Aberfeldy, Victoria
| Aberfeldy Victoria | |
|---|---|
 Approach to the town from the north | |
  Aberfeldy | |
| Coordinates | 37°41′S 146°22′E / 37.683°S 146.367°ECoordinates: 37°41′S 146°22′E / 37.683°S 146.367°E |
| Established | 1871 |
| Postcode(s) | 3825 |
| Location | |
| LGA(s) | Shire of Baw Baw |
| State electorate(s) | Narracan |
| Federal Division(s) | McMillan |
Aberfeldy is a small town in Victoria, Australia on Mount Lookout, northeast of the Thomson Dam, 125 kilometres (78 mi) east of Melbourne.
The area was settled in 1871 following the discovery of gold.
The first Post Office opened on 1 January 1872[1] but closed in 1967.
The town was surveyed and proclaimed in 1885. It was initially known as Mount Lookout but was eventually renamed after the Scottish town of Aberfeldy.[2] At its peak, the township had a population of around 500. After the gold rush the town was used for sheep and cattle grazing and for the production of potatoes and other crops.[3]
Following the First World War, the population diminished although the town managed to survive. The town hotel was burned down in 1938 and the Black Friday bush-fires of 1939 destroyed many of the buildings in the town.
On 10 March 1942 a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk of the United States Army Air Force flown by Captain Joseph P McLaughlin crashed near Aberfeldy on a flight from Canberra to Laverton. It was discovered in 1948.[4][5][6] In 2006 his remains were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[7]
A road was built to Matlock by 1950 but it was not maintained properly and fell to ruin.
The town was home to Kitty Cane, a former dancer and mining investor who owned a successful shanty on Walhalla-Wood's Point Road. When Cane died, her loyal customers and the local miners decided to carry her coffin to the Aberfeldy cemetery. Since Cane was an unusually large woman and because the miners were intoxicated, the coffin never made it to the cemetery and instead the miners buried her alongside the road.[8] When travelling from The Thomson Dam to Aberfeldy, Kitty Cane's grave is about 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) after the Cast Iron Point lookout and on the left hand side of the road.
Today there is only one permanent resident, historian Grahame Code (who has lived in the area for 50 years), and his family, although there is several holiday homes which are occupied on some weekends, land was released for public sale in 1999.[3] Remains of former buildings are still visible.
References
- ↑ Premier Postal History, Post Office List, retrieved 2008-04-11
- ↑ Kennedy, B: Australian Place Names, page 1. ABC Books, 2006
- 1 2 Steenhuis, L: Ghost Towns of the Mountain Goldfields, page 6. Research Publications, 1999
- ↑ Crash of a P40E Kittyhawk into a mountain at Aberfeldy in Victoria on 10 March 1942 Oz at War Retrieved November 30, 2016
- ↑ P-40E Warhawk Serial Number 41-5526 Pacific Wrecks Retrieved November 30, 2016
- ↑ A Missoula pilot's long goodbye: More than 60 years after Australia crash, Missoula man's remains identified November 3, 2005 Missoulan Retrieved November 30, 2016
- ↑ The lost US airman of Aberfeldy March 23, 2016 abc.net.au Retrieved November 30, 2016
- ↑ Kitty Cane's Grave, retrieved 2015-04-11
External links
Media related to Aberfeldy, Victoria at Wikimedia Commons