Evansford

Evansford is a rural village in central-west Victoria about 25 km south-west of Maryborough and between Lexton and Clunes.

The origin of the name is uncertain. Authorities surmise that the name Evans was a local property owner or a local parliamentarian who represented the Maryborough area. The ‘ford’ part of the name may have arisen from a crossing place on Stony Creek which runs through Evansford.

Evansford was settled in the early 1860s when the gold generation began to take up farm selections. A hotel was opened in 1863 and a school was opened in 1867. By the time the village was surveyed in 1869 there were already several buildings, including a church meeting house. The district was mainly agricultural and pastoral, although Brown’s gold reef was found in 1872 and worked until World War I. There were also gold workings at Burbank (3 km north-west) and at Caralup (6 km north). In the early 1880s the Evansford reservoir was constructed to supply town water to Talbot and Maryborough.

Evansford is situated away from main roads and railway lines, and was a village serving its local area. There was a mutual improvement society, of a cultural and literary persuasion, a free library and a community hall. In 1903 Evansford was described in the Australian handbook:

Evansford’s remoteness from main thoroughfares began to tell, with the closure of the hotel in 1915 and of the school in 1945. The subdivision of a pastoral property west of Evansford in 1956 for soldier settlement, however, reopened the school during 1956-73.

Evansford has a public hall, a ribbon of houses and buildings along Waubra Road and the Talbot reservoir to its east. Plans for a wind farm near Evansford were abandoned in 2011.

Its census populations have been: