Whroo is a locality in the

Shire of Strathbogie The Shire of Strathbogie is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area in the Hume (region), Hume region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the north-east part of the state. It covers an area of and in Augu ...

and

Shire of Campaspe The Shire of Campaspe is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the northern part of the state. It covers an area of and in August 2021 had a population of 38,735. It includes the towns of Girgarre, Echuca, Kyabram, Roc ...

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. The locality includes the Whroo Historical Area state reserve.

History

The first inhabitants of the area were the

Ngooraialum Ngooraialum were an indigenous Australian tribal subgroup, one of three comprising the Ngurai-illam Wurrung, though Norman Tindale placed them among the Taungurung. They inhabited land along the Goulburn River in central Victoria, north of Mitch ...

people. The first European explorer to enter the

Goulburn Valley The Goulburn Valley is a sub-region, part of the Hume region of the Australian state of Victoria. The sub-region consists of those areas in the catchment of the Goulburn River and other nearby streams, and is part of the Murray-Darling Basin. ...

was Thomas Mitchell. The first Europeans to visit the area were the drovers Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney. Squatters started settling the area in 1840. Two sailors – John Thomas Lewis and James Meek Nickinson discovered a gold nugget in the grass at Whroo in 1854, leading to the development of the town of Whroo. The

Balaclava Mine The Balaclava Mine was an open-cut mine in the Australian ghost town of Whroo, Victoria. It opened in October 1854, one year after gold was found at the nearby Rushworth. By 1881 the number of employed miners in the area had dropped to 150, a ...

then operated on and off and officially closed in the 1960s.Tara Moss
The Ghost Town of Whroo
October 29, 2012 . Thought to be derived from an Aboriginal word meaning lips,Whroo
at Victorian Places the first

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

opened in 1857 and by 1900 had a

Mechanics' Institute Mechanics' institutes, also known as mechanics' institutions, sometimes simply known as institutes, and also called schools of arts (especially in the Australian colonies), were educational establishments originally formed to provide adult edu ...

and library with 950 volumes opened in 1859 and closed in 1955,

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

and

United Methodist The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelical ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

es, three

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s, a cordial factory and three ore crushing mills.

References

Ghost towns in Victoria (state) Towns in Victoria (state) Shire of Strathbogie {{Hume-geo-stub