Bruthen is a town located alongside the Tambo River between

Bairnsdale Bairnsdale (locally ) (Gunai language, Ganai: ''Wy-yung'') is a city in East Gippsland, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, situated in a region traditionally inhabited by the Tatungalung clan of the Gunaikurnai people. The estimated popu ...

and Ensay on the

Great Alpine Road The Great Alpine Road is a country tourist road in Victoria, Australia, running from Wangaratta in the north to Bairnsdale in the east, passing through the Victorian Alps. The road was given its current name because it was considered the mounta ...

East Gippsland East Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia covering (14%) of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It has a population of 80,114. Australian Bureau of Statistics2006 Census Community Profile Series: Ea ...

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 ...

. At the 2016 census, Bruthen had a population of 814. Bruthen is east of Bairnsdale and east of the state capital

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 ...

History

The origin of the name Bruthen is disputed. One version has it as an anglicisation of the Scotts-gaelic word 'Sruthán' meaning 'creek' or 'small stream', given to the location where Deep Creek flows into the Tambo River by Angus McMillan in 1840. Another version has it as named after one of the last of the Indigenous traditional elders of the GanaiKurnai Brabiralung tribe of the immediate area, Bruthen-munji, who died in approximately 1862. The area was later renamed Tambo, and changed again to Wiseleigh when the township of Bruthen was established at the new permanent location. Alfred Howitt claimed the proper name for the area around Bruthen was ''Murloo'', meaning ‘pipeclay’.

Angus McMillan Angus McMillan (14 August 1810 – 18 May 1865) was a Scottish-born explorer, pioneer pastoralism, pastoralist, and perpetrator of several of the Gippsland massacres of Gunai people. Arriving first in New South Wales in 1838, McMillan rose sw ...

, first passed through the area of what is now Bruthen on 14 April 1840 from the

Omeo Omeo ( ) is a town in Victoria, Australia on the Great Alpine Road, east of Mount Hotham, in the Shire of East Gippsland. At the 2016 census, Omeo had a population of 406. The name is derived from an Aboriginal word for 'mountains' or 'hi ...

region. The Post Office opened on 15 January 1862 and the first school opened in 1872. On 27 November 1958 an

RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the governor-general of Aus ...

Avon-Sabre Fighter Jet crashed on the outskirts of Bruthen, narrowly missing the populated area of town. Flight Lieutenant Ralph Oborn was flying from

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

to the RAAF base in Sale when his engine ‘flamed out’. Oborn ejected at 500 ft, suffering only minor injuries, and became the first person to safely eject from an aeroplane in Australia. The Bruthen Court of Petty Sessions closed in 1969.

Facilities

Bruthen has a small shopping centre, including a general store (established in 1860 and it continues to be run out of a period building), bakery,

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

, service station, as well as speciality stores and cafes. One of the new local features is the Bullant Brewery which offers meals and a variety of locally brewed Victorian beers. Bruthen also has a

Police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

station,

State Emergency Service The State Emergency Service (SES) is the name used by a number of separate civil defence organisations in Australia that provide assistance during and after major incidents. Specifically, the services deal with floods, storms and tsunamis, b ...

and Country Fire Authority (CFA) branches, an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

and a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

. A railway line used to pass through town, with the

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

just to the east of the township; the station site remains as does a former railway tunnel under the main road and a railway bridge, the Storer Bridge, over the Tambo River, these facilities remaining in use as part of the shared use East Gippsland rail trail.

Activities

The Bruthen community holds a number of activities throughout the year. These include the "Mixed Bag" art exhibition, the Bruthen Village Markets (every 4th Saturday of the month), annual Parish dance, and the Bruthen Blues & Arts Festival on the 3rd weekend of February each year. The East Gippsland rail trail, which runs from

Orbost Orbost is a town in the Shire of East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne and south of Canberra where the Princes Highway crosses the Snowy River. It is about from the surf and fishing seaside town of Marlo on the coast of Ba ...

, passes through Bruthen, providing an excellent facility for cycling, walking and horse-riding. In November 2012, 3,500 cyclists spent their first night in Bruthen as part of the nine-day Great Victorian Bike Ride from Lakes Entrance to Phillip Island. Geocachers will enjoy a visit to Bruthen, there is an active group of Geocachers in the area with plenty of individual caches and multis near the town.

Sports

Australian rules football 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 ...

the Bruthen Football Club competes in the Omeo & District Football League (ODFL), and has the nickname ‘The Bulldogs’. The club has won six premierships (1979, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1990, and 2003) since joining the league in 1978. The affiliated Bruthen Netball Club competes in the associated netball competition. The Bruthen colours are red, white and blue. Bruthen football jumpers consist of red and white hoops on a blue background, essentially the design of what was formerly Footscray, and now the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

club. The netball club wears a white shirt with red stripe and navy blue skirt. Other sports in the town include

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

and shooting clubs.

Geocaching Geocaching (, ) is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called ''geocaches'' or ''caches'', at sp ...

is also popular in the Bruthen area with a range of single and multiple caches to be found!

Service Clubs

The Bruthen Lions Club actively participate in local events and constantly raise a substantial amount of money for local causes each year. File:Bruthen Mechanics Institute.JPG, Bruthen Mechanics Institute

References

*Gardner, P.D. (1997) ''Names of the Great Alpine Road Between Bairnsdale and Omeo.'' Ensay: Ngarak Press.

External links

Australian Places - BruthenBruthen Blues & Arts Festival
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Shire of East Gippsland