Big Wool Bales

Sir Reginald Ansett Transport Museum

Lupins growing near Hamilton
Lake Surprise, Mt Eccles

Church Cave at Byaduk. This cave formed when the roof of a lava tunnel collapsed. The lava flow emanated from Mt Napier.

Wannon Falls

Mt Napier

Hollow Mountain, The Grampians

Hamilton, a city in western Victoria, claims to be the "Wool Capital of the World", based on its strong historical links to sheep grazing which continue today. Sheep grazing and agriculture are the primary industries in the surrounding shire, the area producing as much as 15% of Australia’s total wool clip.

Where is it?: Victoria: Western Districts. Hamilton is located at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway (from Ballarat to Mount Gambier) and the Henty Highway (from Portland to Horsham) 290 km west of Melbourne. Hamilton is 79 km north of Portland.

Things to see and do:

The Big Wool Bales consist of five linked structures designed to resemble five gigantic wool bales - a tribute to the importance of the local wool industry. Together they form a building containing wool-related displays such as historical memorabilia, including farming and shearing equipment, wool scales, old horse harnesses, wool presses and weaving looms, along with wool samples and rural clothing. The Keeping Place is a small museum and living history centre run by local indigenous people.

The Sir Reginald Ansett Transport Museum celebrates the founding of Ansett Australia in Hamilton in February 1936 and displays items from the early days of the Ansett Airlines' operation. Ansett obtained a pilot's licence in 1926 (No. 419). However, it would be ten years before he established an air service between Hamilton and Melbourne trading under the name of Ansett Airways Pty. Ltd. His first aircraft was a six-seat Fokker Universal. Ansett showed good timing as the Federal Government started subsidising airlines. Reg Ansett won the Brisbane to Adelaide air race in 1937.

Set in 1.6 ha, the Hamilton Botanic Gardens are distinguished by rare botanic species, a superbly restored rotunda, a small zoo featuring rabbits, cockatiels and budgies and playground and the ornate Thomson Fountain. The National Trust of Australia classified the gardens in 1990.

Events: Sheepvention, a wool-related trade-show and exhibition is held in the Hamilton Show-grounds in the first Monday & Tuesday of August each year. The Hamilton Agricultural Show is held in November.

Surrounding area:

Active volcanoes were part of western Victoria’s landscape from about 4.5 million years ago until as recently as 7,200 years ago, forming one of the World’s largest basalt plains with more than 400 volcanos mapped. Aboriginal people would have witnessed some of these eruptions. Mount Napier (14km south) consists of a shallow crater, at least 15 smaller basalt and scoria eruption points and elongated lava flows extending along small valleys. Mount Napier is considered to be Victoria's last active volcano
The Byaduk Caves (22km south) are considered the most extensive and accessible lava caves in Australia. The largest tunnels are up to 18 metres wide, 10 metres high and extend 20 metres below the surface. The caves are accessed through collapsed sections of ‘lava tubes’ which carried lava flows beneath a solidified crust.
The Wannon and Nigretta Falls were created by lava flows that surged upstream to the Wannon River. The water cascades over hardened basalt lava.

On the outskirts of the town of Macarthur (38km south) is Mt Eccles. Part of the beauty and mystery of Mt Eccles is Lake Surprise, situated in a dormant volcanic crater. The interpretation centre provides visitors with information about the area and surrounding 6120 ha parkland and large koala colony.

The Henty Wine Region was birthed in the 1960s when Karl Seppelt planted a vineyard at Drumborg. Henty wines are generally elegant, long-lived and well balanced with fine, natural acidity. The area has become renowned for its aromatic white wines, lucious sweet desert wines and intense, finely structured reds.

The Grampians, one of Victoria's most rugged and picturesque mountain ranges, are an hour's drive to the norh east of Hamilton via Dunkeld.

About Hamilton

The region around Hamilton fertile and well-watered, leading to an abundance of wildlife, and no need to travel far for food. Physical remains such as the weirs and fish traps found in Lake Condah to the south of Hamilton, as well as accounts of early white settlers support local indigenous oral histories of well established settlements in the area.

History: Hamilton was built near the border of three traditional indigenous tribal territories: the Gunditjmara land that stretches south to the coast, the Tjapwurong land to the north east and the Bunganditj territory to the west. People who lived in these areas tended to be settled rather than nomadic. Major Thomas Mitchell was the first European to travel through the area where Hamilton later developed, in September 1836. His reports of the fertility and abundance of ‘Australia Felix’ (as he called this region of Western Victoria) encouraged pastoralists to move to the area and establish large sheep runs. By 1839 there were a number of settlers in the area including the Wedge family whose property ‘The Grange' was located within the present town site.
Conflict between the pastoralists and the indigenous population soon arose. The local people resisted encroachment on their traditional tribal lands. They stole and killed sheep for food and out of retaliation for the settlers' use of their hunting territory as grazing-land. It seems apparent that a number of Aborigines in the Western district were murdered in this period in the resulting conflicts.
When Governor La Trobe visited The Grange in 1841 he noted the extent of interracial violence and appointed Acheson French as police magistrate to the area. A constable and a detachment of mounted police, to be based at The Grange, were also appointed and convicts from Portland erected a hut for the magistrate and barracks for the troopers on the site of the present courthouse and police station on Martin and Thompson Streets.
Another result of the conflict was the establishment of an Aboriginal reserve, intended for the protection of the indigenous people. This further angered the pastoralists who regarded the reserve and its administration as hostile to their interests. Violence and brutality appear to have continued unchecked until Governor La Trobe ordered the Portland Commissioner, all his border police and a contingent of ‘native police’ to the Grange in September 1842. This, along with the effects of dislocation, European diseases, and killings marked the end of most of the indigenous resistance in the area.
The proximity of The Grange to other properties and to important tracks between Portland and New South Wales led to the gradual emergence of a small town. This included an inn, blacksmith, a small store and some shanties and businesses nearby. The site was a small social centre for surrounding pastoral properties, with horse races being held along the Grange Burn flat.
The township of Hamilton was formally declared in 1851. The town was named by surveyor Henry Wade after a family he and his family had made friends with.