Powelltown 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 ...

, 70 km east of Melbourne's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center 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 wit ...

, 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 ...

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 federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

. Powelltown recorded a population of 214 at the 2021 census.

History

The first settlement was established in 1901 when H Blake founded the first timber mill known as Blake's Mill; later a larger mill was constructed and completed in 1913 by the Victorian Powell Wood Processing Company to harvest hardwood

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 ...

in the Little Yarra Valley to fill its new government contracts. The logs were transported from the forests to the sawmills by tramway and from there to the railheads at

Yarra Junction Yarra Junction is a town in Victoria, Australia, east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Yarra Junction recorded a population of 2,875 at the . The township sits at the ...

and Warburton. Renowned axemen like Shane Corr opened up the veins of timber with no more than an axe and a team of bullocks to fulfil his government contracts. The Post Office opened around 1904, as Blake's, and the settlement was renamed Powelltown in 1912. The

Powelltown Tramway The Powelltown tramway was a Narrow gauge railway, narrow gauge tramway (industrial), tramway that operated between Powelltown, Victoria, Powelltown and Yarra Junction, Victoria, Australia, between 1913 and 1945. The tramway was owned by the ...

provided a passenger and goods service to Yarra Junction between 1913 and 1945. Today, many of the trails constructed to transport timber have been opened up as walking trails and driving routes for tourists, including the Powelltown Tramway Rail Trail.

Sport

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

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 (Australia), Victoria. The organisation operated the Yarra Ranges Senior Football league and the Yarra ...

. Despite its small population, Powelltown has produced a number of

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

former players including,

Melbourne Demons The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

forward Sean Charles and

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

and

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

forward

Daniel Hargraves Daniel Hargraves (born 6 December 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle in the Australian Football League. He was originally drafted by the Bulldogs from the Eastern Under 18 side in th ...

. A relative of Charles, former

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and first competed in 1987 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known ...

defender

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). Selected by West Coast duri ...

also played junior football with the Powelltown Demons. The town also has a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

club that plays in the Ringwood and District Cricket Association.It features 2 senior teams that compete in the D.J Strachan Shield and the Adrian Hammond Shield.

References

* (151 pages)

External links

Powelltown
(SMH Travel) Towns in Victoria (state) Yarra Valley Yarra Ranges Shire {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub