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Kilmore () is a town in the Australian state of Victoria. Located north of Melbourne, it is the oldest inland town in Victoria by the combination of age and physical occupation, and because it had unique agricultural attributes to drive that earliest settlement. It grew very rapidly to become four times bigger than its nearest inland rival by 1851. Its spectacular growth continued to match that of the major gold mining towns of Ballarat, Bendigo and Beechworth until at least 1861.


History

The
traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...
of Kilmore and the Kilmore Plains are the
Taungurung The Taungurung people, also spelled ''Daung Wurrung'', are Aboriginal people who are one of the Kulin nations in present-day Victoria, Australia. They consist of nine clans whose traditional language is the Taungurung language. Their Country ...
people, a part of the Kulin nation that inhabited a large portion of central Victoria including Port Phillip Bay and its surrounds. The Tommy McRae artwork held by the National Gallery of Australia depicts the "Kilmore Tribe Holding Corobboree", and a child pioneer of Kilmore, James Hamilton, describes in detail just such a corroboree at Kilmore in 1845. The area was known to the Taungurung as ''Mumillinuck''. Kilmore was discovered for European use by the famous Overlander and explorer of the Port Phillip District (later Victoria) and South Australia Charles Bonney on about 21 March 1837, at which time he also blazed the track of the Sydney Road to Melbourne. His track formed the main highway between the capital cities for 139 years. Kilmore was settled by Bonney on about 17 June 1837 as a sheep station and he built Bonney's Outstation on the townsite itself. Kilmore would have had its first European building within a couple of days of Bonney's arrival. Bonney's sheep station was unique because the Kilmore Plains on which it was established were permanently watered by three spring-fed creeks and were highly fertile. Thus they were suited for both grazing and high population small acreage farming. After Bonney left, the station was held successively by Dr Richard Julian Hamlyn, then the partners Frederick Armand Powlett and John Green. The most productive part of the property was purchased by William Rutledge on 12 April 1841 in a Special Survey of and was progressively leased or subdivided into small holdings for intensive agriculture whereupon it became the agricultural powerhouse of inland Victoria. The Kilmore Plains had such a concentration of population that in the first Victorian election of 1851 the district controlled two seats. The United Boroughs of Kilmore, Kyneton and Seymour were dominated by Kilmore township, while the United Counties of Talbot, Dalhousie and Anglesea were dominated by the Rutledge Kilmore Special Survey. As a further demonstration of the importance of the district, the first elected representative of the United Counties was John Pascoe Fawkner, the co-founder of Melbourne. Between 1856 and 1865 the seat of Kilmore was the electorate of the Irish-born John O'Shanassy (1818–83) who had three stints as
Premier of Victoria The premier of Victoria is the head of government of the state of Victoria in Australia. The premier leads the Cabinet of Victoria and selects its ministers. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, must be a member of the Vic ...
between 1857 and 186
Victoria Premiers
O'Shanassy, an Irish Catholic, was the bane of the Protestant establishment in Melbourne and the ensuing sectarianism also affected those who lived in Kilmore. O'Shanassy's supporters were referred to as 'O'Rowdies' and O'Shanassy as the 'Rowdy King".O'Brien, Antony. ''Shenanigans on the Ovens Goldfields; the 1859 election'', Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2005. (detail on O'Shannasy, the local member and Premier) A ''
Melbourne Punch ''Melbourne Punch'' (from 1900, simply titled ''Punch'') was an Australian illustrated magazine founded by Edgar Ray and Frederick Sinnett, and published from August 1855 to December 1925. The magazine was modelled closely on '' Punch'' of Lon ...
'' cartoon "Freedom of Election at Kilmore" depicted the 1859 election day in the town as a wild barney of Irishmen.O'Brien, Antony. ''Shenanigans on the Ovens Goldfields; the 1859 election'', Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2005. (detail on O'Shannasy, the local member and Premier). p. 81 Kilmore was a stronghold of early
Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...
ic settlers from
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
and
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
, and remains a strong Celtic area to this day. The town hosts a market on the last Saturday of each month, and a Celtic Festival each June. Kilmore Post Office opened on 1 February 1843 and, with Ovens (later
Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had a population of 29,808 per the 2021 Australian Census. The city is located at the confluence, junction of the Ovens River, ...
) which opened the same day, were the fifth and sixth to open in the Port Phillip District and the first two inland offices. Many of Kilmore's oldest extant buildings are made of
bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of natural dimension stone, dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * diabase, dolerites in Tasmania, ...
including the hospital, old court house, former post office, some churches, a gaol, and a monument to Hume and Hovell near the golf course. The Kilmore Magistrates' Court closed on 1 January 1990.


Population

At the 2021 census, Kilmore had a population of 9,207. 80.9% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 3.3% and India 1.3%. 86.9% of people only spoke English at home. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 40.9%, Catholic 29.0%, and Anglican 10.5%.


Public Transport

Kilmore is serviced by a V/Line
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 ...
on the Seymour line. The locality is also serviced by Mitchell Transit - providing a Town Bus route and intra municipal service covering the towns of Wallan, Kilmore, Broadford and Seymour within the Mitchell Shire.


Railway

A railway used to ascend from Heathcote Junction on the Sydney–Melbourne line, passed through Kilmore with the main branch running onto Bendigo; while a
white elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, ...
branch line ran out to Lancefield until dismantled during 1914. The Bendigo line was truncated to Heathcote in 1958 and closed in 1969 and then dismantled. An operational tram museum utilises part of the old railway right of way between Kilmore and Bylands. Still today, many parts of the track are still in place like the old cobblestone platform of the original railway station. Most of this though has been built over or grown over. Kilmore is served by a railway station at Kilmore East, on the main line. The Post Office at Kilmore East opened on 1 September 1872 as Gavan Duffy and was renamed Kilmore East two months later and closed in 1976.


Media

Though Kilmore is located relatively close to Melbourne, it still retains the "Township" atmosphere. It is serviced by Melbourne radio and Television, and also offers local media services. The local newspaper is The North Central Review. Radio - 98.3 OKR FM (Community Radio), Narrow-cast Radio - 87.6 Hit FM (youth Radio Service) Narrow-cast


Education

The town has two private secondary schools and two primary schools; Kilmore Primary School, St Patrick's Primary school, Assumption College, and the Kilmore International School. The ''Kilmore International school'' (TKIS) is the only school in Australia to exclusively use the
International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...
and not offer a local high school qualification such as the VCE. The Australian Training College is also based in Kilmore and has been operating since 1994 delivering a range of nationally accredited courses including hospitality, management, training and assessment, horticulture to name a few.


Notable people

* Charles Bonney, pioneer Overlander and explorer of Victoria and South Australia. * John Pascoe Fawkner, co-founder of Melbourne. *
Johnny Gilbert John Lewis Gilbert III (born July 13, 1928) is an American show business personality who has worked mainly on television game shows. Originally a nightclub singer and entertainer, he has hosted and announced a number of game shows from variou ...
, bushranger, member of Ben Hall's gang. * Alice Heron Maxwell, custodian. *Lieutenant Leslie Maygar, recipient of the
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...
for his actions in the Boer War (1899-1902). * Tony McNamara, screenwriter, playwright and producer twice Academy Award-nominated * Pat O'Dea, former collegiate punter for the Wisconsin Badgers. 1962 inductee into
College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive Tourist attraction, attraction devoted to college football, college American football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players ...
. * John O'Shanassy, Premier of Victoria. * Frederick Armand Powlett, Captain George Brunswick Smyth, Lieutenant Alfred Miller Mundy, three of the five founders of the Melbourne Cricket Club in 1838.Williams 2019, p. 112.
MCC History
* Caroline Reed Robertson, convicted murderer who murdered 15-year-old Rachel Barber and buried her body in a shallow grave in her father's farm * Blake Shinn,
Melbourne Cup The Melbourne Cup is an annual Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia, at the Flemington Racecourse. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and older, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club that forms part of the ...
winning jockey * Cooper Webster, racing driver


See also

* Old Kilmore Gaol


References


External links


Kilmore Historical Society

Kilmore Celtic Festival and Kilmore Mechanics' Institute


* ttp://www.ozgenonline.com/~nhm_cemeteries/Kilmore_Catholic_Cemetery/index.html Kilmore Catholic Cemetery
Kilmore General Cemetery
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Shire of Mitchell