Mirboo North is a town in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

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 east of Melbourne, with a population of 2,263. It is in the

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 ...

local government area. The town is at the start of the Grand Ridge Rail Trail, which travels for 13 km through temperate rainforest and dry

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or ...

forest in the

Strzelecki Ranges The Strzelecki Ranges ( ) is a set of low mountain ridges located in the West Gippsland and South Gippsland regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The Ranges are named after Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, a Polish explorer, who with the ass ...

History

The Mirboo area was settled by timber getters in the late 1870s, attracted particularly by the

Mountain Ash Mountain ash may refer to: * ''Eucalyptus regnans'', the tallest of all flowering plants, native to Australia * Mountain-ashes or rowans, varieties of trees and shrubs in the genus ''Sorbus'' See also

* Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf, a town ...

. The original railway branch line from Morwell to Mirboo North was completed on 7 January 1886, with the last train being run on 22 June 1974. The railway was constructed through difficult hilly terrain requiring construction of massive embankments and numerous bridges. The convoluted history of the Post Office below demonstrates the attempts to form a viable Mirboo township, culminating in the township of Mirboo North at the railway station becoming predominant.

*8/1/1879 Mirboo (1) opened *22/11/1879 Tarwin (1) opened *6/4/1881 Mirboo North (1) renamed from Mirboo, Mirboo (2) renamed from Tarwin *29/6/1885 Mirboo South (1) renamed from Mirboo, Mirboo (3) opened *1/4/1886 Baromi renamed from Mirboo North (closed 1892), Mirboo North (2) renamed from Mirboo (remains open), Mirboo (4) renamed from Mirboo South (closed 1972) *1/5/1888 Mirboo Central opened (closed 1895) *c.1902 Russell's (Mirboo South) opened (closed c.1904)

Mirboo North became the focus of Victorian media on 10 August 2005, when about 15 cm of snow fell. The snow lay around for days.

The Town today

Mirboo North is where the Grand Ridge Road, a scenic route running from Seaview (near

Warragul Warragul () is a town in Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne. Warragul lies between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Mount Baw Baw Plateau of the Great Dividing Range to the north. As of the , the town had a population of ...

) to Carrajung (near

Traralgon Traralgon ( , ) is a city located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia and the most populous city in the City of Latrobe and the region. The urban population of Traralgon at the ...

) crosses the middle of the Strzelecki Highway between

Leongatha Leongatha () is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, South Gippsland Shire, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located south-east of Melbourne. At the , Leongatha had a population of 5,869. Canadian dairy company Saputo In ...

and Morwell. The town has two schools. Mirboo North Secondary College (~450 students) and Mirboo North Primary School. The town has an

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 ...

football team competing in the

Mid Gippsland Football League The Mid Gippsland Football League is an Australian rules football and netball league in the Latrobe Valley and South Gippsland regions of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. History The Mid Gippsland Football League (MGFL) was founded i ...

, a cricket team competing in the Latrobe Valley and District Cricket League and a soccer team (Mirboo North United Football Club) competing in the South Gippsland Soccer League. Golfers play at the course of the Mirboo North Golf Club on Galvins Road. There is a market that runs beside the main st. It is run on the last Saturday of every month and starts at 8:30 am and runs until 12:30 pm. The town also plays host to an Italian Festa that draws in large crowds with up to 25,000 people attending over the course of the day.

Notable people and animals

Tim Forsyth Tim Forsyth (born 17 August 1973 in Mirboo North, Victoria, Australia) is a retired Australian three-time Olympic high jumper: 1992, 1996, and 2000). Forsyth's first success on the international scene came in 1990 with a silver medal a ...

(High Jumper, Silver medallist at the 1992 Olympic Games) *

Belinda Snell Belinda Snell (born 10 January 1981) is an Australian former professional basketball player. She played 10 seasons in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) in addition to the WNBA and Europe. She was a member of the Australia women's n ...

(professional basketball player), currently competing in the WNBA for the

Phoenix Mercury The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Mercury compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. One of eight original franchises, it wa ...

and a member of the Australian team that won silver at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. * Sam the Koala found in the forests of Mirboo North, Victoria

References

{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Shire of South Gippsland