Millbrook is a locality in the state of 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 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 ...

. It was formerly called "Moorabool" but the name was changed to avoid confusion with a locality near

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

. The name "Millbrook" was adopted because of a flour mill erected by Matthew Butterly on the West Moorabool creek. At the time of the 2016 census, Millbrook had a population of 156 down from 550 in 2006, partly reflecting changing boundaries. The soil is volcanic and well-adapted to cereals, potatoes and grazing. The landscape is undulating and preserves remnants of the original open forest. The West Moorabool creek runs through the district. The earliest inhabitants of the area were the

Wathaurong The Wadawurrung nation, also called the Wathaurong, or Wathaurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong, and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin alliance. The ...

, and the Irish were prominent among its European settlers in the mid-19th century.

History

Millbrook adjoins or is near to other districts of the Moorabool Shire such as Ballan, Egerton, Gordon, Wallace and

Bungaree Bungaree, or Boongaree ( – 24 November 1830), was an Indigenous Australian man from the Broken Bay region north of Sydney, who was known as an explorer, entertainer, and Aboriginal community leader.Barani (2013)Significant Aboriginal People ...

and its early history is inseparable from theirs. The Wathaurong people are the original inhabitants. The first European colonists in the region were graziers known as the "Over-Straiters", who had originally come over Bass Strait from

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania during the European exploration of Australia, European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Aboriginal-inhabited island wa ...

(now Tasmania) in the 1830s. They were succeeded by small farmers, many of them Irish, who took advantage of the 1860 Land Act allowing free selection of crown land, including that covered by pastoral leases. The old road from

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

, which passes through Millbrook, was a highway for the miners during the gold rush of the 1850s. The Moorabool region was rich in native flora and fauna when the European settlers arrived. Casualties of European settlement included

kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

dingo The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage ...

bandicoot Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipela ...

s, native cats and several bird species.

Koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...

possums Possum may refer to: Animals * Didelphimorphia, or (o)possums, an order of marsupials native to the Americas ** Didelphis, a genus of marsupials within Didelphimorphia *** Common opossum, native to Central and South America *** Virginia opossum, ...

and various species of parrots remain.

Station

The Millbrook railway station and 34 others were closed on 4 October 1981 because of a new timetable for country passengers in Victoria. A new high-speed service between Melbourne and Ballarat was instituted, with the new line passing through Millbrook and over West Moorabool. This involved the acquisition of land from neighbouring landowners, a cause of some controversy, particularly in view of claims that the lessening of travel time would be minimal. The service started on 22 December 2005.V/line - First Day of VLocity Revenue Operation (Ballarat).
Accessed 22 September 2011

Post office

The name of the local post office was changed from Moorabool Creek PO to Millbrook PO on 1 August 1879, and the office was closed on 31 July 1985.

References

Bibliography

Denholm, David. "Squatting" in ''The Oxford Companion to Australian History'', edited by Graeme Davidson. John Hirst & Stuart MacIntyre, Oxford University Press, 1998. Roberts, Stephen H. ''History of Australian Land Settlement'', 1788–1920. Macmillan / Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1924. Toohey, Jack. ''On the Eastern Fringe: Recollections and Stories on the Settlement and Farming Histories in the Bungaree, Wallace, Bolwarrah and Gordon Districts''. Ballarat 2005.

External links

Man using a horse-drawn scarifier at Millbrook, c. 1925.

Threshing at Millbrook, 1939.
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state)