Leongatha () is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges,

South Gippsland Shire The Shire of South Gippsland is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the south-eastern part of the state. It covers an area of and, in June 2018, had a population of 29,576. It includes the towns of Leongatha, Korumburr ...

, 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 ...

, located south-east 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 ...

. At the , Leongatha had a population of 5,869. Canadian dairy company Saputo which trades in Australia under the ''Devondale'' label, among others, has a dairy processing plant on the north side of the town producing milk-based products for Australian and overseas markets.

History

First settlement of the area by Europeans occurred in 1845. The Post Office opened as Koorooman on 1 October 1887 and renamed Leongatha in 1891 when a township was established on the arrival of the railway. The railway line from Melbourne reached the town in 1891, and stimulated further settlement. Regular

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, ...

passenger operations on the line to the local railway station ceased in 1993. The Leongatha Magistrates' Court closed on 1 January 1990. The town made international media headlines in 2023, when four people were taken to hospital after consuming beef Wellington suspected to have contained death cap mushrooms. Three of the four guests subsequently died, and one survived, later receiving a

liver transplant Liver transplantation or hepatic transplantation is the replacement of a Liver disease, diseased liver with the healthy liver from another person (allograft). Liver transplantation is a treatment option for Cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease and ...

. The woman who cooked the meal, Erin Patterson, was charged with murder in November 2023.

Climate

Leongatha has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

( Köppen: Cfb), with warm summers and cool winters. Average maxima vary from in February to in July, while average minima fluctuate between in February and in July.

Precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

is moderate (averaging per annum), and is frequent (spread between 174.8 precipitation days).

Transport

The town is located on the South Gippsland Highway which links Leongatha to

. Leongatha was formerly situated along the South Gippsland railway corridor that operated to its terminus at Yarram in the early 1980s and Leongatha in the mid 1990s. A V/Line road coach service replaced the rail service on 24 July 1993, running between Melbourne and Yarram. A second service runs from Traralgon to Wonthaggi. There was also a third bus service running from Venus Bay, through Tarwin Lower and Koonwarra connecting with the V/Line services that depart from Leongatha. This was a trial service and no longer operates. The Leongatha Airport is located south of the town and serves general aviation.

Education

Leongatha is a major educational hub for South Gippsland, and contains several schools, including: * Leongatha Secondary College, result of a merger between Leongatha Technical School and Leongatha High School. * Leongatha Primary School * South Gippsland Specialist School * GippsTafe (Leongatha Campus) * St Laurence O'Toole Catholic Primary School * Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College * Chairo Christian School – For prep level to year 10. Also provides three to four year-old Kindergarten. The town also has two kindergartens (Allora and Hasset Street), and two childcare centres (Brown Street and Leongatha Children's), which both have kindergarten rooms.

Tourism

* The Daffodil Festival is held annually in September. Competitions are held and many daffodil varieties are on display. A garden competition is also held. * The railway line from Nyora through Leongatha to Foster has been converted into the Great Southern Rail Trail, for the shared use of horse riding, walking and cycling. The Great Southern Rail Trail is now extended as far as Yarram with a side trail from Alberton to Port Albert. The old railway stations at Korumburra and Leongatha have been updated with a monthly Farmers Market held at the Leongatha site

Community

Leongatha has a community theatre company, the "Lyric Theatre Company" that regularly stages theatrical productions. The town has a medieval society, the "Leongatha Medieval Society", which re-enacts 14th-century weapons, armour and fighting styles. The Medieval Society can be seen each month at Coal Creek Community Park and Museum at Korumburra. Leongatha offers a range of sports including: athletics, basketball, badminton, cricket,

croquet Croquet ( or ) is a sport which involves hitting wooden, plastic, or composite balls with a mallet through hoops (often called Wicket, "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Variations In all forms of croquet, in ...

, cycling (

BMX BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation. History BMX began during the ea ...

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

and track), equestrian, football (

Australian rules 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 ...

, association and

indoor soccer Indoor soccer or arena soccer is a form of five-a-side football, five-a-side or six-a-side version of minifootball. It is derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arenas. It differs from the FIFA, FIFA ...

), golf, gymnastics, hockey ( field and

underwater An underwater environment is a environment of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a Water, body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characteristics of the ...

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 ...

, martial arts (karate and taekwondo), netball, shooting,

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

, softball, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball ( indoor and

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

). The town's

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 ...

club, the Leongatha Football Club ("The Parrots"), competes in the Gippsland Football League. Golfers play at the course of the Leongatha Golf Club on Inverloch-Koonwarra Road, Leongatha South, or at the course of the Woorayl Golf Club at the Recreation Reserve. Community services include CFA, SES,

Police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

, ambulance. Other community organisations include

Scouts Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

(cubs, scouts, venturers and rovers),

Girl Guides Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) are organisations within the Scout Movement originally and largely still for girls and women only. The Girl Guides began in 1910 with the formation of Girlguiding, The ...

, and

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

Youth Corps. The town also boasts a large

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

complex (including pool, gym and basketball courts) plus a four theatre complex. File:Leongatha Mechanics Institute.JPG, Mechanics Institute File:Leongatha Otago Hotel.JPG, Bair's Otago Hotel File:Leongatha Post & Telegraph Office.JPG, Post Office File:Leongatha Roman Catholic Church.JPG, Catholic Church File:Leongatha War Memorial Hall.JPG, Leongatha War Memorial Hall File:Leongatha War Memorial.JPG, War memorial File:Leongatha Court House.JPG, Court House File:Leongatha eastview.jpg, Leongatha eastview File:Leongatha Anglican Church.JPG, Anglican Church File:"Leongatha, Counties of Buln Buln and Mornington," T.F. McGauran, Department of Crown Lands and Survey, Melbourne, 1892 (State Library Victoria).jpg, Leongatha, Crown Lands and Survey 1892

Notable people

* Joff Ellen, comedian and actor. * Lennie Gwyther, 9 year old boy who traveled more than 1000 km on horseback to see the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932. * Dyson Heppell, Australian rules footballer with the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCrac ...

and is the former captain. * Roc Kirby, businessman who founded the

Village Roadshow Village Roadshow is an Australian company which operates cinemas and theme parks, and produces and distributes films. Before being acquired by private equity company BGH Capital, the company was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange a ...

cinema chain and film production company.
Eleanor Patterson
Australian Olympic athlete who competes in high jump and has set national records. * Jarryd Roughead, Australian rules footballer with the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawth ...

and part owner of McCartins Hotel. * Stephen Wallis, Australian rules footballer.

References

External links

Leongatha Community Website
{{authority control Leongatha, Victoria Towns in Victoria (state) Shire of South Gippsland