Towns

• GermanTown

• Tungamah

• Katamatite

• Ariah Park

• Fifield

• Coolamon

• Pittsworth

Germantown, Victoria

Grovedale is an outer suburb of Geelong, six kilometres south-south-west of the city centre. It is named after a property of about 76 hectares which was acquired by Alexander Pennell in 1847, just south of Waurn Ponds Creek. 

Originally the place was named Germantown, which arose from several families of Lutheran German origin who arrived at Corio Bay in 1849. A Geelong pioneer, Dr Alexander Thomson, encouraged them to settle on Pennell’s land. A school was opened in 1854. 

By the mid-1860s, about 70 families of German origin were settled there, and there were two hotels, two flour mills, two tanneries and four wool-washing establishments. The hilly country and volcanic soil were good for orchards and vineyards. In 1903 The Australian Handbook described Germantown as follows:

Tungamah, Victoria

Tungamah is a rural town north-north-east of Melbourne, approximately 29 kilometres from Yarrawonga and the Murray River. It is situated on slightly undulating land which is surrounded by almost treeless plains. Tungamah is on the Boosey Creek, which has light woodland along it. Lightly wooded country extends south and east of the town. Tungamah was named after an Aboriginal word thought to mean wild brush turkey. The township was gazetted in 1875, when pastoral runs were being made available for closer settlement. In 1876 a school was opened, and within seven years, Tungamah was described as a flourishing village with a post office, three stores and two banks. Situated in the Yarrawonga shire, council meetings were removed from Yarrawonga to Tungamah. The following year (1884) Tungamah had five stores and five hotels.

 In 1886 the railway line connected Tungamah to Benalla and Yarrawonga, and Tungamah’s population reached its peak in a few years. The railway, however, enabled local farmers to transfer their spending to the bigger towns, and Tungamah’s population began a slow decline.

Tungamah was the administrative centre of the Yarrawonga shire until 1891, when the Yarrawonga portion was made a separate shire. For two years they were called Yarrawonga and North Yarrawonga shires respectively, until Tungamah shire was so named on 17 February 1893. The shire’s farming activity strengthened in its western area around Cobram as irrigation from the Murray River was extended. On 1 April 1953, Cobram shire was severed from Tungamah shire.

 The slow decline of the township since the turn of the century has resulted in many of the surviving buildings retaining their original outline or appearance. Examples include the three churches on the hill north of the town (Presbyterian 1885, Catholic 1886 and Anglican 1889), the former Colonial Bank (1880), the Masonic Hall (1890), Phillips and Costigans general stores (1883 and 1889), the hotel (1891), the mechanics’ institute and courthouse, the post office and the water tower (1909). A Tungamah Central Area conservation study was done in 1983, but nothing has been placed on a historic buildings register. 

A recent building is the new shire offices (1964). Tungamah also has a recreation reserve, a swimming pool and a bowling green. In 1994, 97,608 hectares or 85 per cent of the shire’s area was farmed. Livestock numbered 153,000 sheep and lambs, 31,000 dairy cattle and 8,600 meat cattle. Cereals were planted on 17,020 hectares, and 25,700 tonnes of wheat were harvested.  

On 18 November 1994, most of Tungamah shire was united with Cobram, Nathalia and Numurkah shires and most of Yarrawonga shire to form Moira shire.  

Katamatite, Victoria

Katamatite, a rural township in northern Victoria, is in the Murray Valley irrigation area and is 42 kilometres north-east of Shepparton. The name is thought to be derived from an Aboriginal word naming or describing a local creek. The township is on Boosey Creek near its junction with Broken Creek. 

In the 1870s pastoral stations were opened for closer settlement as smaller farms, and in 1874 a township was surveyed on Boosey Creek. Four years later township buildings were erected - although on the side of the creek opposite the surveyed town site - and a school was opened. Methodist and Presbyterian churches were opened in 1882 and 1884, and a mechanics’ institute in 1884. A private tramway joined Katamatite to the Dookie railway line in 1890 and was absorbed into the Victorian railways network in 1896. 

Katamatite farmers mostly grew wheat and animal fodder, and bagged wheat was transported from the Katamatite railway station until a silo was built in 1943. In 1939 irrigation waters from the Yarrawonga main canal were distributed in the Katamatite district, providing dairy pastures in place of wheat paddocks. The township is surrounded by irrigation channels. 

Katamatite has a primary school, Anglican, Catholic and Uniting churches, a public hall, a recreation reserve with football, cricket and tennis clubs, a hotel, motel and a caravan park, a local museum and several community organisations. There is also a school at Katamatite East, ten kilometres north-east of Katamatite.