About The Area

Kyabram

Kyabram is the Shire's second largest town and boasts an excellent range of retail, commercial, industrial and community services in the eastern part of the Shire. Above all, Kyabram is an important service centre for a wide rural hinterland, particularly health services through the hospital and hostel.

The town's retail centre plays a community role and is geared to service a wide catchment of people through shopping, eateries and a range of services. Kyabram also has excellent community, civic, recreation and sporting facilities.

Kyabram’s star attraction is the internationally acclaimed Kyabram Fauna Park. Set on 55 hectares of wetlands and plains, the park is home to over 500 varieties of birds and animals, and is recognised for its breeding of endangered Australian species program. A cafe, playground, barbecues and a tourist information centre make the park a relaxed place to visit.

Kyabram is also a sporting town, with two golf courses, Olympic sized swimming pool, bowls, croquet, a unique bocce complex and multi purpose sports stadium.

Tongala

Tongala is located between Echuca and Kyabram, and is the main service centre for its immediate rural community.

The town primarily caters for high frequency low order shopping and specialises in meeting the needs of local farmers. The town is also very well serviced in terms of community, civic, recreational and sporting facilities.

Agriculture, especially dairy, is the most significant industry in the town's economic structure. Food processing is also a major feature of the town's economy. Other significant industries include grain processing, abattoirs and dairy related businesses

Tongala is home to the Golden Cow Tourist and Dairy Education Centre, which boasts having the best milkshakes in Australia.

Township wall murals are located throughout the town's centre depicting the history of the district and the Avenue of Honour is located within the town.

Stanhope

Stanhope is a small agriculture based town. The bulk of the town's working population is either employed in food processing or in other agriculturally based activities (predominantly dairy farming). The town, supported locally by a cheese processing plant, is a small welcoming town, offering an attractive town centre with BBQ facilities and quality recreation facilities.

Stanhope’s most famous son, John (Black Jack) McEwen, is remembered through a memorial bust erected in his honour. McEwen took up soldier settlements in Stanhope prior to becoming a powerful figure in the Federal Parliament, leading the Country Party and briefly becoming Prime Minister after the drowning of Harold Holt off Portsea in 1967.

Girgarre

Girgarre is a small agricultural township south of Tongala. Its primary role is in the provision of basic retail and community services for its immediate rural community, with the dairy industry featuring most prominently.

The Girgarre district has established the Local Produce Farmers’ Market, held in the township on the second Sunday morning of each month. The market attracts over 1,000 visitors to Girgarre on market day to shop for a variety of seasonal produce, home made and locally grown products.

The Girgarre Township has a range of quality sporting and recreational facilities and a strong sporting community. These attract significant numbers to both junior and senior levels of sporting events each week of the year.

The Green Education Centre at the Girgarre Hall showcases a wide range of building products from recycled materials plus a green power generation (grid connected solar power) and water harvesting and reuse systems. A permanent Living History Display is located in the Girgarre Hall.

Rushworth

The well preserved "Gold & Ironbark" town of Rushworth is nestled amid the world's largest Box Ironbark forest, and boasts an authentic National Trust classified heritage streetscape, one of only two such classifications in Victoria.

This unique district is a showcase of Victoria's early gold rush and timber industry. Today, Rushworth is a popular historic township which services its residents and surrounding farming communities with a variety of shopping, sporting and civic services.

The nearby historic Whroo Township, now deserted, was once a thriving village that developed around the base of Victoria's largest open-cut gold mine at Balaclava Hill. Today it is a popular tourist stop, with visitor information provided at the centre of the former township.

Waranga Basin is located near Rushworth and is a mecca for water sports, fishing & recreation with caravan, camping, and boat ramp facilities available.

The “Gold and Ironbark” touring route links the historic townships of Toolleen, Rushworth and Whroo using interpretive panels to highlight the role the region played in Victoria's gold rush years.

Merrigum

Merrigum is a thriving, attractive rural town that values all members of the community and provides a range of quality programs, services and facilities to enable people to live, work and recreate locally.

Merrigum is an attractive small town and is situated in the heart of the Goulburn Valley 30km west of Shepparton. Its primary industries are fruit growing and dairy farming.