Gisborne () is a town in the

Macedon Ranges The Macedon Ranges is a region in Central Victoria, known for its expansive native forests, vibrant arts scene, thriving food and wine industries (including weekly farmers' markets) and natural attractions such as Hanging Rock and Mount Macedon. ...

, located about north-west of

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 ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

. It is the largest town in the Macedon Ranges Shire, with a population of 14,432 as of June 2021 in the Gisborne district region. Gisborne is known for its country homesteads, tree-lined streets, restaurants and cafes. The town has become a popular '

tree change In Australian culture, a seachange (or sea change) is a form of human migration where individuals abandon city living for a perceived easier life in rural coastal communities. The term was popularised by ABC TV series '' SeaChange'', which pr ...

' destination for Melbourne residents seeking large leafy blocks and a quiet lifestyle within easy commuting distance from the city. As such, the town has grown substantially over the past 5–10 years, with an increase of almost 2,600 residents since 2011, although planning controls have been implemented to protect the character and "outstanding natural beauty" of the region.

History

The Gisborne town site was first settled on the 24 March 1837 by George Hamilton. The area further south of Gisborne had been settled earlier by John Aitken, who

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

on the land, having shipped his

merino sheep The Merino is a list of sheep breeds, breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monop ...

from

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. In 1840,

Henry Fyshe Gisborne Henry Fyshe Gisborne (1813–1841) was the first Commissioner for Crown Lands of the Port Phillip District, founder of Flemington Racecourse and petitioner for Victoria's separation from New South Wales. Early career Henry Fyshe Gisborne was ...

, Commissioner of Crown Lands for the

Port Phillip District The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria. In September 1836, NSW Colonial Sec ...

, set up an outpost for his

Border Police A border guard of a country is a national security agency that ensures border security. Some of the national border guard agencies also perform coast guard (as in Federal Police (Germany), Germany, Guardia di Finanza, Italy or State Border Guar ...

troopers to assist colonialists with the suppression of Aboriginal resistance. A hotel named the Bush Inn was built near the barracks in the same year. Gisborne Post Office opened on 22 March 1850, and the Bush Inn was renamed the Gisborne Hotel ten days later, in honour of Henry Fyshe Gisborne. In 1858 Edward Cherry established Cherry & Sons, a company who made timber butter churns. This was one of the oldest industries in country Victoria and at its height it exported butter churns to many countries in Africa and Asia. The company later diversified into other products such as post hole diggers and equipment for government schools. Its factory was destroyd by a fire in 1912 but was rebuilt and the company survived into the 1970s.

Today

Gisborne is the largest township in the

and the closest to Melbourne's city centre, which can be accessed easily via a 45-minute drive along the

Calder Freeway Calder Highway is a rural highway in Australia, linking Mildura and the Victoria/New South Wales border to Bendigo, in North Central Victoria. South of Bendigo, where the former highway has been upgraded to freeway-standard, Calder Freeway lin ...

or a 50-minute train ride on the Bendigo Line. The population in June 2018 was 13,963 having grown on average 2.93% year-on-year for the five years preceding 2018. The town centre has many cafes and wine bars, as well a theatre, restaurants and galleries, monthly farmers' market, an organic butcher and four supermarkets. Gisborne has a full-time

police station A police station is a facility operated by police or a similar law enforcement agency that serves to accommodate police officers and other law enforcement personnel. The role served by a police station varies by agency, type, and jurisdiction, ...

in conjunction with the CFA station, State Emergency Service and medical-ambulance facilities. Sporting facilities cater for

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 ...

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 ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

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 ...

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

, 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 ...

, as well as a heated indoor pool. The popular golf course is located within the township and regularly features as one of the top 100 public access courses in Australia. The Gisborne Soccer Club president is ex- Socceroo and Melbourne Victory captain Carl Valeri. A number of media reports have made reference to the influx of young professionals, artists and ' hipsters' to the region, drawn by the region's natural beauty, proximity to Melbourne and access to city-style cafes and restaurants. The large numbers of new residents is making the local population growth rate among the fastest in regional Victoria. Locals, worried about the environmental and cultural impacts of this growing popularity, successfully campaigned for new planning controls to protect the character of the region.

Population

In the 2016 census, Gisborne had a population count of 9,822 people. At the time, 82.1% of the town's residents were born in Australia, with the most common foreign countries of birth being England (4.0%) and New Zealand (1.3%). The most common responses for religion were "No Religion" (35.3%),

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

(28.3%) and

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 ...

(13.0%).

Geography and climate

Public transport

The town's railway station is on the Bendigo Line, serviced by

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates Regional rail, regional passenger rail and Intercity bus service, coach services in the Australian state of Victoria (state), Victoria. It provides passenger train services on five Commuter rail, ...

. Trains take 20 minutes between Gisborne and Sunbury, where customers can connect directly to Metro services; otherwise, V/Line can take customers directly into Melbourne's CBD, terminating at Southern Cross Station. When the railway line was being built, it was too difficult to get the trains down into Gisborne's township due to terrain, so instead the Gisborne railway station was built just outside the township, forming the new suburb of New Gisborne. The town has its own dedicated bus service operated by Gisborne Transit which runs looped shuttle services around the township, as well as on-demand pick-up and drop-off services connecting townsfolk to the railway station, as part of PTV.

Media

The town receives all of Melbourne's metropolitan digital television channels, including Channel 31. The town also receives television from Mount Alexander but signals from Melbourne are much stronger. The town is largely serviced by major publication newspapers such as ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', but Gisborne also receives free weekly regional news from the '' Midland Express,'' as well as a monthly Gisborne-dedicated publication, the ''GREAT Gisborne Gazette''. Gisborne features as a backdrop for several films and television series, including '' Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King''. In 2022, Gisborne South was chosen as the filming location for the reality television series '' The Block''.

Education

The town has three public and two Catholic

primary schools 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 ...

, as well as one public

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

Gisborne Secondary College Gisborne Secondary College is a co-educational secondary school located in Gisborne, Victoria, established in 1981. The current enrolment is 1071 students. Students attend from years seven to twelve. The college serves a large proportion of the s ...

. The Gisborne Montessori School and Candlebark (alternative school) provide additional options.

Sister cities

* Gisborne, New Zealand

Image gallery

File:Mount Gisborne Road, Gisborne Vic.jpg, View from Mount Gisborne Road in Gisborne South File:Gisborne Fountain.jpg, Gisborne Fountain - Hamilton St and Aitken St Gisborne File:GisborneCourtHouse.JPG, Gisborne Court House File:GisborneTelegraphOffice.JPG, Gisborne Telegraph Office

References

External links

A Brief History of Gisborne and Mount Macedon Districts

Gisborne Tourism Guide

Gisborne Region Events and Tourism

Gisborne CFA
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Shire of Macedon Ranges