Stawell (pronounced /stɔːl/, "Stawl"), is an Australian town in the

Wimmera The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Aust ...

region of Victoria west-north-west of the state capital,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

. Located within the

Shire of Northern Grampians The Shire of Northern Grampians is a local government area in the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia, located in the western part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 11,431, having fallen from 12,087 in 20 ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

, it is a seat of local government for the shire and its main administrative centre. At the , Stawell had a population of . It was founded in 1853 as Pleasant Creek (nice) during the

Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capit ...

. It is one of few towns in Victoria retaining an active gold mining industry. Stawell is famed for the

Stawell Gift The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short-distance running race. It is the main event in an annual carnival held on Easter weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, with the main race finals on the holiday Monday, at Central Park, ...

, a professional foot race that began in 1878. It is also known as the gateway to the

Grampians National Park The Grampians National Park commonly referred to as The Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Jardwadjali name for the mountain range itself is Gariwerd. The national park is situated be ...

. One of the most significant Aboriginal cultural sites in south-eastern Australia is Bunjil's Shelter, within the Black Range Scenic Reserve, south of Stawell. It is named after Sir William Foster Stawell (1815–89), the Chief Justice of Victoria.

Indigenous people

Aboriginal peoples of Victoria lived in the Stawell area for many thousands of years before the

colonisation of Australia Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

. The formally recognised traditional owners for the area north-east of the Horsham and Ararat roads, are the Wotjobaluk,

Jardwadjali The Jardwadjali (Yartwatjali), also known as the Jaadwa, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria, whose traditional lands occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd ( Grampians) and west to Lake B ...

(also known as Jaadwa), Wergaia and Jupagalk nations. These nations are represented by the Barengi Gadjin Land Council Aboriginal Corporation. In the area of Stawell that is south-west of Horsham and Ararat roads traditional owners have not yet been formally recognised; however, the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation (EMAC) is negotiating a recognition and settlement agreement with the

Victorian Government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and t ...

. The boundary of the agreement is under negotiation. The

Eastern Maar The Eastern Maar people are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples whose traditional lands are in the south-western part of state of Victoria, Australia. It is a name adopted by a number of Aboriginal Victorian groups who identify as Maar, incl ...

people are represented by the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation. The language spoken in the area is Djab Wurrung, and the local placename for Stawell in the indigenous language is Yirip

Colonial history

William McLachlan discovered

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. ...

gold at Pleasant Creek in May 1853, but the yield was not in sufficient volumes to attract much interest, as the

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. Within months of Vi ...

and

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban populat ...

fields were known to be giving better results, and had already established the infrastructure to support the miners. There was however sufficient numbers for the area to support the beginnings of a settlement. The town site was first settled during 1853 and was named Pleasant Creek. The mining population of the Stawell field remained relatively small (averaging 200 or less) until 1857 when a series of new alluvial gold discoveries were made.Historic Gold Mining Sites in the South West Region Of Victoria. pg5
Department Of Natural Resources & Environment. 1999. (Retrieved 7 March 2014.) In August 1857 more extensive prospecting and mining occurred at what became known as Commercial Street, Pleasant Creek.
Stawell Historical Society. (Retrieved 7 March 2014) Two

Post Offices A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional servi ...

were opened, Pleasant Creek on 19 October 1857 and Quartz Reef, Pleasant Creek on 1 June 1859. In 1858 diggers opened the Great Western goldfield, which was worked by some 9,000 prospecters. The prospecting spread to nearby Deep Lead, about 6 kilometres to northwest, and it was reported that at the height of the rush there were over 25,000 people in the area. At the same time, shafts were being sunk around Big Hill, becoming known as the Quartz Reefs. Much alluvial gold was found in the area but the ' fossicking' petered out by 1859. In 1864, the township was renamed to honour Sir

William Stawell Sir William Foster Stawell KCMG (27 June 181512 March 1889) was a British colonial statesman and a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia. Stawell was the first Attorney-General of Victoria, serving from 1851 to 1856 as an ap ...

(1815–89), the

Chief Justice of Victoria The Chief Justice of Victoria is the senior judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria and the highest ranking judicial officer in the Australian state of Victoria. The Chief Justice is both the judicial head of the Supreme Court as well as the admin ...

resulting in the name of the Pleasant Creek post office becoming "Stawell". The town was created a

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

in 1869. In 1870 Stawell post office was renamed Stawell West, and Quartz Reef, Stawell post office was renamed to Stawell. Stawell

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

was constructed in 1872, under the guidance of Stawell Shire Engineer, John D'Alton. The former Free Library and Mechanics Institute building at 170 Main Street was constructed in 1874 to the design of Stawell

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, George Inskip. The building has served as the location of the Mechanics Institute, School of Design (later School of Mines) and the Borough Library. It is now the headquarters of Australian Regional Education. The town's water supply system was designed by John D'Alton in 1875, diverting water from Fyan's Creek by tunnels and pipelines, construction was completed in 1881. By the mid-1920s the gold mining had effectively ceased as the yields were found to be no longer commercially viable. A Pioneer's memorial was erected on Big Hill in 1938. The town hall underwent significant postwar remodelling, culminating in the addition of the landmark clock tower in 1939. The Quartz Gold Memorial and Dane Memorial seat were erected on Big Hill in 1953 out of local quartz stone. Stawell's historical association with gold-mining was revived when full-scale mining recommenced in 1981 with the opening of the Stawell Gold Mine. The mine was closed in 2016, following pressure from environmental protection agencies, following the mines plans to turn

open cut Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

. This was followed by fear that the town would become a ghost town of sorts, however, the mine reopened fully in early 2019.

Demographics

As of the 2021

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

, 6,220 people resided in Stawell. The

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic f ...

age of persons in Stawell was 47 years. Children aged 0–14 years made up 15.4% of the population. People over the age of 65 years made up 26.2% of the population. There were slightly more females than males with 50.6% of the population female and 49.4% male. The average household size is 2.2 people per household. The average number of children per family for families with children is 1.8. 79.9% of people in Stawell were born in Australia. Of all persons living in Stawell, 1.8% (115 persons) were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. This is higher than for the state of Victoria (1.0%) and lower than the national average (3.2%). The most common ancestries in Stawell were Australian 41.3%, English 39.9%, Scottish 10.8%, Irish 10.1% and German 4.7%.

Governance

Stawell Town Hall, Stawell, Vic, jjron, 12

Stawell is a seat of local government for the

Northern Grampians Shire The Shire of Northern Grampians is a local government area in the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia, located in the western part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 11,431, having fallen from 12,087 in 20 ...

(the other being St Arnaud). The council meets regularly at Council Chambers at the Shire's offices on the Western Highway. Stawell is also the main administrative centre for the council, with its customer service administration facility located at the Stawell Town Hall. The LGA was created in 1994 as an amalgamation of a number of other municipalities in the region and currently consists of 4 wards, each represented by one to three

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

s elected once every four years by

postal voting Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system. In an ...

. In state politics, Stawell is located in the Legislative Assembly electoral district of Lowan, currently held by

Emma Kealy Emma Jayne Kealy (born 29 May 1977) is an Australian politician. She has been a National Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since November 2014, representing the Legislative Assembly seat of Lowan. Kealy was born and raised in ...

( National Party). Stawell is located within the Victorian Legislative Council's

Western Victoria Region Western Victoria Region is one of the eight electoral regions of Victoria, Australia, which elects five members to the Victorian Legislative Council (also referred to as the upper house) by proportional representation. The region was created i ...

. In federal politics, Stawell is located in a single House of Representatives division—the Division of Mallee.

Economy

The economy of Stawell is sustained by the mining, agriculture, manufacturing, retail and tourism industries; the upcoming addition of the only neutrino observatory in the southern hemisphere, the

Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory The Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) is a laboratory 1 km deep in the Stawell Gold Mine, located in Stawell, Shire of Northern Grampians, Victoria, Australia. Together with the planned Agua Negra Deep Experiment Site (AND ...

in a transitioning gold mine, represents a significant shift. The town's service industry includes government services, health, retail and education. Stawell is the closest large town to the Grampians National Park, and as such plays a large role in regional tourism.

Woolworths Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to: Businesses * F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores * Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shop ...

and

IGA Iga may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Ambush at Iga Pass, a 1958 Japanese film * Iga no Kagemaru, Japanese manga series * Iga, a set of characters from the Japanese novel '' The Kouga Ninja Scrolls'' Biology * ''Iga'' (beetle), a g ...

operate supermarkets in the town. Stawell Hospital is a major regional hospital operated by Stawell Regional Health.

Attractions

Stawell is situated not far from the

, about by road from Halls Gap.

Bunjil's Shelter

One of the most significant Aboriginal cultural sites in south-eastern Australia is Bunjil's Shelter, which is the only known rock art depiction of

Bunjil Bunjil, also spelt Bundjil, is a creator deity, culture hero and ancestral being, often depicted as a wedge-tailed eagle in Australian Aboriginal mythology of some of the Aboriginal peoples of Victoria. Creation stories In the Kulin nation ...

, the creator-being in

Aboriginal Australian mythology Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the language groups across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal spirituality includes ...

. The shelter lies within the Black Range Scenic Reserve (not to be confused with the

Black Range State Park Black Range State Park is a state park northwest of Melbourne, Australia, near the town of Cavendish. It covers an area of . In addition to natural flora and fauna, the park protects Australian Aboriginal art and occupation sites of the Ja ...

), about south of Stawell. It is a small shelter at the base of a large

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

boulder.

Education

Secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

is serviced by Stawell Secondary College.

Primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/ kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in '' primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or ...

facilities include Stawell Primary School, Stawell West Primary School and St Patrick's Catholic Primary.

Early childhood education Early childhood education (ECE), also known as nursery education, is a branch of education theory that relates to the teaching of children (formally and informally) from birth up to the age of eight. Traditionally, this is up to the equival ...

facilities include Early Learning Centre, Taylor's Gully and Cooinda Kindergartens.

Special education Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

is provided by Skene Street School. Alternative High Schools include Ararat College and Marian College, both only a short drive away in the town of Ararat.

Transport

Road transport is the main form of transport in Stawell. The town is at the junction of several major roads, the most significant being the Western Highway which bypasses the centre of town along Longfield Street linking it to the cities of Ararat, Ballarat and Melbourne in the east and the cities of Horsham and Adelaide to the west. The bypass has resulted in a new commercial centre spread along its length to the south of the town centre. Other significant roads include the Grampians Road (C216) used by many tourists on their journey to and from Halls Gap in the south west; Pomonal Road (C221) connecting it with the town of Pomonal to the south; Donald-Stawell Road (C238); and Navarre Road (C221) connecting it to the town of

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

to the north. All major roads but the Western Highway converge in the town centre. Bus services operate from the Stawell railway station to nearby towns including Halls Gap.

Stawell railway station Stawell railway station is located on the Western standard gauge line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the town of Stawell, and it opened on 14 April 1876.

is the town's only operating rail station, having been reopened for '' The Overland'' passenger services between

and

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

in 2011.

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cross ...

offer up to 60 seats on each ''Overland'' service for V/Line passengers travelling in Victoria. As at December, 2019, it operates twice weekly; on Mondays, and Fridays for Melbourne and on Tuesdays and Saturdays for Adelaide.Overland
Journey Beyond Stawell Airport is located southwest on Grampians Road; it provides for

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

Sport

Along with the

, run each

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samue ...

long weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, Stawell also has many other sporting outlets and teams. The town has a main

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

club, the Stawell Warriors, competing in the Wimmera Football League, and another team, the Stawell Swifts, competing in the

Horsham & District Football League The Horsham & District Football League is an amateur Australian rules football league based in the Wimmera area of Western Victoria. History The league in its present form was created in 1946. Prior to World War 2 a number of local leagues exi ...

. The town also has a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

club, the Stawell Mounties, who play in the Limestone Coast Rugby League. Their foundation in 2022 follows on from the now-defunct Stawell Devils who last played in the

Central Highlands Rugby League Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

in the 2000s. The horse racing club, the Wimmera Racing Club, schedules around four race meetings a year at Stawell including the Stawell Cup meeting on Easter Sunday. The racecourse is on the south-western outskirts of the town, on Pomonal Road. Stawell

Harness Racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, or spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Austral ...

Club conducts regular meetings at its racetrack in the town. Golfers play at the course of the Grange Golf Club on the Western Highway, Stawell, or at the course of the Stawell Golf Club on Marnoo Road.

Notable people

Notable people from or who lived in Stawell include: * George "Mick" Prendergast, Premier of Victoria *

Chuck Fleetwood-Smith Leslie O'Brien "Chuck" Fleetwood-Smith (30 March 1908 – 16 March 1971) was a cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. Known universally as "Chuck", he was the "wayward genius" of Australian cricket during the 1930s. A slow bowler wh ...

, cricketer * Frederick Wymark, Australiana collector, book collector and bookseller *

Stella Young Stella Jane Young (24 February 1982 – 6 December 2014) was an Australian comedian, journalist and disability rights activist. Early life and education Young was born in 1982 at Stawell, Victoria. She was born with osteogenesis imperfect ...

cringe people that made Stawell bad

Jeff Kennett Jeffrey Gibb Kennett (born 2 March 1948) is a former Australian politician who was the 43rd Premier of Victoria between 1992 and 1999, and currently a media commentator. He was previously the president of the Hawthorn Football Club, servi ...

References

External links

* * {{authority control Towns in Victoria (Australia) Wimmera Mining towns in Victoria (Australia) Populated places established in 1853 1853 establishments in Australia