Yambuk 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 ...

. The name Yambuk is an Aboriginal word thought to mean "

red kangaroo The red kangaroo (''Osphranter rufus'') is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest terrestrial mammal native to Australia, and the largest extant marsupial. It is found across mainland Australia, except for the more fertile areas, such as sou ...

", "

full moon The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic coordinate system, ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon opp ...

" or "big water". Shell

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

s in the

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

cliffs to the east of the town indicate that

Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

had lived in the area for at least 2300 years. European settlement took place in the area when Lieutenant Andrew Baxter and his wife Annie Baxter squatted the Yambuck pastoral run in 1843. Annie Baxter's diary notes 13 occasions where European settlers formed armed and mounted hunting parties to attack and harass

Gunditjmara The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Their ...

people. These events were part of the significant conflict between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans that occurred around Yambuk at the time. Some of the most violent clashes of the western district taking place near the Shaw river and the

Eumeralla River The Eumeralla River is a perennial river of the Glenelg Hopkins catchment, located in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. Course and features The Eumeralla River rises northeast of Macarthur, and flows generally south, and then west ...

. This conflict known as the

Eumeralla wars The Eumeralla Wars were the violent encounters over the possession of land between British colonists and Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in what is now called the Western District area of south west Victoria. The wars are named after the region ...

continued from the 1840s to around 1860. The township was established in the 1850s, the Post Office opening 1 March 1859. The town had a population of 267 residents in the , At the , the town and surrounding area had a population of 540. It is located where the

Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...

crosses the Shaw River. It is the site of

Pacific Hydro Pacific Hydro is a renewable energy company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1992 and was soon floated on the Australian Stock Exchange, it was later bought by a consortium of industry superannuation funds and ...

Yambuk Wind Farm __NOTOC__ The Portland wind farm is one of Australia's largest wind farms. Located on the coast of south-western Victoria near the city of Portland, it consists of four separate sites, all of which have been completed as of 2015. Completion of th ...

and the adjacent

Codrington Wind Farm Codrington Wind Farm is a wind farm near Yambuk on the coast of south-western Victoria, Australia. Completed in June 2001, the 18.2 MW installation of 14 wind turbines generates 51 GWh annually, for a capital cost of A$30 million by Pacific Hydro ...

. Yambuk is locally known for the Yambuk Slide, a 33-metre long slide near the lake. Lake Yambuk and the

Yambuk Important Bird Area The Yambuk Important Bird Area comprises a 10 km2 tract of coastal land fronting Bass Strait in south-western Victoria, south-eastern Australia. It lies some 20 km west of the town of Port Fairy and encompasses the lower reaches of the ...

lie between the town and the coast.

Traditional ownership

The formally recognised

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

for the area in which Yambuk sits are the

Eastern Maar The Eastern Maar people are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples whose traditional lands are in the south-western part of state of Victoria, Australia. It is a name adopted by a number of Aboriginal Victorian groups who identify as Maar, incl ...

(western portion) and the

peoples (eastern portion) who are represented by the

Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation The Eastern Maar people are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples whose traditional lands are in the south-western part of state of Victoria, Australia. It is a name adopted by a number of Aboriginal Victorian groups who identify as Maar, incl ...

(EMAC) and the

Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Their ...

(GMTOAC).

References

*
Place Names Search: Yambuk

External links

Towns in Victoria (Australia) Coastal towns in Victoria (Australia) 1850s establishments {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub