Pimpinio ( ) is a town in the

Rural City of Horsham The Rural City of Horsham 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 19,875. It includes the towns of Brimpaen, Dadswells Bridge, Doo ...

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 ...

. It is 15 km from the City of

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

and 317 km from the Victorian capital city

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 ...

. As of the

2021 Australian census The 2021 Australian census, simply called the 2021 Census, was the eighteenth national Census of Population and Housing in Australia. The 2021 Census took place on 10 August 2021, and was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). T ...

, Pimpinio had a population of 191 people.

History

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

and blacksmith's forge were established in the Pimpinio area around 1870, and the Pimpinio school opened in 1874 in a

Union Church A united church, also called a uniting church, is a church formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations. Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state ...

hall. When the railway line from Horsham to

Dimboola Dimboola is a town in the Shire of Hindmarsh in the Wimmera region of western Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 334 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. History Situated on the Wimmera River, Dimboola was previously known as 'Nine Creek ...

was extended via Pimpinio, a store was built. Several farms ran small dairy herds and formed a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

butter factory that continued until a

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

occurred in the late 1890s. Pimpinio's first census data, from 1891, recorded a population of 72. In the 1903 edition of ''Australian Handbook'', Pimpinio was described as follows:

''A postal township, county Borung, electoral district Horsham, shire Wimmera. It is a
telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
and
railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
on the Dimboola line, 10 miles north of Horsham and 213 miles from Melbourne, fares 38s. 2d. and 25s. 7d. It has
Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...
and
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
churches, mechanics' institute and
public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...
(1,000 vols.), store, blacksmith's shop, butter factory, machinery valued £1,000, and a
State school State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary educational institution, schools that educate all students without charge. They are ...
(No. 1,439) - two others in district. Water from Trust dams. Agricultural pursuits are followed in the district. Population about 120.''

Pimpinio Post Office opened on 9 March 1875 and closed in 1980. Pimpinio train station opened in 1882 and was disestablished by 1982. Pimpinio school was established in 1874 and closed in 1994.

Demographics

As of 2021, 52.4% of Pimpinio's 191 residents are female and 47.6% are male. The median age is 43. For families with children, there are on average 2.1 children per family. Pimpinio's residents are made up of 53 families living in 82 households, an average of 2.8 people and 3 motor vehicles per household. 92% of dwellings are either owned outright or with a mortgage, with 11% rented. 55% of adult Pimpinio residents are

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

, 9% are in a

de facto relationship ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

, and 36% are unmarried. 34% of Pimpinio residents attend

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

, 25% attend

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

, and 5% are completing

tertiary education Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...

. The median weekly household income for Pimpinio residents is $1803, with $867 median monthly mortgage repayments and $175 median weekly rents. All current residents of Pimpinio were born in Australia, with the most commonly reported ancestry being

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

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 ...

, Scottish and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

. All reported speaking only

at home. 59% of Pimpinio residents report being

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

(

Uniting Church The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, and

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

denominations), with 37% reporting no religious affiliation. 38% of Pimpinio residents report having at least one chronic health condition.

Sports and Culture

The town has an

Australian Rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

football team and

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

team, the Pimpinio Football Netball Club, competing in the

Horsham & District Football League The Horsham & District Football League is an amateur Australian rules football league based in the Wimmera area of Western Victoria. History The league in its present form was created in 1946. Prior to World War 2 a number of local leagues ex ...

. The club was established in 1890, joined the Horsham & District Football League in 1968, and has won two premierships in 2005 and 2006. Pimpinio also has a cricket team, the Pimpinio Cricket Club, competing in the Horsham Cricket Association. The club were B Grade premiers in 1950–1, 1954–5, 1984–5, and 1993–4. Golfers play at the course of the Pimpinio Golf Club on the Western Highway. Pimpinio has an Australian Rules football oval and recreation reserve and a Uniting Church. Pimpinio is adjacent to the West Wail Nature Conservation Reserve, which is about 1,455 acres in size and conserves remnant

Buloke ''Allocasuarina luehmannii'' (buloke or bull-oak) is a species of casuarinaceae, ironwood tree native to Australia and its wood is the hardest commercially available as measured by the Janka hardness test, Janka Hardness Scale. Description ...

woodlands and a number of threatened flora species, including Wimmera spider orchids and rigid spider orchids. Pimpinio is also 26 km from

Little Desert National Park The Little Desert National Park is a national park in the Wimmera Mallee region of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated near Dimboola, approximately west of Melbourne and extends from the Wimmera River in the east to the South ...

, a national park which extends from the

Wimmera River The Wimmera River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, is located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising in the Pyrenees, on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Wimmer ...

in the east to the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

n border in the west. The park is an important tourist destination receiving about 50,000 visitors each year.

Parks Victoria Parks Victoria is a government agency of the state of Victoria, Australia. Parks Victoria was established in December 1996 as a statutory authority, reporting to the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Change. The ''Parks Victoria Ac ...

maintains multiple camping sites, walking tracks, look-outs and four-wheel-driving tracks throughout the park.

References

Towns in Victoria (state) Rural City of Horsham Wimmera {{GrampiansAU-geo-stub