Barnawartha is a small town located on the

Hume Highway The Hume Highway, including the sections now known as the Hume Freeway and the Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of t ...

in regional north-east

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, approximately from

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

on the banks of Indigo Creek, which runs into the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

to the north. Barnawartha’s commercial centre is located around High Street, the indigo creek park accessed via High Street fronts the creek of the same name and includes a public toilet, BBQ facilities and a walking track.

History

The township was surveyed in 1857 by Assistant Surveyor

William Snell Chauncy William Snell Chauncy (11 August 1820 – 3 July 1878) was an English civil engineer responsible for a number of important engineering works including the first steam railway opened in Australia. Early life and work William Snell Chauncy was b ...

. It was settled in 1860, the Post Office opening on 1 August 1860. Gustav and William Baumgarten were large land owners in Barnawartha prior to the township being settled. After serving prison time for receiving stolen horses from the infamous

Ned Kelly Edward Kelly (December 185411 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader, bank robber and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing armour of the Kelly gang, a suit of bulletproof ...

, William developed a large winery called Bogong, on the

Historic resources

The town contains a few historic buildings, such as the general store and Cheesely's Bootmakers shop (now used to store

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

) a burnt and rebuilt pub, and a post office.

Education

There is a primary school located in Barnawartha that provides education from prep to year 6.

Sports

Golfers play at the Barnawartha Golf Club at the Havelock Street Recreation Reserve. Barnawartha is also home to the local Indigo Creek Fishing Club.

Barnawartha Football Netball Club

Barnawartha 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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

football team that currently competes in the

Tallangatta & District Football League The Tallangatta and District Football League (TDFL) is an Australian rules football competition in north-eastern Victoria (state), Victoria and the southern border area of the Riverina region of New South Wales. The clubs compete across four c ...

(T&DFNL) and the club's first recorded match was in 1894 against Gooramadda. The club played a few friendly matches most years against other local towns between 1894 and 1909 prior to joining the Ovens and Murray Junior Football Association in 1910 and lost the 1911 Rutherglen & District Football Association grand final to Howlong. Barnawartha then played in the

Chiltern & District Football Association The Chiltern & District Football Association was first established in 1912 from six Australian Rules Football clubs—Barnawartha, Chiltern, Chiltern Valley, Christmastown, Southern and Wodonga—in North Eastern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Aust ...

from 1912 to 1915, 1920 to 1940 and 1945 to 1957. The club then joined the

in 1958 and were senior football premiers in 2002 and 2013.

Attractions

Nearing Barnawartha and covering 21,565 hectares, Mt Pilot National Park includes the striking Mt Pilot Range, Woolshed Falls, box-ironbark forests and several historic goldmining sites. local waterways and mountains include Frying Pan Creek, Indigo Creek and Mount Lady Franklin. In the nearby area there are several nearby public accessible river access and camping grounds, this includes Richardson's bend often referred by the locals as Richos is a Dispersed bush camping ground along the bank of the Murray. this provides close to the entrance to the reserve water access for boating

References

Links

Barnawartha FNC website1939 - Barnawartha FC team photo1946 - Barnawartha / Chiltern FC team football
Towns in Victoria (state) Shire of Indigo Hume Highway {{Hume-geo-stub