Healesville is a town in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, 52 km north-east from Melbourne's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre 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 with the "city ...

, 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 an ...

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 State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

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

Watts River The Watts River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip and Western Port catchment, located in the Healesville area, in the Central region of the Australian state of Victoria. Location and features The Watts River rises below Mount Vinegar in ...

, 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 stre ...

History

Traffic to the more distant

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

and

Yarra Valley The Yarra Valley is the region surrounding the Yarra River in Victoria, Australia. The river originates approximately east of the Melbourne central business district and flows towards it and out into Port Phillip Bay. The name Yarra Valley ...

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), 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 and migrated to Victor ...

, the Premier of

from 1860–1861. The post office opened on 1 May 1865. The town became a setting off point for the

Woods Point Woods Point is a small town in Victoria, Australia and is located on the banks of the Goulburn River. At the , Woods Point and the surrounding area had a population of 37, down from 94 in 2006. History The town began as a general store built b ...

Goldfield with the construction of the

Yarra Track The Yarra Track is the former name of the gold fields road from Healesville to the Woods Point and Jordan Goldfields, in Victoria, Australia. History A direct route via the Yarra River and the Great Divide was discovered by Reick in Septem ...

in the 1870s.

Climate

Present

Healesville is known for the

Healesville Sanctuary Healesville Sanctuary, formally known as the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary, is a zoo specialising in native Australian animals. It is located at Healesville in rural Victoria, Australia, and has a history of breeding native animals. It is one of ...

, 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 (ecology), endemic to Eastern states of Australia, eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypu ...

breeding program. The

Yarra Valley Railway The Yarra Valley Railway is a heritage railway operating on a section of the former Healesville railway which operated between Lilydale and Healesville in the Yarra Valley area northeast of Melbourne, Australia. History The Lilydale-Melbo ...

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 Worawa Aboriginal College is a private boarding school for Aboriginal girls in Healesville, Victoria, Australia. History The school was established by Hyllus Maris in 1983. It was shut down in December 2007 for failing to meet minimum registr ...

, an Aboriginal school whose former students include noted

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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

David Wirrpanda David Selwyn Burralung Merringwuy Galarrwuy Wyal Wirrpanda ( ; born 3 August 1979) is a former Australian rules footballer, best known for his career with the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). Born in Melbourne, Wirrpand ...

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

Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the Traditional Owners of the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, covering much of the present location of Narrm (Melbourne ...

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 c ...

known as

Coranderrk Coranderrk was an Aboriginal reserve run by the Victorian government between 1863 and 1924, located around north-east of Melbourne. The residents were mainly of the Woiwurrung, Bunurong and Taungurong peoples, and the first inhabitants chose ...

, 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 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 (dimensi ...

ing,

horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

and

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) 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, ran ...

. Healesville has an active CFA (

Country Fire Authority The Country Fire Authority (CFA) is a volunteer fire service responsible for fire suppression, rescues, and response to other accidents and hazards across most of the state Victoria, Australia. CFA comprises over 1,200 brigades organised in 21 ...

) 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 Chum Creek is a town in Victoria, Australia, 50 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges The Shire of Yarra Ranges, also known as Yarra Ranges Council, is a local government a ...

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

areas. Healesville is the southern terminus of the

Bicentennial Heritage Trail The Bicentennial National Trail (BNT), originally known as the National Horse Trail, is one of the longest multi-use, non-motorised, self-reliant trails in the world, stretching 5,330 kilometres from Cooktown, Queensland, through New South Wale ...

, 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 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 his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs ...

, a town 328 kilometres (204 mi) north of

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

Population

At the time of the 2016 census, there were 7,461 people in Healesville. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.7% of the population. * 77.5% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 5.6% and New Zealand 1.7%. * 89.5% of people spoke only English at home. * The most common responses for religion were No Religion 44.4%, Catholic 16.3% and Anglican 12.2%.

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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

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. The organisation operated the Yarra Ranges Senior Football league and the Yarra Ranges Junior Footbal ...

. Healesville has a

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

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 a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...

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 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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

Notable people

William Barak William Barak, named Beruk by his parents, (1823 – 15 August 1903), 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 Melbourne, A ...

a noted Aboriginal artist and

elder who spent much of his life at

Station, near Healesville *

Edith Coleman Edith Coleman (1874–1951) was an Australian natural history, naturalist and nature writer who made important observations on pollination syndromes in Australian plant species. Early life Coleman was born Edith Harms on 29 July 1874 in Woking, ...

a naturalist and nature writer who completed her pioneering studies of

pseudocopulation Pseudocopulation describes behaviors similar to copulation that serve a reproductive function for one or both participants but do not involve actual sexual union between the individuals. It is most generally applied to a pollinator attempting to co ...

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

Gordon Collis Gordon Donald Collis (born 6 November 1940) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League. Recruited from Healesville, Collis played less than 100 games of VFL football, but his place in history is assured as a winn ...

player for

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of Mel ...

;

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 ...

ist in 1964 *

Lex Lasry Lex Lasry (born 8 July 1948) is an Australian lawyer and a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria from 2007 to 2018. Early life and education Lasry grew up in the Victorian country town of Healesville where his father worked as a soli ...

a 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, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...

James Wandin James Wandin (28 July 1933 – 20 February 2006), also known as Jim, Jimmy, or Juby, was the ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri till his death in February 2006. He was the first Australian rules footballer of Aboriginal descent to play with St Kild ...

(1933–2006)a

ngurungaeta An Ngurungaeta is a Woiwurrung head man or tribal leader of clans of the Woiwurrung tribes and Taungurung Ngurai-illum Wurrung. Ngurungaeta held the same tribal standing as an Arweet of the Bunurong and Wathaurong people. The current Ngurungaeta is ...

and Australian Rules footballer with *

Joy Murphy Wandin Joy Murphy Wandin is an Indigenous Australian, Senior Wurundjeri elder of the Kulin alliance in Victoria, Australia. She has given the traditional ''welcome to country'' greeting at many Melbourne events and to many distinguished visitors where ...

elder *

a former Australian rules footballer *

Patrick Wolfe Patrick Wolfe (1949 – 18 February 2016) was an Australian historian and scholar who made significant contributions to several academic fields, including anthropology, genocide studies, Indigenous studies, and the historiography of race, colon ...

(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 major 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 (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

has Healesville and its environs as the filming locations for a number of films and TV programs: the Australian TV series ''

Young Ramsay ''Young Ramsay'' was an Australian television drama series which ran from 1977 to 1980 on the Seven Network. It was produced by Crawford Productions as two series of 13 episodes each. Cast * John Hargreaves as Peter Ramsay * Serge Lazareff as R ...

'' (1977), '' Felicity'' (1979), the natural history TV series ''

Life on Earth Life on Earth may refer to: Science * Life * Earliest known life forms * Evolutionary history of life ** Abiogenesis Film and television * ''Life on Earth'' (film) (''La Vie Sur Terre''), a 1998 Malian film * ''Life on Earth'' (TV series), a 197 ...

'' (1979), ''

Frog Dreaming ''Frog Dreaming'' is a 1986 Australian family adventure film written by Everett De Roche and directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith. It starred Henry Thomas, Tony Barry, Rachel Friend and Tamsin West. Plot An American boy, Cody (Thomas), whose pare ...

'' (1986), the Australian TV short film ''Harry's War'' (1999) and '' Killer Elite'' (2011).

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:Healsville from above. Shot on 230422.jpg, Healesville from above. Shot on 230422

References

{{Authority control Towns in Victoria (Australia) Yarra Valley Yarra Ranges