Dreeite

Dreeite is a rural locality in western Victoria in a fertile area east of Lake Corangamite and 18 km north-west of Colac. It was named after the Irrewarra or Dreeit pastoral run taken up by John Calvert in 1842. (Calvert acquired the run from an occupier who came there in 1838.)

After World War I the Calvert estate was subdivided for soldier settlement farms. There was good ground water, accessible by wind pumps. Immediately to the south there were butter factories at Alvie and Cororooke, and a railway line from Colac terminated at Alvie (1923-54). Schools were opened at Dreeite (1916), Dreeite North (1926) and Dreeite South (1927). All were closed in 1952 when a consolidated school was opened at Alvie. When the Dreeite school was enlarged in 1926 it became a district centre for social activities. A soldiers memorial church was opened in 1931, and at South Dreeite a hall and a Presbyterian church were opened in 1937. The CWA was an active and significant part of community life.

Closer-settlement aspirations have been overtaken by farm consolidations. Several dry-stone walls are witness to the labour expended, and the deserted tennis pavilion testifies to the exodus of local families.

Dreeite's census populations have been: