicoot Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago t ...

s, native cats and several bird species.

Koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the w ...

possums Possum may refer to: Animals * Phalangeriformes, or possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi ** Common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula''), a common possum in Australian urban a ...

and various species of parrots remain.

Station

The Millbrook railway station and 34 others were closed on 4 October 1981 because of a new timetable for country passengers in Victoria. A new high-speed service between Melbourne and Ballarat was instituted, with the new line passing through Millbrook and over West Moorabool. This involved the acquisition of land from neighbouring landowners, a cause of some controversy, particularly in view of claims that the lessening of travel time would be minimal. The service started on 22 December 2005.V/line - First Day of VLocity Revenue Operation (Ballarat).
Accessed 22 September 2011

Post office

The name of the local post office was changed from Moorabool Creek PO to Millbrook PO on 1 August 1879, and the office was closed on 31 July 1985.

References

Bibliography

Denholm, David. "Squatting" in ''The Oxford Companion to Australian History'', edited by Graeme Davidson. John Hirst & Stuart MacIntyre, Oxford University Press, 1998. Roberts, Stephen H. ''History of Australian Land Settlement'', 1788–1920. Macmillan / Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1924. Toohey, Jack. ''On the Eastern Fringe: Recollections and Stories on the Settlement and Farming Histories in the Bungaree, Wallace, Bolwarrah and Gordon Districts''. Ballarat 2005.

External links

Man using a horse-drawn scarifier at Millbrook, c. 1925.

Threshing at Millbrook, 1939.
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (Australia)