NHILL, VICTORIA

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Nhill (pronounced Nill) is a small wheat town that is exactly half way between Melbourne and Adelaide on the Western Highway.
Location: 80km east of the South Australian border. Map
Origin of name: Aboriginal name, meanming 'place of spirits' or white mist on the water'.
Brief history: squatters Dugald Macpherson and George Belcher were the first white men to venture into the immediate area at the very outset of 1845. They encountered a group of indigenous people camped by a swamp which was their spirit place and corroboree ground. The squatters understood the place to be called 'nhill', although the word probably reflected an identification between the swamp and the people - the sub-group Nyill of the Tyatyalla tribe. The transformation from grazing to wheat-growing occurred when selectors began to take up land from 1874. Nhill, which was linked by rail to Melbourne in 1887, was the first Victorian town to install electric lighting.
Natural features: Wyperfeld National Park; Lake Albacutya Regional Park
Built features: The town has the biggest single-bin silo in the southern hemisphere, which has a capacity of 2.25 million bushels.
Heritage features: Mt Elgin homestead; Bone Farm homestead, Woorak West (11 km north-east)