This
website serves two purposes:
- Firstly, it is a list of all the current towns and localities in the state of Victoria,
Australia, but also includes those that now no longer exist or those that had a previous
existence under a different name. Longitude, Latitude and the current shire is
included for each town/locality.
- Secondly, for those towns/localities in Central and Eastern Victoria, the entry includes
a link to the mailing list that covers that town/localities. Explanations:
The following information is given for each town entry
- In the left hand column is the town name. Some minor information may be included here
(e.g. as "since 1875 called ..." or "see ...." if it is close to a
much larger town). If two towns with the same name exist, there will be a reference
to a nearby town to identify each one. In some cases square brackets are used to indicate
variations of a name (e.g. Bendoc[k] indicates that it is spelt with and without the 'k',
and "Berlin [Flat]" means that it is sometimes called "Berlin" and
sometimes "Berlin Flat"). Or an oblique is used to indicate the town has
two names (e.g. "Escort Creek/Valley" means it was known as both "Escort
Creek" and "Escort Valley". Possessive apostrophes have not been used (e.g.
Allan's Flat is entered as Allans Flat) but other instances of apostrophes (e.g. O'Keefe)
are used.
- The second column show the shire name where the town is located. This may be helpful in
trying to locate rate books, etc. Some localities (not towns) extend over a number of
shires (Big Desert is a good example). The shire names used are those introduced in
the early 1990s, when amalgamation of shires occurred. They do not reflect the shire names
and boundaries in existence from the mid 1800s.
- The next two columns show the longitude (east of Greenwich, England) and latitude (south
of the equator) in degrees and thousandths of a degree (i.e. minutes and seconds are not
used). A tilde symbol "~" is used to indicate the values are approximate. Normal
values should be accurate to about a kilometre or so, and approximate figures are accurate
to about 5 kilometres.
- The fifth and final column shows a webpage link to the mailing list(s) that covers the
town. In some cases where the town is close to the border of two (or more) lists, it may
have a number of links. Depending on what you know of your family history, you may decide
to subscribe to one or other of the lists, or to both lists. These links are included for
the central and eastern parts of Victoria only. For other areas (where there is a blank in
this field) look for other lists at http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/AUS/
. Want to know more about mailing lists, then click here? When you have found your town of interest, and there is a link
in the right hand column, click on that link to go to a page that will allow you to easily
subscribe to that list
Note that the general mailing list for the whole of Victoria is AUS-VIC,
and for the whole of Australia is GENANZ.
This website does not include Parishes, Counties or Districts, but there
is a link to such information on Gazetteers and General Links.
Acknowledgements:
Rootsweb gratefully acknowledge the Victorian Department of Sustainability and
Environment (was Dept. of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) when this
project first started) who provided the initial database from which this list was derived.
Those names were (at the time of initial preparation of this website) the 'standard' names
used for postal/planning/emergency services, etc. To view the official DSE site click here.
'Non-standard', older or now non-existent names (and their locations) have been derived
from numerous other sources including:
VicRoads Country Directory,
GeoScience Australia website,
Place Names of Victoria by Les Blake,
Digging For Gold by Helen Doxford Harris,
and miscellaneous maps, various individuals and list owners.
Corrections/Additions:
If anybody has an additional location, spelling variation, or can more accurately
locate a town, please email me (Peter).
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