Eskdale

Eskdale is a small rural town in north-east Victoria, situated on the Omeo Highway and in the Mitta Mitta River valley, 55 km south-east of Wodonga. It is thought that the name was derived from an English place name, the Esk River or Eskdale, Cumberland.

Eskdale has been the site of minor gold mining, mineral surveys of good tin ores, and of a pocket of agriculture in a wider part of the Mitta Mitta Valley. The river flats provide good dairying and grazing land, backed by forested ranges.

After farm selections were taken up at Eskdale a school was opened in 1881. The town became the centre for dairying in the Mitta Mitta Valley and a butter factory was opened in about 1892. The dairying extended south-west along the Little Snowy Creek. A hotel was opened in 1897 and in about 1910 a racing club was established. In 1903 Eskdale was described in the Australian handbook:

Other amenities followed: a Catholic church and a recreation reserve (1920s) and later a combined Protestant church. A timber mill operated from 1947 until 1974 when it was burnt out.

Eskdale has retained its hotel, general store, the Catholic and Union churches and school (34 pupils, 2014). There are a caravan park, public hall and sports complex. The butter factory closed in 1968. A new town water supply system was turned on in 2009 after the Little Snowy River dried up and the town had relied on trucked-in water.

Eskdale’s census populations have been:

^{* includes environs}