Coleraine is a town in Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 on the Glenelg Highway

Glenelg Highway

The Glenelg Highway is a 301 kilometre highway in south-eastern Australia, linking Mount Gambier with Ballarat. Most of the highway is located within the Western part of the state of Victoria; except for a short, 15 km stretch from the South Australia/Victoria state border near Ardno to...

, 350 kilometres (217 mi) west of the state capital, Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 and 35 kilometres (22 mi) north-west of Hamilton

Hamilton, Victoria

Hamilton is a city in western Victoria, Australia. It is located at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway...

 in the Shire of Southern Grampians local government area. It was named after the town

Coleraine

Coleraine is a large town near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is northwest of Belfast and east of Derry, both of which are linked by major roads and railway connections...

 in County Londonderry

County Londonderry

The place name Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire meaning oak-grove or oak-wood. As with the city, its name is subject to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, with the form Derry preferred by nationalists and Londonderry preferred by unionists...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. At the 2006 census

Census in Australia

The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...

, the urban area of Coleraine had a population of 991.

History

The area was first settled by Europeans in 1838 for pastoral grazing. The town was surveyed later on Bryan Creek, a tributary of the Wannon River

Wannon River

Wannon River is a river in Victoria, Australia. It is a tributary of the Glenelg River and its total length is approximately from its headwaters in the Grampians north of Dunkeld where it joins with the Glenelg River south of Casterton....

. The Post Office opened on November 16, 1854.
Today, Coleraine's primary industries are beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...

 and wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

. The town hosts an Autumn Festival in April and an art show in August.

Sport

Coleraine has a football

Australian rules football

Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

 team playing in the South West District Football League

South West District Football League

The South West District Football League is an Australian rules football league based in South-western Victoria, with clubs located in the vicinity of Hamilton, Heywood and Portland...

.

It has a horse racing club, the Coleraine Racing Club, which runs the Coleraine Cup meeting in September. The meeting features the steeplechase race commemorating the feats of district horsemen and renowned Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon

Adam Lindsay Gordon

Adam Lindsay Gordon was an Australian poet, jockey and politician.- Early life :Gordon was born at Fayal in the Azores, son of Captain Adam Durnford Gordon who had married his first cousin, Harriet Gordon, both of whom were descended from Adam of Gordon of the ballad...

.

Golfers play at the Coleraine Golf Club on Gordon Street.