Powelltown is a town in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia, 70 km east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the

Shire of Yarra Ranges The Shire of Yarra Ranges, also known as Yarra Ranges Council, is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the outer eastern and northeastern suburbs of Melbourne extending into the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges. It has an ...

local government area. Powelltown recorded a population of 214 at the 2021 census.

History

The first settlement was established in 1901 when H Blake founded the first timber mill known as Blake's Mill; later a larger mill was constructed and completed in 1913 by the Victorian Powell Wood Processing Company to harvest hardwood

mountain ash Mountain ash may refer to: * ''Eucalyptus regnans'', the tallest of all flowering plants, native to Australia * Mountain-ashes or rowans, varieties of trees and shrubs in the genus ''Sorbus'' See also * Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf Mounta ...

in the Little Yarra Valley to fill its new government contracts. The logs were transported from the forests to the sawmills by tramway and from there to the railheads at Yarra Junction and Warburton. Renowned axemen like Shane Corr opened up the veins of timber with no more than an axe and a team of bullocks to fulfil his government contracts. The Post Office opened around 1904, as Blake's, and the settlement was renamed Powelltown in 1912. The Powelltown Tramway provided a passenger and goods service to Yarra Junction between 1913 and 1945. Today, many of the trails constructed to transport timber have been opened up as walking trails and driving routes for tourists, including the Powelltown Tramway Rail Trail.

Sport

The town has an Australian Rules football team competing in the

Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League The AFL Yarra Ranges was an Australian rules football and netball organisation based in the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges within Victoria. The organisation operated the Yarra Ranges Senior Football league and the Yarra Ranges Junior Footba ...

. Despite its small population, Powelltown has produced a number of

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

former players including,

Melbourne Demons The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria, and plays its home ...

forward

Sean Charles Sean Charles (born 18 May 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne, Carlton and St Kilda in the Australian Football League (AFL). Seen as a great talent from early on, he was promoted from the reserves after s ...

and

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...

and Fremantle forward

Daniel Hargraves Daniel Hargraves (born 6 December 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle in the Australian Football League. He was originally drafted by the Bulldogs from the Eastern Under 18 side in ...

. A relative of Charles, former

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football L ...

defender

David Wirrpanda David Selwyn Burralung Merringwuy Galarrwuy Wyal Wirrpanda ( ; born 3 August 1979) is a former Australian rules footballer, best known for his career with the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). Born in Melbourne, Wirrpand ...

also played junior football with the Powelltown Demons. The town also has a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

club that plays in the

Ringwood and District Cricket Association {{Use dmy dates, date=November 2019 The Ringwood and District Cricket Association (or, better known as the RDCA) is a club cricket competition based in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. The competition consists of 31 clubs based arou ...

.It features 2 senior teams that compete in the D.J Strachan Shield and the Adrian Hammond Shield.

References

* (151 pages)

External links

Powelltown
(SMH Travel) Towns in Victoria (Australia) Yarra Valley Yarra Ranges {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub