Elaine, Victoria

Elaine is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Midland Highway between Ballarat and Geelong. At the , Elaine and the surrounding area had a population of 232.

History

Elaine started out a minor gold rush district. Since the Steiglitz goldfield was discovered in 1854, gold mining had occurred in the area.

The new Geelong–Ballarat railway line opened on 11 April 1862 and passed through the settlement. The train station only opened a decade after, officially establishing the township as Elaine.} The later opening meant that Elaine did not receive a grand bluestone station like the original ones.

At the time, Catholics and Free Presbyterians were the two main communities. A Catholic school opened in 1874, and a state primary school opened the following year.

The railway was singled in 1934, and now only grain and freight trains, which do not stop at Elaine, travel on it. The Catholic school closed in the 1940s. When the state school closed in 1998 with twelve students, community involvement declined. The football and tennis clubs were scrapped soon after, and the recreation reserve's courts and facilities fell into disrepair. Families began to leave the town.

In 2010, after the reserve received a small government grant to build a barbecue area, residents were motivated to hold a meeting and see if they could revive the tennis club. The community helped raise funds and put in donations. Within six months of putting up an advertisement on the Midland Highway, the club had three junior teams and 35 sponsors. Children from nearby towns such as Meredith also came to play. The club's success led to the introduction of Auskick and the cricket club's revival.

Townscape

Elaine is located in the Shire of Moorabool, a local government area of Victoria. Surrounded by farmland, the town is situated on the Midland Highway between Ballarat and Geelong.

The Railway Hotel is a hotel and pub at 5280 Midland Highway. Built in 1874, the building was intermittently used as a hotel, a brothel, or both until it was given its current name in 1912. In December 1922, publican Henry Gray was put on trial for fatally shooting drunken customer Michael Fahey, who had attacked him with an axe, but was acquitted. Locals, including the current publican, Bevley Townsend, tell a story that a murdered 19th-century miner, Lenny, has been reincarnated as the hotel's resident poltergeist. The station that was opposite the hotel has long been gone.

The Elaine Farmacy, a general store; and the Farmgate Shop, a farm shop recognised for its potatoes, are also located on the Midland Highway. The Farmgate's owner, Mark Dunne, said that it was one of the first titles registered in Elaine on Cobb & Co.'s GeelongBallarat service. Elaine Recreation Reserve hosts the town's sporting facilities and clubs. There is also a public hall.

As of 2014, Elaine had two churches. Elaine is home to a Serbian Orthodox monastery with five monks and two nuns.

Demographics

Elaine had a population of 427 in the 1881 census and 434 in the 1911 census, but the number decreased in the following decades, with 184 in 1947 and 219 in 1961.

Notes

References

External links

"Elaine, the little town that could" by Neelima Choahan

Towns in Victoria (state)

{{VictoriaAU-geo-stub