Seymour () is a historic railway township located in the Southern end of the

Goulburn Valley The Goulburn Valley is a sub-region, part of the Hume region of the Australian state of Victoria. The sub-region consists of those areas in the catchment of the Goulburn River and other nearby streams, and is part of the Murray-Darling Basin. T ...

in the Shire of Mitchell,

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 ...

and is located north 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 ...

. At the , Seymour had a population of 6,569. The township services the surrounding agricultural industries (primarily

equine Equinae is a subfamily of the family Equidae, which have lived worldwide (except Indonesia and Australia) from the Hemingfordian stage of the Early Miocene (16 million years ago) onwards. They are thought to be a monophyletic grouping.B. J. Ma ...

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

and

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

) as well as the nearby military base of

Puckapunyal Puckapunyal (more formally the Puckapunyal Military Area, but also known as the Puckapunyal Camp or Puckapunyal Army Base, and colloquially as "Pucka") is an Australian Army training facility and base 10 km west of Seymour, in central Vic ...

(population 1,176), which is an important training centre for the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

. Other important sectors of employment in Seymour include retail, light engineering, agricultural services support, medical services, and education.

History

The

Taungurung The Taungurung people, also spelt ''Daung Wurrung'', are an Aboriginal people who are one of the Kulin nations in present-day Victoria, Australia. They consist of nine clans whose traditional language is the Taungurung language. Their Country ...

people are the traditional owners and inhabitants of the area Seymour now occupies. Specifically, it is the land of the Buthera Balug clan who occupied the area when Europeans first settled the region in the early 1800s. In 1824, Hume and Hovell on their return from Port Phillip, camped by the

Goulburn River The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victor ...

not far upstream of Seymour. In 1836

Major Thomas Mitchell Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855), Surveyor (surveying), surveyor and European land exploration of Australia, explorer of Southeastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland. In 1827 he too ...

crossed the Goulburn at

Mitchellstown Mitchellstown is a locality in north east Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The locality is in the Shire of Strathbogie local government area and on the Goulburn River, north east of the state capital, Melbourne. Named after Major Th ...

and soon afterwards overlanders and other early settlers began to use this crossing place on the

–

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

route (now known as the Hume Highway). The mail service between Melbourne and Sydney had been operating for just a year when it was found that a better route was available using the "New Crossing Place". The Robert Burns Inn was operating there by the end of 1839. In 1841 the Government decided that the new crossing place was the likely spot for a town. Plans were laid before the Executive Council of NSW and Mitchell proposed the name Seymour which was approved on 21 December 1843. The town was named after Lord Seymour, the son of the 11th Duke of Somerset. The Post Office opened on 1 July 1844. The railway arrived in 1872 along with substantial infrastructure to support it, establishing the town as an important rail hub for the

, the Melbourne–Sydney railway and North Eastern Victoria. It was one of the first Victorian examples of the

railway town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporar ...

phenomenon, in the heyday of the railway it employed 400 men and along with their families comprised one-third of the town, or 1500 people. In 1871 the Shire of Seymour was established which also included the towns and localities of Avenel,

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ker ...

Tallarook Tallarook is a town the Shire of Mitchell local government area in central Victoria, Australia. The town is in on the Hume Highway, north of the state capital, Melbourne. At the , Tallarook had a population of 789. Tallarook Post Office opene ...

, Whiteheads Creek, Trawool, Hilldene and Northwood .It was proclaimed The

Rural City of Seymour The Rural City of Seymour was a local government area about north of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The rural city covered an area of , and existed from 1863 until 1994. History Seymour was incorporated as a road dist ...

in 1993, in 1994 The Rural City of Seymour was abolished and incorporated into the Shire of Mitchell.

Puckapunyal Army base

The

first established a large training camp east of the township during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. During the

Second World War 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 ...

, the eastern camp diminished in importance and a substantially larger and more permanent military township was established to the west at

.Dennis et al. (eds.), ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History'', p. 435 Puckapunyal is the centre for the Australian Army's Land Warfare Development Centre (LWDC) and Headquarters Combined Arms Training Centre (HQ CATC), with three of the Army's five Schools located on site. Additionally, there are smaller training centres and facilities as well as the Road Transport Wing of the

Army Logistic Training Centre The Army Logistic Training Centre (ALTC) is an Australian Army training establishment that is part of Forces Command. Established on 1 December 1995, through the amalgamation of nine separate logistic, health and personnel services schools and t ...

's Army School of Transport based in Puckapunyal. The base is also home to the

Royal Australian Armoured Corps Memorial and Army Tank Museum The Royal Australian Armoured Corps Memorial and Army Tank Museum is located at Puckapunyal, an Australian Army training facility and base 10 km west of Seymour, in central Victoria, south-eastern Australia. The base is the home of the R ...

Wine

Seymour is located at the southern end of the

Goulburn Valley wine region Goulburn Valley wine region is a wine region in the state of Victoria in Australia. It is part of the Central Victoria zone and roughly corresponds to the Goulburn Valley tourist and government region. The first vineyards and winery were establis ...

. The main influencing factors in the

are the hills of the Great Dividing Range and the Goulburn River which mitigates lengthy and warm summers. Top varieties: Shiraz, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling and Marsanne Soil types: sandy clay loams, clay loams and gritty, gravelly quartzose sands There are several wineries in and near the township which include Wine x Sam,

Tahbilk Tahbilk Winery is a historic Australian winery with National Trust certification. It is located north of Melbourne between the townships of Seymour, Victoria, Seymour and Nagambie, Victoria, Nagambie in the Nagambie Lakes (wine), Nagambie Lake ...

, Mitchelton Winery, Fowles Wines, Kensington Wines and several other boutique vineyards Box Grove vineyard, Brave Goose vineyard, Somerset Crossing vineyard, Vitto Oles Wines and Traawool Valley wines. Each year ''Tastes of the Goulburn'' food and wine festival is hosted in Seymour, showcasing the best local produce from the Goulburn Valley. Seymour also hosts the Victorian Wine Show.

Education

Seymour College (I will grow by serving) , established = 1922 , type = Independent, single-sex, day & boarding , denomination = Uniting Churchpreviously Presbyterian Church of Australia , slogan ...

is the government school, providing classes from Prep to Year 12. The college was created in 2010 through a merger of Seymour Technical High School (STHS), Seymour Primary School (SPS) Seymour East Primary School (SEPS) and Seymour Special School (SSS) located in Loco Street. St Mary's College is a Prep to Year 10 Catholic school located in High Street. The Seymour campus of the

Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE, also known as GOTAFE, GOTAFE is the largest vocational education provider in regional Victoria. Offering over 130 courses across eight campuses, GOTAFE services 11 local government areas with an estimated reside ...

, opened in 1998, provides a variety of short courses and vocational education and training.

Transport

Seymour is located adjacent to the junction of the Hume and

Goulburn Valley Highway Goulburn Valley Highway is a highway located in Victoria, Australia. The section north of the Hume Freeway is part of the Melbourne to Brisbane National Highway (together with Hume Freeway) and is the main link between these two cities as well a ...

. The Hume Highway crossed the Goulburn River and diverted all Melbourne-Sydney bound traffic though the township for over 100 years until a freeway bypass was opened routing all non-local and interstate traffic around the township in 1982. Seymour station is served by regular

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cros ...

hourly services to and from Melbourne

Southern Cross station Southern Cross railway station (until 2005 known as Spencer Street station) is a major railway station in Docklands, Melbourne. It is on Spencer Street, between Collins and La Trobe Streets, at the western edge of the Melbourne central busi ...

as well as services on the

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

and Shepparton lines. The station was once a major freight marshalling location and the home of a significant locomotive depot. Victoria's electronic ticketing system,

Myki Myki ( ), stylised as myki, is a reloadable credit card-sized contactless smart card ticketing system used for electronic payment of fares on most public transport services in Melbourne and regional Victoria, Australia. Myki replaced the ...

, was implemented on rail services between Seymour and Melbourne on 24 June 2013.

Community

Seymour is host to many community and service groups includin
Freemasonry
(established in Seymour in 1883), Rotary, the

Lions Club The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is an international non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , ...

, Scouting, Apex Clubs of Australia and Probus. In addition, local advocacy groups include The Seymour We Want, locally based offices of statewide organisations including Berry Street and Closing The Health Gap (amongst others).

Sport

Seymour is well equipped with sporting facilities that include an indoor multi-purpose sports and aquatic centre, outdoor pool as well as a number of large playing fields for athletics, cricket and football. Seymour has a number of successful and well resourced sporting clubs including Cricket, Tennis, Football, Lawn Bowls, Kick Boxing, Basketball and Netball. Seymour Cricket Club (est. 1859) has its club rooms and main ground located at Chittick Park, competes in the Seymour and District Cricket Association fielding 2 senior and 1 junior teams in the 2022/23 season Eastern Hill Cricket Club whose home ground is at Kings Park, compete in the Seymour and District Cricket Association fielding 3 senior and 3 junior teams.

Seymour Football Club The Seymour Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Lions'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based in the historic railway township of Seymour, Victoria. Seymour first competed in the North East Football Association (NEFA) in ...

compete in the

Goulburn Valley Football League The Goulburn Valley Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia. It is a member of the Victorian Country Football League and has won the Victorian C ...

. Seymour has a horse racing club, the Seymour Racing Club, which schedules around twenty race meetings a year including the Seymour Cup meeting in October. Golfers play at the course of the Seymour Golf Club on Yea Road.

Media

Print

* Seymour Telegraph * North Central Review * The Situation

Radio

FM

* 103.9 FM –

Seymour-FM Seymour FM is a regional community radio station for the Northern Mitchell and Southern Strathbogie Shires, operating from Seymour township in North Central Victoria, part of the state of Victoria, Australia. The radio station operates on a Long ...

(Community Radio for Northern Mitchell Shire & Strathbogie Shire) * 88.9 FM – UGFM Upper Goulburn / Murrindindi Radio (Yea translator/repeater) * 87.6 FM – HIT RADIO (Youth / Top 40 / Dance / Features)

Shepparton radio heard in Seymour

* 93.7 FM – STAR FM (Flowerdale/Seymour Re-Transmission Site) * 94.5 FM – ABC

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greater emphasis on broad ...

* 95.3 FM – 3SR FM (3SSR) (Classic Hits – commercial radio) * 96.1 FM – ABC Classic FM * 96.9 FM – Star FM (Contemporary Hits commercial radio) * 97.7 FM – ABC Local Radio (relay of 774 Melbourne) * 98.5 FM – ONE FM Community Radio (Poor reception in Seymour) * 1260 AM –

Sport 927 RSN Racing & Sport (ACMA callsign: 3UZ) is an Australian radio station in Australia. Owned and operated by thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing bodies of Victoria, it broadcasts a sports radio format to Melbourne, and to much of Victo ...

(Relay of 927 AM Melbourne – Racing)

Melbourne radio heard in Seymour

* 621 AM – ABC Radio National * 693 AM – 3AW (Talkback / Sport) * 774 AM – ABC Metropolitan Radio * 927 AM – Sport 927 (Racing)

Television

Local Free-to-Air TV channels in Seymour are available from Shepparton and broadcast from a relay transmitter located south of Seymour on West Falls Road at Meadows Hill. Viewers located on the outskirts of Seymour and nearby towns can receive reception from the Mount Major transmitter east of Shepparton or Bendigo via the Mount Alexander transmitter. *

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

(plus ABC HD,

ABC TV Plus ABC TV Plus (formerly ABC2 and ABC Comedy) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and part of its ABC Television network. The channel broadcasts a range of general entertainment pr ...

, ABC Kids,

ABC Me ABC Me (stylised as ABC ME) is an Australian English language children's free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was officially launched by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 4 December 2009 as ABC3. Hist ...

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

) * SBS (plus

SBS HD SBS is a national public television network in Australia. Launched on 24 October 1980, it is the responsibility of SBS's television division, and is available nationally. In 2018, SBS had a 7.7% audience share. As of 2022, SBS is the lowest ...

SBS Viceland SBS Viceland (stylised as SBS VICELAND) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). It began as SBS TWO on 1 June 2009, and was branded as SBS 2 between 2013 and 2016. On 8 April 2017, SBS ...

SBS World Movies SBS World Movies is an Australian free-to-air television channel showing international movies. The channel features foreign language films, documentaries, independent and mainstream cinema and interviews with international movie stars. It w ...

SBS Food SBS Food is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). The channel airs programs about food and cooking, from cultures around the world. History SBS first revealed it would laun ...

NITV National Indigenous Television (NITV) is an Australian free-to-air television channel that broadcasts programming produced and presented largely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It includes the half-hourly nightly ''NITV News'' ...

) *

Prime7 Prime7, formerly Prime Television and other names, was an Australian television network. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as '' CBN-8'' in Orange, and later expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Ca ...

(plus

7HD 7HD is an Australian television channel, owned by Seven West Media, originally launched on 15 October 2007 featuring unique breakaway programming from 10 December 2007 to 4 October 2009 and a HD simulcast of Seven until 25 September 2010. The ...

, 7TWO,

7mate 7mate is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 25 September 2010. The channel contains sport and regular programs aimed primarily to a male audience, with programming drawn from a c ...

7flix 7flix is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 28 February 2016. 7flix targets a variety of viewers and offers drama, comedy, reality, docusoap, and movies. History On 18 Decembe ...

) * WIN (plus

9HD 9HD is an Australian television channel owned by Nine Entertainment, originally launched on 17 March 2008 featuring unique "breakaway" programming until 2009 and a high-definition simulcast of the Nine Network from 2009 to 2010 and again s ...

9Gem 9Gem is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, launched by the Nine Network in September 2010. The channel provides general entertainment and movie programming, from which the original name "GEM" is derived. History Nine N ...

9Go! 9Go! is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Nine Network on 9 August 2009, replacing Nine Guide. It is a youthful channel that offers a mix of comedy, reality, general entertainment, movies, anim ...

9Life 9Life is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel owned by Nine Entertainment. The channel airs mostly foreign lifestyle and reality programs, with the channel having a licensing agreement with Discovery Inc. (previously Scripp ...

) *

Southern Cross 10 10 Regional is an Australian Television broadcasting in Australia, television network owned by Southern Cross Austereo that is broadcast in Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Aus ...

(plus 10 HD, 10 Bold, 10 Peach & 10 Shake)

References

External links

Seymour Local Government Tourism WebsiteSeymour Visitor Information Website
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (Australia) Towns in Lower Hume Shire of Mitchell Hume Highway