Quambatook is a town in northern 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...

. The town is located on the Avoca River

Avoca River

The Avoca River drains a substantial part of Victoria, the southernmost state of mainland Australia. The river rises at the foot of Mount Lonarch in the Central Highlands near the small town of Amphitheatre, and flows north for 270 km through Avoca, Charlton and Quambatook...

 in the Shire of Gannawarra Local Government Area, 302 kilometres (187.7 mi) from 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...

. 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,...

, Quambatook had a population of 253.

Quambatook was settled following the end of the Victorian gold rush

Victorian gold rush

The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...

 of the 1850s. Resumption of large squatter

Squatting (pastoral)

In Australian history, a squatter was one who occupied a large tract of Crown land in order to graze livestock.  Initially often having no legal rights to the land, they gained its usage by being the first Europeans in the area....

's land holdings for closer settlement in the 1870s lead to Quambatook becoming one of Victoria's leading wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

 and sheep producing areas. Quambatook Post Office opened on 1 September 1879.

Quambatook has been recognised as the tractor pulling

Tractor pulling

Truck and Tractor pulling, also known as power pulling, is a motorsport competition, popular in America, Europe , Australia and Brazil, which requires modified tractors to pull a heavy sledge along a 35ft. wide and length of 100 metre or 300ft+ track, with the winner being the tractor that pulls...

 capital of Australia with an annual competition, the Australian Tractor Pulling Championships, held at Easter since 1976. In fact, the town's motto is 'Land of wheat and wool, home of the tractor pull'.
The town is the birthplace of country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 performer John Williamson

John Williamson (singer)

John Robert Williamson AM is an Australian country music singer-songwriter. Williamson has released over thirty-two albums, ten videos, five DVDs, and two lyric books...

, who has written a musical named for the town.

Golfers play at the course of the Quambatook Golf Club on Boort Road.