Baddaginnie

Baddaginnie, a rural locality with a small village, is on the Melbourne-Albury railway line and the old Hume Highway. It is 12 km south-west of Benalla, situated in mainly flat unforested country, one kilometre west of the Baddaginnie Creek.

The site for Baddaginnie was surveyed in 1857. Its name is believed to be derived from an expression learned in Ceylon by the surveyor, meaning ‘hungry’, as the survey team was without food when it arrived at Baddaginnie. The village was a stopping place for changes of horses on the Sydney road. Early industries included grazing, a quarry, vine growing and the cutting of timber for firewood and box wood. The timber cutting was itinerant, which delayed the formation of a sufficiently large settlement for a primary school until 1873.

Before the turn of the century Baddaginnie had three hotels and a butter factory. In 1903 the Australian handbook described Baddaginnie:

Baddaginnie has a school, a reserve and a hall. The school operates in combination with the Swanpool school.

In 2004 residents fought a state government proposal to place a toxic waste dump at Baddaginnie, the government placing it at Nowingi, 30 km north of Ouyen.

The district's census populations have been: