Warburton is a town in
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 ...
, 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 ...
. Warburton recorded a population of 2,020 at the .
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History
The name "Warburton" has been shared between two townships over the years. The mining town of "Yankee Jim's Creek" was located on the gold-bearing slopes of Mount Little Joe. Hostile terrain, fire, drought, flood, steep slopes, unsustainable roads, crime and easier pickings for miners further upstream put an end to "Old Warburton". Land was surveyed and sold in the valley below in 1884.
The Post Office opened around 1884. Two earlier offices named Warburton were renamed as Launching Place and Hoddle's Creek.
Warburton was connected to Lilydale by a Victorian Railways
The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...
branch line, which was closed in 1965. The railway path is now used for the Lilydale to Warburton Rail Trail
The Lilydale to Warburton Rail Trail (also known as the Warburton Trail) is a walking, cycling and horse-riding track in eastern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It runs a distance of between Lilydale, Victoria, Lilydale and Warburt ...
, a rail trail
A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...
used by pedestrians, cyclists, and horse-riders.
East of Warburton is a large water catchment area called Upper Yarra Dam, which is designed to supply Melbourne with water sourced from the Thomson catchment area. Robert Hoddle first surveyed this area in 1845 after persistent overwhelming floods impeded the development of the city of Melbourne.
Warburton was named after the middle name of unpopular goldfields Police Magistrate for Castlemaine, Charles Warburton Carr by District Surveyor Clement Hodgkinson during the 1860s. It received an official title in 1884. Hodgkinson became Australia's Father of Forestry. Carr was confronted with a population explosion upon opening of the Yarra goldfields in 1859 amid economic depression and was honoured for dutiful administration of the law despite public protests against him. Carr was also Secretary to the Government Inquiry into the Eureka Stockade 3 December 1854 at Ballarat. Charles Warburton Carr never lived in Warburton, he lived in Avoca.
Hodgkinson's good friend, Gold Commissioner for Bendigo and Magistrate for the Yarra Valley, Joseph Panton, named Mt Donna Buang above Warburton in 1865. The sketch map of the upper Yarra water and new bridle track to Woods Point, from Lillydale to Traveller's rest on great mountain road, lithographed at Office of Lands and Survey, 11 Sept. 1865, is available online at the State Library of Victoria. In a letter to ''The Argus'' 1 July 1911, Panton stated, "having ascertained from the chief and head of the aboriginal tribe of the Yering valley that the mountain was known as 'Donna Buang' I at once entered that name. My map was published by the Crown Lands department on the original scale of two miles to the inch." Panton was Colonel Anderson's nephew; both good friends with Melbourne Botanic Gardens creator Baron Von Mueller and Hodgkinson.
The last major town before Warburton, Lilydale, has similar polar histories, an evidence base that shows that Hodgkinson named the town after Lilly de Castella, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Anderson who served as one of the first nominated members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the states and territories of Australia, state lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the state upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament H ...
in the 1850s, and another history, proposes it was named by public servant clerk John Hardy who heard convicts singing when building a road. The town attracted the wealth of Federation tourism at the turn of the 20th century. It was a honeymoon town.
Sport
Golfers play at the course of the Warburton Golf Club on Dammans Road.
Together with its neighbouring township Millgrove, Warburton 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 (Warburton Millgrove) 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 ...
.
Notable people
* Jon Johanson (1956–), aviator
* Lindsay Thompson (1923–2008), politician
* Diana Trask (1940–), country singer
* Jo Kennedy, (1962-), actress
* Timothy James Webb (1967–), artist
See also
* Warburton railway station
References
External links
WarburtonInfo - Since 2009 - Over 500 pages of Community, Tourism and Mt Donna Buang Snow Information)
The Official website Visit Warburton - Warburton Valley Community and Economic Development Association (CEDA)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warburton, Victoria
Towns in Victoria (state)
Mining towns in Victoria (state)
Yarra Valley
Yarra Ranges Shire