Avoca

History

The explorer and surveyor Thomas Mitchell was the first European recorded to have travelled through the Avoca district. He found the area more temperate in climate and better watered than inland New South Wales, and he encouraged settlers to take up land in what he described as "Australia Felix". The Blood Hole massacre occurred at Middle Creek, near Glengower at the end of 1839 or early 1840 killing an unknown number of Dja Dja Wurrung people. By 1850 there were several large sheep runs, and pastoral settlement was well established. Like Ballarat and many other Victorian towns, Avoca sprang into being suddenly in the 1850s with the discovery of gold. Gold was first found in Victoria in 1849 in the Pyrenees Ranges near Avoca. But it was not for another two years that the first discovery of any importance took place. In 1851 a shepherd called James Esmond found gold at Clunes, from present-day Avoca, setting off a gold rush to the region. In 1853 gold was found at Four Mile Flat, near Avoca, and the main lead at Avoca itself was opened up a few months later. By the beginning of December 1853, the population had increased from 100 to 2,200, and by June the following year, Avoca, with a population of 16,000, was regarded as one of Victoria's more important gold rush districts. With a Court, a police station, Post Office (opened 1 September 1854), gold wardens, churches, and schools, Avoca had established itself as an administrative centre. This was a crucial development in its survival as a town, for when the gold miners left their Avoca claims to travel to the new Dunolly rush in 1856, Avoca continued to serve as the focus of the region's commercial and administrative life. With the Lamplough rush in 1859, miners returned to the Avoca district, and in that year…

Geography

The town stands in the gently undulating basin of the Avoca River, which rises in the Pyrenees Ranges to the west. To the south, the region is bounded by low hills of the Great Dividing Range; eastwards, the basin ends in a dry forested rise; to the north the Avoca River runs slowly through the plains of the Wimmera before joining Lake Bael Bael and the lake and swamps just south of the Murray. The town and river were named after Avoca, the village and River Avoca in County Wicklow, Ireland. The region takes in an area of about , and includes the towns of Redbank, Natte Yallock, Rathscar, Bung Bong, Lamplough, Amphitheatre, Percydale, Moonambel, and Warrenmang. A few miles to the northeast, bare paddocks mark the site of Homebush, once a flourishing mining village. Avoca has many small businesses servicing the local community including a pub, several cafes, a chemist, convenience store, a butcher, a supermarket, its own newspaper (Pyrenees Advocate) and a community bank. Since the 1970s, the wine industry has grown to be one of the most significant economic drivers and the sector is now the largest employer in the region and has increased tourism.

Most-observed species

• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  405
• Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

  Cacatua galerita (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  315
• Superb Fairywren

  Malurus cyaneus (Ellis, 1782) · Aves
  314
• Red Wattlebird

  Anthochaera carunculata (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  294
• Gray Shrikethrush

  Colluricincla harmonica (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  285
• Crimson Rosella

  Platycercus elegans (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  266
• Galah

  Eolophus roseicapilla (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  226
• White-plumed Honeyeater

  Ptilotula penicillata (Gould, 1837) · Aves
  226

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2007-12-09
  38 km SE of Charlton, Australia
• M 2.8 — 2003-02-02
  9 km N of Trentham, Australia