Healesville, Victoria

Healesville Victoria
The Grand Hotel at Healesville
Healesville
Coordinates
Population	6,839 (2011 census)
Established	1864
Postcode(s)	3777
Elevation	199 m (653 ft)
Location	52 km (32 mi) from Melbourne 22 km (14 mi) from Lilydale
LGA(s)	Shire of Yarra Ranges
State electorate(s)	Eildon
Federal Division(s)	Casey
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 19.2 °C 67 °F 8 °C 46 °F 1,020.1 mm 40.2 in
Localities around Healesville: Chum Creek Toolangi Narbethong Dixons Creek Tarrawarra Healesville McMahons Creek Coldstream Gruyere Badger Creek Woori Yallock Don Valley

Healesville is a town in Victoria, Australia, 52 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its local government area is the Shire of Yarra Ranges. At the 2011 Census, Healesville had a population of 6,839.

Healesville is situated on the Watts River, a tributary of the Yarra River.

History

The creation of a railway to the more distant Gippsland and Yarra Valley goldfields in the 1860s resulted in a settlement forming on the Watts River and its survey as a town in 1864. It was named after Richard Heales, the Premier of Victoria from 1860–1861. The post office opened on 1 May 1865. The town became a setting off point for the Woods Point Goldfield with the construction of the Yarra Track in the 1870s.

Present

Healesville is well known for the Healesville Sanctuary, a nature park with hundreds of native Australian animals displayed in a semi-open natural setting and an active platypus breeding program.

The Yarra Valley Tourist Railway operates from Healesville Station on every Sunday, most public holidays and Wednesday to Sunday during school holidays.

Schools in Healesville include the 125-year-old Healesville Primary School, St Brigid's Catholic primary school, the rural Chum Creek Primary School, Healesville High School and Worawa Aboriginal College, an Aboriginal school whose former students include noted Australian Rules Footballer David Wirrpanda. Much of what is now Healesville lies on the ancestral land of the Wurundjeri people. The Coranderrk mission station, set up in 1863, is located just south of the main township.

Industries in and around Healesville include sawmilling, horticulture, tourism and, more recently, viticulture.

The Salvation Army has been part of the community since the late 19th century, with a continued and renewed presence in town.

Sport

The town has an Australian Rules football team, The Bloods, competing in the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League.

Healesville also has a tennis club, the Healesville Tennis Club, which competes in the Eastern Region Tennis junior and senior competitions.

Healesville has a picnic horse racing club, Healesville Amateur Racing, which holds around seven race meetings a year with the Healesville Cup meeting in January.

The Healesville Greyhound Racing Club also holds regular meetings.

Golfers play at the course of the RACV Country Club on Yarra Glen Road.

Healesville also has an association football team known as Healesville Soccer Club that plays in the Football Federation Victoria league.

Notable people

• Noted Aboriginal artist and Wurundjeri elder William Barak spent much of his life at Coranderrk Station, near Healesville. Wurundjeri elder Joy Murphy Wandin lives in Healesville.
• Andrew Moore, Australian Rules Football player for Port Adelaide.
• Kelvin W. Moore, Australian Rules Football player for the Richmond Football Club.
• Gordon Collis Australian Rules Football player for Carlton Football Club, Brownlow Medal 1964
• James Wandin (1933–2006), Wurundjeri ngurungaeta and Australian Rules footballer with St Kilda Football Club.
• David Wirrpanda, Australian Rules Football player for the West Coast.
• Lex Lasry, Supreme Court Judge.
• Kevin Dennehy, Lord Mayor
• Luke Dennehy, Herald Sun Journalist.
• Ash King (Harris), Lead Guitarist of hit band "Smoke Stack Rino"
• Chris Buley, 3x Australasia Finger Drumming Champion (2006, 2014-15).
• Desmond Harrington, Thief. (See Ronnie Biggs)

Tourism

From the late 1890s elaborate country retreat residences were built alongside hotels and guest houses.

A Tourist and Progress Association was created before 1914.

In the 1920s the association published "Healesville, The World-famed Tourist Resort", listing over 40 beauty spots and 20 hotels and guest houses. The construction of the Maroondah Dam in 1927, replacing the weir, brought several hundred workmen to Healesville. Their departure and the onset of the 1930s depression exposed Healesville's restricted range of industries. Timber and tourism were not stable enough for sustained growth. Notwithstanding the depression, the 1930s saw increased motor tourism (partly bypassing Healesville) and decreased railway patronage. Only 10% came by rail at Easter 1934. Tourism was still active but a local newspaper commented that Healesville would be "heaps better off calling itself the good-time town instead of the world-famed-tourist-resort—that's got whiskers on it".

Film and television

The Internet Movie Database has Healesville and its environs as the filming locations for a number of films and TV programs: the Australian TV series Young Ramsay (1977), Felicity (1979), the natural history TV series Life on Earth (1979), Frog Dreaming (1986), the Australian TV short film Harry's War (1999) and Killer Elite (2011).

Gallery

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  Healesville Visitor Centre

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  Healesville Railway Station

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  Healesville Hotel

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  Grand Hotel

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  RACV Club

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  Mount Riddell

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  Mount Saint Leonard

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  Healesville by night, taken from Mount Saint Leonard

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  Healesville Main Street at night

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  Mechanics Institute

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  Grand Hotel

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  Healesville Hotel

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  Maroondah Dam 2011