Orbost, Victoria

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Orbost (37°42′S 148°27′E) is a town of approximately 2000 inhabitants (2001 census) in the East Gippsland Shire, Victoria, Australia, located 375km east of Melbourne where the Princes Highway crosses the Snowy River. It is about 16km from the village of Marlo on the coast of Bass Strait. Orbost is the service centre for the primary industries of beef, dairy cattle, and sawmilling. More recently, tourism has become an important industry, being the major town close to several national parks, including the Snowy River National Park, Alpine National Park, Errinundra National Park, Croajingolong National Park and Cape Conran Coastal Park.

1 History
2 Current Profile
3 Notable people from Orbost
4 External links

[edit] History

Croajingalong or Krauatungalung was the name used by the Kurnai aboriginal people for the Orbost district, now the name of the nearby coastal Croajingolong National Park. The Snowy River valley was occupied by them for thousands of years. Evidence of human occupation at Cloggs Cave, near Buchan, has been dated at up to 17,000 years.

European settlement was met by determined resistance by the Krauatungalung branch of the Kurnai people. Peter Imlay established the Snowy River Station for grazing in 1842, and his brother the Newmerella run nearby. In 1845 the land was sold to Norman McLeod, who named the area after Orbost farm on the Isle of Skye, in Scotland.

Gold was discovered in the mid 1850s in the Bendoc area, in the mountains north of Orbost, which brought an influx of people to the district. By 1868 it was estimated that there was a population of 500 miners and squatters in the vicinity of Bendoc.

The Cameron family settled on the rich alluvial river flats in 1876, followed by many other selectors, many of them Scottish migrants. The township was proclaimed in 1890 and a bridge constructed across the Snowy River and a telegraph office established. Sawmills were established in the area and the first batch of sawn timber was cut at Orbost in 1882. By the late 1890s produce was regularly being exported to Melbourne via coastal trading vessels sailing up the Snowy River to Orbost. The railway from Melbourne arrived in 1916, allowing further agricultural settlement up the valley, and exploitation of native hardwood forests for timber and railway sleepers.

For most of the 20th century, Orbost was a fairly prosperous local centre for the forestry and agricultural industries and a supply point for smaller towns in the area. In the 1950s and 1960s several new sawmills were opened to exploit the native forests north and east of Orbost. By the 1980s logging of East Gippsland native forests had become an environmental issue. This resulted in the creation or extension of National Parks in the area, and a steady decline in forestry and sawmilling jobs. The general rural decline of the area and its economy saw the railway close in the mid-1980s and the population drop from around 4000 to around 2000 by the start of the 21st century. Logging and forestry continues to be a contentious issue in 2004 and 2005 in the Goolengook Valley, near the Errinundra National Park.

The Snowy Mountains Scheme resulted in the waters of the Snowy River being diverted to the Murray and Murrimbidgee Rivers and associated irrigation schemes. During the 1990s the low level of water in the Snowy River was a major concern, with a political campaign to increase the flow of water from the dam at Jindabyne. Independent candidate from the Orbost district, Craig Ingram, was elected in 1999, and re-elected in 2002, to the Victorian Legislative Assembly on a platform to increase the flow of water in the Snowy River.

The oldest building in Orbost, alongside the newest: The Bark Hut next to the Orbost Exhibition Centre

[edit] Current Profile

The national parks are showcased in events such as The Wilderness Bike Ride, a community event managed out of Orbost, which won the Best Event 2004 Regional Tourism Award for East Gippsland. The Orbost region has four State primary schools, one Catholic primary school, and Orbost Secondary College (Government). Orbost has a regional airport YORB (RBS).