Swifts Creek, Victoria
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| Swifts Creek Victoria |
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| Population: | 281[1] |
| Postcode: | 3896 |
| Elevation: | 300 m (984 ft) |
| Location: |
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| LGA: | Shire of East Gippsland |
| State District: | Gippsland East |
| Federal Division: | Gippsland |
Swifts Creek is a rural community located between Omeo and Ensay on the Great Alpine Road in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, 379 kilometres (235 mi) east of the state capital Melbourne. Swifts Creek is at an altitude of 300 m above sea level. The area was originally settled by Europeans in the gold rushes of the mid 1800s.
At the 2006 census, Swifts Creek and the surrounding area had a population of 281.[1] Local estimates often suggest a population somewhat less than official figures for the area, but there are disputes over what surrounding areas are counted in the town's population.
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[edit] History
The Aboriginal name for the site of Swifts Creek was Bun Jirrah Gingee Munjie, which translates as 'big kangaroos go to that place'. True to this name, mobs of large Eastern Grey Kangaroos still frequent the town, especially at night when they are often seen feeding by the roadside, and on the local football ground and primary school oval.
The town of Swifts Creek is located at the confluence of Swifts Creek and the Tambo River. The creek was reputedly named after an otherwise unknown gold prospector named Swift who worked the creek panning for alluvial gold in the 1850s. The townsite itself was originally known as "Swifts Creek Junction", as it was at the road junction alongside Swifts Creek.
It is often argued that the name should be Swift's Creek, with a possessive apostrophe, as the creek was named after Swift. In correct English usage this would be accurate; however under the Victorian Government's Geographic Place Names Act 1998 apostrophes are omitted in all place names. This is to avoid confusion and debate on just this issue, and therefore no place names in Victoria are officially spelt with the possessive apostrophe.
In the 1870s McLarty's Junction Hotel was established, and a small town with stores, service facilities, and a butter factory slowly grew up around the site. The butter factory was constructed in 1907 and eventually produced 50 tonnes per annum, with the majority being sent for sale in Melbourne. Due to unreliable seasons, the factory eventually closed down in 1946. The building is no longer in existence, however Factory Lane just past the creek at the northern end of town marks its former location.
A flour mill was also planned, but was instead installed in the nearby town of Ensay in 1913. These factories were constructed as a result of local demand for flour, milk, butter and cream. The cost of transporting goods was high as wagons from the nearest large town of Bairnsdale took a week in good weather to travel the distance (now approximately an hour by car). Around this time, Ian Ezard built the Swifts Creek sawmill, which provided the stable economy the town needed to move on from its gold mining beginnings. In contrast, the surrounding towns of Cassilis and Tongio West collapsed, as the area lost its potential for gold mining.
[edit] Industry
The primary industries today are timber and farming of sheep and cattle. Run by Dormit Industries, the sawmill specialises in making wood pallets out of low grade local Mountain Ash timber. It uses an advanced system designed in France which aims at utilising the entire log, and thus making the process economical. Besides this, the major employers in town are now the local branch of the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and the government primary and secondary schools. There are also a number of small retail outlets and services, including a hotel, general store, gallery, bookshop, cafe, bakery and post office.
The district is also becoming a more popular tourist destination. The town offers limited tourist accommodation, including flats associated with the hotel, a caravan park, and cottage style accommodation approximately five kilometres from town heading towards Cassilis.
[edit] Education
The town is home to the Omeo region's only Secondary College - Swifts Creek Secondary College - as well as a Primary School and Kindergarten. The Secondary College is used by students from the surrounding towns of Ensay, Cassilis, Omeo, and Benambra, as well as Swifts Creek itself. Despite this the school is very small, with an enrollment of just 85 students in 2007 making it among the smallest in the state.
Residents who wish to undertake tertiary education must either do so via distance education, or move away from the town. Students who finish Year 12 at the school typically move to nearby Bairnsdale which has limited tertiary education facilities mainly in the TAFE sector, or to Melbourne to attend university. Swifts Creek itself offers very limited further education opportunities via a TAFE Outreach service.
[edit] Sport
[edit] Facilities
Swifts Creek follows the Australian tradition of a love of sport. The town's sporting facilities include a recreation reserve consisting of a football/cricket oval, netball courts, four tennis courts, a lawn bowls green, changing rooms, and club rooms.
The town also has a half-Olympic-length six-lane outdoor swimming pool located beside the Secondary College, and publicly accessible squash courts located within the grounds of the Secondary College. Around two kilometres north of town is the privately owned Tambo Valley Racecourse, where an annual Country Racing Victoria sanctioned horse racing carnival is held each March, including the Swifts Creek Cup. The town's public golf course, the Tambo Valley Golf Club, is located about thirteen kilometres north of town.
[edit] Clubs
Despite its small population, Swifts Creek boasts a number of successful sporting clubs. The Swifts Creek Demons Australian Rules Football team has been in existence for over 100 years. They currently compete in the Omeo District Football League (ODFL), and have won several recent premierships. The team wears a blue jumper with a red vee, the traditional strip of the Melbourne Football Club AFL team. The affiliated Swifts Creek Netball Club also has a long and successful history, and wears a blue top with red skirt. Both football and netball clubs also have junior teams.
The Swifts Creek Tennis Club has competed in the Omeo District Tennis Association (ODTA) since the association's inception in 1955, and has won 28 premierships in that time, by far the most successful club in the competition. The lawn bowling club competes in local competition, the cricket club takes part in regional competitions in irregular seasons, and the golf club is involved in regular tournaments.
Local schools also strongly support the development of youth sport, and regularly compete above their weight in interschool competition in swimming, athletics, and a wide variety of team sports.
[edit] Legendary diving blocks
Local legend holds that the diving blocks currently in use at the Swifts Creek Pool were those used in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Considerable weight is added to this story by careful comparison between these blocks and historical photos from the Olympics, such as this distant photo of a race showing the blocks front on, and especially this close-up photo of block four at a similar angle to that shown here (both historical photos are from the National Library of Australia collection).
It can be seen from the photos that the blocks in Swifts Creek are identical in size and structure to those used at the Melbourne Olympics, and would only have had to be repainted to account for the different colouration and style of the block numbers. Furthermore, the legend states that one of the missing blocks was given to Australian swimming icon Dawn Fraser as a souvenir of her success at the Games (there were eight blocks for the Olympics, but only six survive in Swifts Creek now). If this legend is correct, then Swifts Creek has an important piece of Australian sporting history in everyday use, but largely unknown to most of the population.
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[edit] References
- ^ a b Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). Swifts Creek (State Suburb). 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved on 2007-08-07.
- Gardner, P.D. (1997) Names of the Great Alpine Road Between Bairnsdale and Omeo. Ensay: Ngarak Press.
- Friends of Swifts Creek - Cassilis Road Signage Project, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Swifts Creek Secondary College
- Swifts Creek Primary School
- Swifts Creek - omeoregion.com.au
- Alpine Discovery Festival
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