Pyramid Hill is a town in the

Shire of Loddon The Shire of Loddon is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the northern part of the state. It covers an area of and in 2021 had a population of 7,759. It includes ...

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 ...

, between

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is an Australian city in north-central Victoria. The city is located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2022, Bendigo has a popula ...

and

Kerang Kerang is a town on the Loddon River in north-central Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is the commercial centre to an irrigation district based on livestock, horticulture, cytisus proliferus, lucerne and grain. It is located no ...

. As of the 2021 census, it had a population of 598. The town, which is named for a nearby hill, has

walking trails A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. Howe ...

and historic

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

architecture. In 1836, Major Mitchell camped at a 180-metre-high granite rise he named Pyramid Hill, since its shape reminded him of Egypt's pyramids. It became part of a pastoral area. In the 1870s, a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

appeared at the hill's base. After

the railway station ''The Railway Station'' is an 1862 genre painting by the British artist William Powell Frith.Trotter p.63 The painting is held at Royal Holloway College, with a smaller version in the Royal Collection. Description It depicts a scene at the busy ...

opened in 1884, the town grew quickly and moved 3 km west of the hill. Farming accounts for over 30% of employment. In 2008, a local

piggery Intensive pig farming, also known as pig factory farming, is the primary method of pig production, in which grower pigs are housed indoors in group-housing or straw-lined sheds in establishments also known as piggeries, whilst pregnant sows a ...

owner visited

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

to find workers, leading Pyramid Hill to develop a small Filipino community that has revitalised not just the farms but the town itself. Pyramid Hill has a team that plays in the Loddon Valley Football Netball League, and the Filipinos host an annual cultural fiesta.

History

Pyramid Hill is on the traditional lands of the Barapa Barapa. On 28 June 1836, Thomas Mitchell,

Surveyor-General of New South Wales The Surveyor General of New South Wales is the primary government authority responsible for land and mining surveying in New South Wales. The original duties for the Surveyor General was to measure and determine land grants for settlers in New Sou ...

, spied a

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

hill from Mount Hope while he was out exploring what he termed "

Australia Felix Australia Felix (Latin for "fortunate Australia" or "happy Australia") was an early name given by Thomas Mitchell to lush pasture in parts of western Victoria he explored in 1836 on his third expedition. On this expedition Mitchell was instruc ...

", the rich plains of what is now western

. It rises above sea level. His party camped at that hill's foot the next day. Mitchell, the first non-

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

person to see the area, named the triangular rise Pyramid Hill. He wrote that, "being quite isolated, it closely resembled the monuments of Egypt." The town is named after a nearby hill that rises 180 metres above sea level. Originally the town was situated at the base of Pyramid Hill, but was relocated when the railway station was built. The Post Office opened on 17 November 1875. The railway arrived in 1884.

Education

Pyramid Hill College, a

state school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

, opened in 1876 and serves Foundation to

Year 10 Year 10 is the tenth year of compulsory education in schools in many countries including England, Australia, India, Northern Ireland, New Zealand and Wales. It is the tenth or eleventh year of compulsory education. It is approximately equivalent ...

students. A

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

school, St Patrick's Primary School, opened in 1956 and closed in 2024 due to declining enrollment.

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, Pyramid Hill Football Netball Club competes in the

Loddon Valley Football League The Loddon Valley Football Netball League (LVFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball league based in Victoria (state), Central Victoria. History The league was formed in 1903 by the Inglewood, Bridgewater, Newbridge and Arnold's Bridge ...

. Golfers play at the course of the Pyramid Hill Golf Club on Victoria Street.

In the media

The town has one radio station which broadcasts a syndicated programme from the Power Country FM group on the 88 MHz frequency. Sue Brooks, a former Pyramid Hill resident, directed the film ''

Road to Nhill ''Road to Nhill'' is a 1997 Australian comedy-drama film directed by Sue Brooks. The film won the "Golden Alexander" (first prize) for Best Feature-Length Film at The International Thessaloniki Film Festival. Produced by Sue Maslin, it was shot ...

'' (1997). Set and filmed in Pyramid Hill, it is based on both an actual incident and the heavily embellished yarns her father would spin about the town. ''Road to Nhill'' toured regional Victorian cities to gross $1 million. Pyramid Hill and

Nhill Nhill is a town in the Wimmera, in western Victoria, Australia. Nhill is located on the Western Highway, halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. At the , Nhill had a population of 1,749. "Nhill" is believed to be a Wergaia word meaning "early ...

were featured on a '' Back Roads'' episode that depicted its Filipino community. ''

'' (1997) was set and filmed in Pyramid Hill. The unsolved disappearance and suspected murder of one resident, Krystal Fraser, has

Demographics

In the , Pyramid Hill had a population of 598.

Notes

References

External links

Community websiteDepartment of Sustainability and Environment: Know Your Area - Pyramid Hill
Sydney Morning Herald 8 February 2004
Pyramid Hill Football Netball Club
SportsTG Towns in Victoria (state) Shire of Loddon {{Mallee-geo-stub