Jeparit ( ) is a town on the

Wimmera River The Wimmera River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, is located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising in the Pyrenees, on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Wimm ...

in Western Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, north west of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. At the 2016 census Jeparit had a population of 342, down from 394 five years earlier.

History

The area around Jeparit is originally home to the Gromiluk

Aboriginal peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

prior to European settlement. The name Jeparit is believed to be derived from a Gromiluk word meaning "home of small birds". European settlement began in the 1880s when German

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

immigrants began to settle and grow

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

. The town was surveyed in 1883 and gazetted in 1889, the post office opening on 31 August 1889 though known as

Lake Hindmarsh Lake Hindmarsh, an ephemeral lake located in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia, is the state's largest natural freshwater lake. The nearest towns are Jeparit to the south and Rainbow to the north. After more than a decade of dr ...

until December 1889. Two earlier post offices called Lake Hindmarsh had existed in the area at various times since 1861 to serve a smaller population of graziers. Jeparit's most famous resident is former

Australian Prime Minister The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the federal executive government. Under the principles of responsibl ...

and founder of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

Sir Robert Menzies ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

, who was born in the town in 1894. He is commemorated with a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

and a memorial bust installed at the town square. The spire, topped with an ornament resembling a Scottish Thistle, is inscribed:

Sport

With neighbouring townships

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

, Hopetoun, and Beulah, Jeparit has a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

club, the Southern Mallee Thunder, competing in the Wimmera Football Netball League. Golfers play at the course of the Jeparit Golf Club on Nhill Road. Jeparit is the setting for Peter Carey's 1985 novel ''

Illywhacker ''Illywhacker'' is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was published in 1985 to commercial and critical success, winning a number of awards and being short-listed for the Booker Prize. Considered metafiction or magical realism, the n ...

''.

Climate

References

External links

Further information about Jeparit and surrounding areasWimmera-Mallee Pioneer MuseumLake Hindmarsh
Towns in Victoria (state) Wimmera {{GrampiansAU-geo-stub