Quambatook is a town in the Shire of Gannawarra, 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 ...

, from the state capital,

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 ...

. Quambatook is located on the

Avoca River The Avoca River, an inland intermittent river of the northcentral catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower Riverina bioregion and Central Highlands and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The head ...

. At the , Quambatook had a population of 229, a decline from 249 at the .

History

Quambatook was settled following the end of the

Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia, approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony and an influx of population growth and financial capi ...

of the 1850s. Resumption of large

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not Land ownership and tenure, own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estima ...

's land holdings for closer settlement in the 1870s led to Quambatook becoming one of Victoria's leading

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

producing areas. Quambatook Post Office opened on 1 September 1879. Quambatook has been recognised as the

tractor pulling Truck and tractor pulling, also known as power pulling, is a form of a motorsport competition in which antique or modified tractors pull a heavy drag or sled along an , track, with the winner being the tractor that pulls the drag the farth ...

capital of Australia with an annual competition, the Australian Tractor Pulling Championships, held at Easter since 1976. In fact, the town's motto is 'Land of wheat and wool, home of the tractor pull'. The town is where

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

performer John Williamson grew up. Williamson has written a musical named for the town. Golfers play at the course of the Quambatook Golf Club on Boort Road. The primary school closed in mid 2017 after no applications to teach the six remaining students were received. After over a century, Quambatook Football Club folded from the Golden Rivers Football League following the 2022 season.

Gallery

File:Quambatook War Memorial 002.JPG, War memorial File:Quambatook Post Office 002.JPG, Post office File:Quambatook Welcome Sign.JPG, Guthrie St File:Quambatook Avoca River 002.JPG, Avoca River and River St File:Quambatook Store.JPG, General store

References

External links

Towns in Victoria (state) {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links