The Shire of Hepburn is a

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 State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, located in the central part of the state. It covers an area of and, in the 2021 Census the shire had a population of 16,604. It includes the towns of Clunes,

Creswick Creswick is a town in west-central Victoria, Australia, 18 kilometres north of Ballarat and 122 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, in the Shire of Hepburn. It is 430 metres above sea level. At the 2016 census, Creswick had a populatio ...

, Daylesford,

Hepburn Springs The traditional land of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Hepburn Springs is a resort town located in the middle of the largest concentration of mineral springs in Australia, situated in Victoria, 48 km northeast of Ballarat. At the , Hepburn had a ...

and Trentham and the villages of Glenlyon, Allendale, Kingston, Leonard's Hill, Lyonville, Newlyn, Denver and Smeaton. It was formed in 1995 from the amalgamation of the Shire of Creswick, Shire of Daylesford and Glenlyon and parts of the

Shire of Kyneton The Shire of Kyneton was a Local government in Australia, local government area about northwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The shire covered an area of , and existed from 1859 until 1995. Hist ...

and

Shire of Talbot and Clunes The Shire of Talbot and Clunes was a local government area about northwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The shire covered an area of , and existed from 1915 until 1994. History What became the Shire of Talbot and Cl ...

. The Shire is governed and administered by the Hepburn Shire Council; its

seat of local government The seat of government is (as defined by ''Brewer's Politics'') "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority". In most countries, the nation’s capital is also seat of its government, thus that ...

and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Daylesford, it also has a service centre located in Creswick. The Shire is named after an early

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

named John Hepburn, who established the Smeaton Hill pastoral run, which was located a few kilometres north of present-day Creswick.

Council

Current composition

The council is composed of five wards and seven councillors, with two councillors per ward elected to represent each of the Creswick and Birch wards, and one councillor per remaining ward elected to represent each of the other wards. As of 2020, the current councillors are:

Administration and governance

The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Daylesford Municipal Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Daylesford, and its service centre in Creswick.

Towns and localities

Traditional owners

The traditional owners of the Shire of Hepburn are the

Dja Dja Wurrung Dja Dja Wurrung (Pronounced Ja-Ja-war-rung), also known as the Djaara or Jajowrong people and Loddon River tribe, are an Aboriginal Australian people who are the Traditional owners of lands including the watersheds of the Loddon and Avoca rive ...

References

External links

Hepburn Shire Council official websitePTV local public transport map
Local government areas of Victoria (Australia) Grampians (region) {{GrampiansAU-geo-stub