Yarra Glen 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 ...

, 55 km north-east from 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 ...

. Yarra Glen recorded a population of 3,012 at the .

History

The Ryrie brothers (William, James and Donald) were the first Europeans to settle in the area, when they established the Yering run in 1837 after droving their cattle from NSW. The brothers planted the first grape vines in the Yarra Valley in 1838 and produced their first wine in 1845. Joseph Furphy, often regarded as the father of the Australian novel, was born on the station in 1843. The Post Office opened on 11 January 1861 as Yarra Flats and was renamed Yarra Glen in 1889 when the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

arrived. The now National Trust-listed Yarra Glen Grand Hotel was established in 1888. Its four story Italianate tower was added subsequent to the construction of the original hotel building. The Black Friday fires of 1939 badly damaged the area around Yarra Glen, as did the fires of 2009.

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, Yarra Glen Football Club that competes 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 ...

. Yarra Glen has a horse racing club, Yarra Valley Racing, which schedules around nine race meetings a year including the Yarra Glen Cup meeting in March. Yarra Valley

Harness Racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australia ...

Club conducts regular meetings at its racetrack in the town.

References

External links

Yarra Glen
- Tourism Victoria website
Yarra Glen Website
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Yarra Valley 1861 establishments in Australia Yarra Ranges Shire

History

Sport

See also

References

External links