Axedale is a small 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. It is located on the

McIvor Highway McIvor Highway is a short Victorian highway (44 km) linking Bendigo and Heathcote. Together with Hume Freeway (until Wallan) and Northern Highway (until Heathcote), it provides an alternative route between Melbourne and Bendigo. The nam ...

, in the

City of Greater Bendigo The City of Greater Bendigo is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central part of the state. It covers an area of and, in June 2021, had a population of 123,632. It includes the ci ...

, east of Bendigo. It was surveyed and proclaimed in 1861. At the 2016 census, Axedale had a population of 802. The town is nestled alongside the

Campaspe River The Campaspe River, an inland intermittent river of the northcentral catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower Riverina bioregion and Central Highlands and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The h ...

which feeds out of

Lake Eppalock Lake Eppalock is an Australian reservoir in North Central Victoria about northwest of Melbourne. It was formed by the construction of a major earth and rockfill embankment dam, known as Eppalock Dam, with a controlled chute spillway across th ...

(about 20 minutes drive away). It has a golf course, tennis courts, a school, a pub and a convenience store/petrol station. It lies between

Heathcote Heathcote may refer to: Places in Australia *Heathcote, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney **Electoral district of Heathcote, a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly **Heathcote National Park ** Parish of Heathcote a parish of Cumberla ...

and Bendigo. Axedale has at least four churches, approximately one for every 220 residents of the town. In years past, it was host to The Titanic Museum, a home-based museum notable for charging fees to behold a 90 cm replica of the famous vessel. The Post Office opened on 21 April 1862. The town was served by the

Axedale railway station The Axedale railway station was a railway station on the former Heathcote railway line in Victoria, servicing the town of Axedale. The station opened with the railway line in October 1888. The station site had been severely criticised for its dis ...

on the

Heathcote railway line The Heathcote Railway line was a railway line linking Bendigo and Heathcote Junction. It was opened in 1888, and, by 1890 it was fully operational.O'Keefe Rail Trail from Bendigo along the former railway reservation. In 2015, work was completed on extending the rail trail from Axedale to

. As part of the Campaspe River crossing, an underpass for the Rail Trail was also built under the

. Golfers play at the Axedale Golf Club on Mitchell Street.

Historic Places of Axedale

The Axedale Tavern

The Axedale

Tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...

was first established in 1855 By Feliks Drake along with three others from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. After two years, Feliks Drake bought out the others and named the Tavern, Drakes Hotel and this was the name for almost a century until the business was bought by Dutchy and Corrine in 2010. These owners did many renovations to modernise and keep the historical charm of the building as well as renaming the Tavern to The Axedale Tavern.

St Andrew's Uniting Church of Axedale

Axedale St Andrew's Uniting Church is located in the main street of Axedale. This church began construction on the 30th of September 1868 when foundation stone was laid and later opened in 1869. This church is still open and is used twice a month by a

congregation A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: * Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administr ...

of local families and is ministered by Rev Di Esbensen who also ministers St Andrew's Bendigo and St Andrews's Forest Street. She alternates between leading worship. St Andrew's Axedale is led by her in the first and third weeks of the month.

St Mary's Church of Axedale

St Mary's Church was originally blessed and opened on a Sunday the 9th of February 1862 and mass was held monthly up until the building became unsafe and demolished. In May 1900, the church

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

held a meeting and decided to build a new church mostly from the bluestone bricks that previously built up the original church. Construction began on the 9th of December 1901 and the foundation stone was laid by Cishop Reville O.S.A of Sandhurst. The new

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Church at Axedale is located at 15 Raglan Place in the centre of the township on a hill.

Axedale Catholic Cemetery

RPCV took over responsibility for the management and operations side of the

privately owned A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

Axedale Catholic Cemetery in 2016, which is residing next to the public Axedale Remembrance Park on Cemetery Road, Axedale. The distinguishing look to this cemetery from their neighbour Axedale Remembrance Park is that there are old stone fences featured and all around the site in this cemetery.

Axedale Remembrance Park

Axedale Remembrance Park is amongst bushland and gives out a tranquil atmosphere making it a place of remembrance. In this park, there are

grasses Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns ...

, towering gums and native shrubs included in the calm and collected ambience of the area. It had been since the mid-1800s that this particular cemetery has served the community of Axedale as well as in 1864, the land was

gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspaper ...

d for the cemetery.

Camp Getaway Axedale

The Rotary Club of Bendigo made an initiative to create Camp Getaway Axedale as they had seen it as a necessity for a youth camp around the Bendigo Region. In 1948, the camp was opened to begin with the idea to give underprivileged children recreational facilities after 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 opposi ...

. The first ever guests were however a group of young farmers. An outdoor

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

was added to the area with the help of the Y's Men's Club in 1959. In 1961, at a cost of $2,000, a recreational hall was built in. More than 1,600 youth were enrolled and going to the camp each year by 1963. A new dining hall for the attendees to dine in was incorporated between 1968 and 1969 at an overall cost of $8,700 with a Government Grant of $4,300. A weekend to attend this camp at the time was 25 cents per head. Phone, power and a septic system were made accessible to the camp in around the year 1971. Thirty years later, the camp had gone through many upgrades in credit to the Rotarians and volunteers from the District 9800 which goes all the way from metropolitan Melbourne to the Murray at Echuca. Modern dormitory design accommodation is now incorporated in Camp Getaway Axedale such as a number of two bedroom units along with a lounge, dining room,

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running wate ...

and games room.

Axedale Golf Club

In the 1890s, Golf in Axedale was recorded. The eight founding members established the Axedale Golf Club and first played it on the site of the present course with nine sandscrape holes in 1937. From 1937 to 1956, despite setbacks as the fledgling club contending with the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

flooding the course all the time, the Axedale Golf Club had competitions each winter weekend throughout the years. In 1973, the club was improved as well as in 1996, it was transformed to 18 holes with grass greens. Present day, the Axedale Golf Club possesses a membership of more than 450 players and is known to be one of the best courses in the Bendigo District Golf Clubs.

References

External links

Axedale Our Town Our Future
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (Australia) 1861 establishments in Australia Bendigo Suburbs of Bendigo