| Healesville Victoria |
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The Grand Hotel at Healesville |
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Healesville
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| Population: | 6567(2006)[1] | ||||||||||||
| Established: | 1864 | ||||||||||||
| Postcode: | 3777 | ||||||||||||
| Elevation: | 199 m (653 ft) | ||||||||||||
| Location: | |||||||||||||
| LGA: | Shire of Yarra Ranges | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Seymour | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | McEwen | ||||||||||||
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Healesville is a town in Victoria, Australia, 52 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Yarra Ranges. At the 2006 Census, Healesville had a population of 6567.[1]
Healesville is situated on the Watts River, a tributary of the Yarra River.
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The creation of a railway to the more distant Gippsland and Yarra Valley goldfields in the 1860s resulted in a settlement forming on the Watts River and its survey as a town in 1864. It was named after Richard Heales, the Premier of Victoria from 1860–1861. The post office opened on 1 May 1865.[2] The town became a setting off point for the Woods Point Goldfield with the construction of the Yarra Track in the 1870s.
Healesville is well known for the Healesville Sanctuary, a nature park with hundreds of native Australian animals displayed in a semi-open natural setting and an active platypus breeding program.
The Yarra Valley Tourist Railway operates from Healesville Station on every Sunday, most public holidays and Wednesday to Sunday during school holidays.[3]
Schools in Healesville include the 125 year-old Healesville Primary School, St Brigid's Catholic primary school, the Healesville High School and Worawa College, an Aboriginal school whose former students include noted Australian Rules Footballer David Wirrpanda. Much of what is now Healesville lies on the ancestral land of the Wurundjeri people. The Coranderrk mission station, set up in 1863, is located just south of the main township.
Industries in and around Healesville include sawmilling, horticulture, tourism and, more recently, viticulture.
Swinburne TAFE has a campus in Healesville.
The Salvation Army has been part of the community since the late 19th century, with a continued and renewed presence in town.[4]
The town has an Australian Rules football team, The Bloods, competing in the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League.[5]
Healesville also has a Tennis club, Healesville Tennis Club, that competes in the Eastern Region Tennis junior and senior competitions.
Healesville has a picnic horse racing club, Healesville Amateur Racing, which holds around seven race meetings a year with the Healesville Cup meeting in January.[6]
The Healesville Greyhound Racing Club also holds regular meetings.[7]
Golfers play at the course of the RACV Country Club on Yarra Glen Road.[8]
From the late 1890s elaborate country retreat residences were built alongside hotels and guest houses.
A Tourist and Progress Association was created before 1914.
In the 1920s the association published "Healesville, The World-famed Tourist Resort", listing over 40 beauty spots and 20 hotels and guest houses. The construction of the Maroondah Dam in 1927, replacing the weir, brought several hundred workmen to Healesville. Their departure and the onset of the 1930s depression exposed Healesville's restricted range of industries. Timber and tourism were not stable enough for sustained growth. Notwithstanding the depression, the 1930s saw increased motor tourism (partly bypassing Healesville) and decreased railway patronage. Only 10% came by rail at Easter 1934. Tourism was still active but a local newspaper commented that Healesville would be "heaps better off calling itself the good-time town instead of the world-famed-tourist-resort—that's got whiskers on it".