Murrindindi

Murrindindi is a locality 15 km south of Yea. The name comes from that of a pastoral run taken up by a stock overlander from New South Wales, Peter Snodgrass, who came to Port Phillip in 1838 and chose the Murrindindi site later that year. It was about 15 km south of the future site of Yea. The name is thought to derive from an Aboriginal word for mists or mountain.

In 1865 Bailliere's Victorian gazetteer recorded the existence of Murrindindi Creek:

The Murrindindi run was subdivided in the 1850s, but the name continued. A prominent local historian purchased Murrindindi station in 1912 and by World War II the homestead was the site of an annual gymkhana.

Small Murrindindi localities developed. The Murrindindi school was opened in 1878, and was replaced by the Murrindindi West school (1899-1914). There is a Murrindindi forest, which was one of the main sources of timber in Victoria during the 1920s-40s. Its timber products were transported out of the region from Yea, Healesville and Toolangi.

The census population for Murrindindi and environs has been:

census date population
2011 271

Further Reading

N. Houghton, Timber mountain: a sawmilling of the Murrindindi Forest 1885-1950, Light Railway Research Society of Australia, 1986

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