Healesville is a town in Victoria,

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 ...

, 64 km north-east 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 ...

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

, located within the

Shire of Yarra Ranges The Shire of Yarra Ranges, also known as Yarra Ranges Council, is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the outer eastern and northeastern suburbs of Melbourne extending into the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges. It has ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

. Healesville recorded a population of 7,589 in the 2021 census. Healesville is situated on the Watts River, a tributary of the

Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, (Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower st ...

. The outskirts of Healesville is home to a wildlife sanctuary, called Healesville Sanctuary.

History

Traffic to the more distant

Gippsland Gippsland () is a rural region in the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains south of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers an elongated area of east of th ...

and

Yarra Valley The Yarra Valley is a region in Victoria, Australia, centred around the Yarra River. Known for its natural beauty, agricultural significance, and as one of Australia's prominent wine-producing areas, the valley stretches from the upper reache ...

goldfields in the 1860s resulted in a settlement forming on the Watts River and its survey as a town in 1864. It was named after

Richard Heales Richard Heales (22 February 1822 – 19 June 1864), Victoria (Australia), Victorian colonial politician, was the 4th premier of Victoria. Heales was born in London, the son of Richard Heales, an ironmonger. He was apprenticed as a coachbuilder ...

, the Premier of Victoria from 1860–1861. The post office opened on 1 May 1865. The town became a setting off point for the Woods Point Goldfield with the construction of the Yarra Track in the 1870s.

Present

Healesville is known for the Healesville Sanctuary, a nature park with hundreds of native Australian animals displayed in a semi-open natural setting and an active

platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...

breeding program. The Yarra Valley Railway operates from Healesville Station on every Sunday, most public holidays and Wednesday to Sunday during school holidays. Schools in Healesville include the Healesville Primary School, St Brigid's Catholic primary school, the rural Chum Creek Primary School, Badger Creek Primary School, Healesville High School and Worawa Aboriginal College, an Aboriginal school whose former students include

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 ...

er David Wirrpanda. Much of what is now Healesville lies on the ancestral land of the

Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Aboriginal peoples, Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language, Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of ...

people. An

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th ...

known as Coranderrk, set up in 1863, was located just south of the main township. Industries in and around Healesville include

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

ing,

horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

and

viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

. Healesville has an active CFA ( Country Fire Authority) volunteer fire brigade established in 1894. The Healesville Rural Fire Brigade was formed in 1941, then disbanded and membership amalgamated with the Healesville Urban Fire Brigade in 1985. The amalgamation of the Chum Creek Rural Fire Brigade with the Healesville brigade occurred in 1996. The Healesville Fire Brigade now operates a main and a satellite station with members from both the Healesville and Chum Creek areas. Healesville is the southern terminus of the Bicentennial Heritage Trail, which, at 5,330 km (3,310 mi), is the longest trail of its type in the world. The northern end of the trail is at

Cooktown, Queensland Cooktown is a coastal town and suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached h ...

, a town 328 kilometres (204 mi) north of

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

Population

At the time of the 2021 census, there were 7,589 people in Healesville. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.2% of the population. * 79.5% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 5.4% and New Zealand 1.7%. * 90% of people spoke only English at home. * The most common responses for religion were No Religion 55.8%, Catholic 13.7% and Anglican 8.9%.

Sport

The town has an

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 ...

team, the Healesville Football Club, competing in the

Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League The AFL Yarra Ranges was an Australian rules football and netball organisation based in the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges within Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The organisation operated the Yarra Ranges Senior Football league and the Yarra ...

. Healesville has a

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 ...

club, the Healesville Cricket Club, which competes in the Ringwood and District Cricket Association junior and senior competitions. Healesville has a

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 ...

club, the Healesville Tennis Club, which competes in the Eastern Region Tennis junior and senior competitions. Healesville has a picnic horse racing club, Healesville Amateur Racing, which holds around seven race meetings a year with the Healesville Cup meeting in January. The Healesville Greyhound Racing Club also holds regular

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from Hare coursing, coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of th ...

meetings at the Healesville Showgrounds and Sporting Complex on Don Road. Golfers play at the course of the RACV Country Club on Yarra Glen Road. Healesville has a

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 ...

team known as Healesville Soccer Club that plays in the Victorian State League 4 East.

Notable people

William Barak William Barak ( March 1823 – 15 August 1903), named Beruk by his parents, the "last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe", was the last traditional ngurungaeta (elder) of the Wurundjeri-willam clan, the pre-colonial inhabitants of present-day Melbo ...

an Aboriginal artist and

elder who spent much of his life at Coranderrk Station, near Healesville * Edith Colemana naturalist and nature writer who completed her studies of

pseudocopulation Pseudocopulation is a behavior similar to Copulation (zoology), copulation that serves a reproductive function for one or both participants but does not involve actual sexual union between the individuals. It is most generally applied to a pollin ...

on native orchids from her house 'Goongarrie' in Healesville * Gordon Collisan

player for

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Princes Park (stadium), Princes Park in Carlton North, Victoria, Carlton North, an inner suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The c ...

;

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

ist in 1964 * Lex Lasrya Supreme Court Judge *

Kelvin Moore Kelvin David Moore (born 15 August 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Moore was one of the best full-backs of his era and played in three Hawthorn p ...

player for the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or colloquially the Tiges, is a professional Australian rules football team competing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1885 in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria, Ric ...

* James Wandin (1933–2006)a

ngurungaeta and Australian Rules footballer with * Joy Murphy Wandina

elder * Jessie McHardy White (1870–1957), army matron * David Wirrpandaa former Australian rules footballer * Patrick Wolfe (1946-2016)an Australian historian and social anthropologist

Tourism

Healesville has been a tourist destination since the 1880s, with the Grand Hotel built in 1888, and the 60-room Gracedale House in 1889. A Tourist and Progress Association was created in the 1920s. The association published "Healesville, The World-famed Tourist Resort", listing over 40 beauty spots and 20 hotels and guest houses. The construction of the Maroondah Dam in the 1920s brought several hundred workmen to Healesville. Their departure and the onset of the 1930s depression exposed Healesville's restricted range of industries. Timber and tourism were not stable enough for sustained and reliable growth. Notwithstanding the depression, the 1930s saw increased motor tourism (partly bypassing Healesville) and decreased railway patronage. Only 10% came by rail at Easter 1934. Tourism was still active but a local newspaper commented that Healesville would be "heaps better off calling itself the good-time town instead of the world-famed-tourist-resort—that's got whiskers on it". In modern times Healesville has become a centre for tourism based around the wine and food industries of the Yarra Valley, with attractions including Healesville Sanctuary, Badger Weir Picnic Area, Yarra Valley Railway, Healesville Organic Market, numerous cafes and restaurants, and volunteer-run events such as the Healesville Music Festival, Open Studios, and the Yarra Valley Rodeo. The Memo, a centre for community arts and cultural activities, was built in 1924 as a soldier's memorial hall.

Film and television

The

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

has Healesville and its environs as the filming locations for a number of films and TV programs: the Australian TV series '' Young Ramsay'' (1977), '' Felicity'' (1979), the natural history TV series '' Life on Earth'' (1979), '' Frog Dreaming'' (1986), the Australian TV short film ''Harry's War'' (1999) and '' Killer Elite'' (2011).

Climate

Gallery

Image:Healesvillevisitorcentre07.jpg, Healesville Visitor Centre Image:Healesrailstation07.jpg, Healesville Railway Station Image:Healesvillehotel07.jpg, Healesville Hotel Image:Healesvillegrandhotel07.jpg, Grand Hotel Image:Racvclubhealesville07.jpg, RACV Club Image:Mountoolebewong07.jpg, Mount Riddell Image:Mountstleonard07.jpg, Mount Saint Leonard Image:Healesvillebynight07.jpg, Healesville by night, taken from Mount Saint Leonard Image:Mainstreethealesville07.jpg, Healesville Main Street at night File:Healesville Mechanics Institute.JPG, Mechanics Institute File:Grand Hotel Healesville.JPG, Grand Hotel File:Healesville Hotel.JPG, Healesville Hotel File:Maroondah Dam at capacity, October 2011.jpg, Maroondah Dam 2011 File:Maroondah Reservoir.jpg, Maroondah Reservoir in September 2023. File:Healsville from above. Shot on 230422.jpg, Healesville from above. Shot on 230422

References

{{Authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Yarra Valley Yarra Ranges Shire