Wandong 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. The town is about north of the state capital,
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 ...
, on the
Hume Highway. It adjoins the town of
Heathcote Junction, and at the , the two towns had a population of 1,340.
[ The main centre nearest Wandong is Kilmore.
]
History
The traditional owners of Wandong are the Taungurong
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, a part of the Kulin nation that inhabited a large portion of central Victoria including Port Phillip Bay and its surrounds. Wandong itself is an Aboriginal word meaning "Spirit".
The first Europeans to reach Wandong were Hamilton Hume and Captain William Hilton Hovell who travelled through the centre of the future town of Wandong on the 13th December, 1824.
The explorers proceeded 1260 metres South of Arkell’s Lane, Wandong and crossed the Dividing Range at the low peak there that they named Hume’s Pass. They then moved South along Eastern Ridge, Hidden Valley, and downhill to the Merri Creek, Wallan East near Kelby Lane.
That made Wandong the second township site in Victorian history to be traversed by European explorers. Broadford was the first: Hume and Hovell had passed through it on the same morning.
This exact route has been proven by decoding the map drawn by Hamilton Hume which conforms exactly to the original journal of William Hovell. Hamilton Hume in 1867 corrected his own earlier error that the party crossed the Dividing Range at Big Hill, Bylands.
Wandong was a pastoral region from at least 1843.
By 1876 a small settlement had arisen and a post office gazetted to Mr. F. G. Arkell.
From 1880 Wandong became a major sawmilling and processing town and region.[Pickett, Ron, Ghosts, Gold and a White Elephant, Wandong/Heathcote Junction Community Group Inc. 2011. p. 16.]
The town is now a major transport hub with the Hume Highway and the Albury-Wodonga and Shepparton railway lines passing through it. It has its own 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 prep ...
.
The local school was originally situated to the south of Wandong/Heathcote Junction and was known as Lightwood Flat Common School when it opened in 1871.[ The school was damaged slightly in the ]Black Saturday bushfires
The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria on and around Saturday, 7 February 2009, and were among Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. T ...
.[
The town hosts the Wandong Country Music Festival.
]
References
External links
Towns in Victoria (Australia)
Towns in Lower Hume
Shire of Mitchell
Hume Highway
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