Derrinallum is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Hamilton Highway, in the Corangamite Shire.
Derrinallum is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Hamilton Highway, in the Corangamite Shire. The town is the centre for the surrounding farming community and lies at the foot of Mount Elephant. Mount Elephant is a 380 m-high conical breached scoria cone formed by an extinct volcano.
At the 2001 census, Derrinallum had a population of 266.
At the 2016 census, Derrinallum had a population of 557.
History
Derrinallum was known as The Swamp by early colonial settlers. The local indigenous tribe called the locality Djerrinallum meaning sea swallow or tern, a species that used to flock to the area in abundance.
An application to build a general store set the ball rolling with the townsite being surveyed in 1866. In 1867 the village of Tooliorook was proclaimed and the first land sales were held in the nearby town of Camperdown. The Post Office opened on 7 December 1868 but was named Tooliorook until 1873.
Unhappy with the name of the budding township the residents applied for a name change. The options were Derrinallum, Tarrinallum, Dunwall or Dunstone.. The post office changed its name to Derrinallum in 1873 to match the new name of the town. Growth of the town was slow, by the time of Federation there were only seven dwellings in the town. The town's war memorial doesn't have any names from WW1. The arrival of the railway in 1913 preceded the soldier settlements of the 1920s. The arrival of the return soldiers lead to the formation of the RSL and the placement of the war memorial. Prior to WW2 the population of the town jumped from 69 to 155 residents.
On 14 January 1944, a bushfire that started in Vite Vite aided by strong northerly winds destroyed the town. Only 12 buildings remained standing after the fire. The devastation and subsequent rebuilding the town is notable for all the post war style architecture.
More land was available for soldiers returning from WW2, these soldiers with their families help swell the numbers in the district and aided the growth in the town and the services it could provide..
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