Creswick, Victoria

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Creswick
Victoria

Former Town Hall

Population:

3,064 (2006) ^[1]

Postcode:

3363

Elevation:

430 m (1,411 ft)

Location:

129 km (80 mi) NW of Melbourne
18 km (11 mi) N of Ballarat

LGA:

Shire of Hepburn

Federal Division:

Ballarat

Mean Max Temp	Mean Min Temp	Rainfall
17.8 °C ^{64 °F}	6.6 °C ^{44 °F}	742.7 mm ^{29.2 in}

Creswick is a town in west-central Victoria, Australia. It is located 18 kilometres north of Ballarat and 129 km northwest of Melbourne, in Shire of Hepburn. It is 430 metres above sea level. At the 2006 census, Creswick had a population of 3,064.

Creswick is a former gold-mining town, established during the Victorian gold rushes in the 1850s. The population reached a peak of 25,000 during the gold rush. Today, local industries include forestry, grazing and agriculture.

The area was inhabited by the Wemba-Wemba people before white settlement. The pioneer white settlers were Henry, Charles and John Creswick, three brothers who started a large sheep station in 1842.

Creswick is the birthplace of the Lindsays, perhaps Australia's best known art family. Famous Lindsays (in birth order) were Percy Lindsay (landscape painter), Sir Lionel Lindsay (printmaker, painter and critic), Norman Lindsay (painter, sculptor and writer), Ruby Lindsay (illustrator) and Sir Daryl Lindsay (painter and arts administrator). Percy Lindsay painted many landscapes of the town and Norman Lindsay immortalised the town in his novel Redheap, a work that was banned for many years. Other famous Creswickians include John Curtin, Australia's Prime Minister during World War II, and a Victorian Premier, Sir Alexander Peacock.

Creswick was the site of the New Australasian Gold Mine disaster on 12 December 1882, Australia's worst mining disaster in which 22 men drowned.^[2]

The original School of Forestry was established in 1910 by the Department of Forestry. It was the first institution set up in Victoria to train and accredit young foresters. Now the campus is part of The University of Melbourne. The campus is situated in Water Street and houses the School of Forest & Ecosystem Science, a highly-regarded research and teaching institution.

Creswick has three primary schools, two government and one Catholic - Creswick Primary School, Creswick North Primary School and St Augustines respectively.