Serviceton, Victoria

Serviceton is a small town in Victoria, Australia, located near the Victorian-South Australian border, 437 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. The town was named after James Service, Premier of Victoria in 1880 and from 1883-86. At the 2006 census, Serviceton and the surrounding area had a population of 377.^[1]

When the Victorian and South Australian railways were joined at the old border in 1887, a station was built on the border. The border was intended to be on the 141st meridian east but, owing to a surveying error, border markers were placed 3.6 km west of the meridian. Victoria finally succeeded in having the erroneously surveyed border declared to be the legal border in 1913, and therefore Serviceton is now fully in Victoria. The station is not used but The Overland passes through the town.^[2] Nevertheless, the old South Australian Railways, and its successors, the Australian National Railways Commission, the National Rail Corporation and the Australian Rail Track Corporation have continued to own the railway to Serviceton outright. Serviceton Post Office opened on 16 September 1886, from 1908 to 1911 it was known as Serviceton Railway Station. A Serviceton North office on the Western Highway operated from 1911 until 1954 and a Serviceton South office was open briefly in 1926 and 1927. ^[3]

The town is the subject of a Tom Waits song entitled Town With No Cheer from his album Swordfishtrombones.^[4]

Golfers play at the course of the Serviceton Golf Club on the Adelaide-Melbourne Highway.^[5]

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