Lancefield, Victoria
Encyclopedia
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...
. The town is located 92 kilometres (57.2 mi) north 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 had a population of 1,184 at the 2006 census.
History
The area was used by the WurundjeriWurundjeri
The Wurundjeri are a people of the Indigenous Australian nation of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance, who occupy the Birrarung Valley, its tributaries and the present location of Melbourne, Australia...
Aboriginal people as a quarry site for the manufacture of stone axes and was first settled by European squatters in 1837. The main source of these stone tools was at Mount William, to the north east of Lancefield.
A Lancefield Post Office opened on 16 January 1858 in the Romsey
Romsey, Victoria
Romsey is a town in the Local Government Area of the Shire of Macedon Ranges in the state of Victoria, Australia. The town is located north of Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Romsey had a population of 4490.-History:...
/Five Mile Creek area, 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to the south. In 1860 this was renamed Five Mile Creek when Lancefield Post Office opened in the present township.
Lancefield's elevation and climate made it a popular summer resort in the 1880s. In recent years, many local wineries
Winery
A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, bottling lines, laboratories, and large expanses of...
have been established in the area.
The town has a connection to the Kelly Gang
Ned Kelly
Edward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...
; for it was here that Constable Fitzpatrick, the instigator of the Kelly Outbreak in 1878 was finally found by the Victorian police to be no good and for his actions was finally discharged from the force.
Lancefield district had a reputation for some of the best fertile soils in Victoria. Prior to being cut up into small blocks during the early 1970s the region produced high yields per acre of potatoes, fat lambs, fat cattle, wheat and other cereal crops.
A large fossil deposit from the Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
epoch was discovered at Lancefield swamp
Lancefield Swamp
The Lancefield Swamp is a rich fossil deposit from the Pleistocene epoch was discovered in the 19th century near Lancefield, Victoria, Australia....
, containing the remains of many species of extinct megafauna
Australian megafauna
Australian megafauna are a number of large animal species in Australia, often defined as species with body mass estimates of greater than 30 kilograms, or equal to or greater than 30% greater body mass than their closest living relatives...
, including ; Macropus
Macropus
Macropus is a marsupial genus that belongs to the family Macropodidae, it has 14 species which are further divided into 3 subgenera. The genus includes all terrestrial kangaroos, wallaroos and several species of wallaby. The term itself is derived from the Ancient Greek makros "long" and pous...
titan, a giant kangaroo; Diprotodon
Diprotodon
Diprotodon, meaning "two forward teeth", sometimes known as the Giant Wombat or the Rhinoceros Wombat, was the largest known marsupial that ever lived...
, a rhinoceros-sized wombat
Wombat
Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in their habitat tolerances, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as...
; and Genyornis
Genyornis
Genyornis was a monotypic genus of large, flightless bird that lived in Australia until 50±5 thousand years ago. Many species became extinct in Australia around that time, coinciding with the arrival of humans....
, a giant flightless bird.
The local Australian rules 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, Lancefield Football Club
Lancefield Football Club
The Lancefield Football Netball Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football club located 61 km north of Melbourne in the town of Lancefield affiliated with the Riddell District Football League....
competes in the Riddell District Football League
Riddell District Football League
The Riddell District Football League is an Australian rules football league affiliated with Football Victoria.The league covers towns in the Macedon Ranges Victoria and an area from Rockbank in the south to Broadford in the north....
.
Golfers play at the course of the Lancefield Golf Club on Heddle Road.
Burke and Wills
The Burke and Wills expedition camped at Lancefield on their journey to cross Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. They arrived here on 23 August 1860 and made their fourth camp out of Melbourne. A marker at the site of the original town at Mustey's Bridge on Deep Creek commemorates the site of their camp.The route of their departure northwards from the town is commemorated by the road to Mia Mia
Mia Mia, Victoria
Mia Mia is a picturesque area of Central Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne and south of Bendigo. It is largely an area of broadacre farms raising cattle and sheep. It is a part of the Heathcote wine region Wine District and a number of vineyards have been established in the area, most...
, which was named 'Burke and Wills Track' in their honour.
Railway
A railway branch line off the Melbourne-BendigoBendigo, Victoria
Bendigo is a major regional city in the state of Victoria, Australia, located very close to the geographical centre of the state and approximately north west of the state capital Melbourne. It is the second largest inland city and fourth most populous city in the state. The estimated urban...
line originated at Clarkefield
Clarkefield, Victoria
Clarkefield is a town in Victoria, Australia, northwest of Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Macedon Ranges and City of Hume....
(known then as Lancefield Junction), opening as far as Lancefield on 6 June 1881. This section of the line was closed on 13 August 1956.
By 6 April 1892, the line was extended out of Lancefield to Kilmore
Kilmore, Victoria
Kilmore is a town in the Australian state of Victoria. Located north of Melbourne, it is contentiously claimed as Victoria's oldest inland settled town...
. However, this section of the line was so unsuccessful that it was closed on 1 June 1897.
Notable people
John Allan (Australian politician)
John Allan , Australian politician, was the 29th Premier of Victoria. He was born near Lancefield, where his father was a farmer of Scottish origin, and educated at state schools. He took up wheat and dairy farming at Wyuna and was director of a butter factory at Kyabram...
, the 29th Premier of Victoria, was born near Lancefield in 1866
Breaker Morant and Bushveldt Carbineers connection
On his release from prison in England in 1904, George Witton came to Lancefield and lived in the town for several years. Witton of the Bushveldt CarbineersBushveldt Carbineers
The Bushveldt Carbineers were a short-lived, multinational mounted infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in South Africa during the Second Boer War. The BVC is recognized as the world's first modern Special forces for the use of counter insurgency tactics.The 320-strong regiment was...
was charged along with Breaker Morant
Breaker Morant
Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, poet, soldier and convicted war criminal whose skill with horses earned him the nickname "The Breaker"...
and Peter Handcock
Peter Handcock
Peter Joseph Handcock was a Veterinary Lieutenant in the Bushveldt Carbineers in the Boer War in South Africa. Handcock and Harry "Breaker" Morant were court martialed and executed by firing squad on 27 February 1902 on murder charges for shooting Boer prisoners and a German missionary, Jacob...
of murdering captured Boers during the Anglo-Boer War. Witton was found gulity of murder and sentenced to be shot, but this was commuted to life of penal servitude. Morant and Handcock both found guilty and sentenced to be shot were executed in Pretoria on 27 February 1902. Witton (who had never been to England) was sent to England and held in prison until released due to public pressure from Australia. It was to Lancefield that he came in broken health on his return to Australia and wrote his angry book, Scapegoats of the Empire
Scapegoats of the Empire
George Ramsdale Witton was a Lieutenant in the Bushveldt Carbineers in the Boer War in South Africa. He was sentenced to death for murder after the shooting of Boer prisoners...
(1907). In the introduction to his book that he stated he was living in Lancefield. When due for publication a fire destroyed all but several copies of the book. In 1982, Angus and Robertson re-published the book following the success of the movie Breaker Morant
Breaker Morant (film)
Breaker Morant is a 1980 Australian film about the court martial of Breaker Morant, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring British actor Edward Woodward as Harry "Breaker" Morant...
.
External links
- Lancefield community website
- Lancefield megafauna excavation website
- Lancefield tourist website
- SMH Travel webpage
- Burke & Wills Web A comprehensive website containing many of the historical documents relating to the Burke & Wills Expedition.
- The Burke & Wills Historical Society The Burke & Wills Historical Society.