Dhurringile
Dhurringile is a rural locality in northern Victoria, 10 km north of Murchison and about the same distance east of the Waranga Basin reservoir. Dhurringile was the name of a 65 room mansion built in 1875 by James Winter. It is thought that the name is an Aboriginal word meaning emu’s back, which the hill on which the mansion is built is said to resemble. The Winters were the second largest landholders in Victoria in the 1870s.
In 1906 the Dhurringile estate came under subdivision for closer settlement, and a school was opened in 1917. The area is in the west Goulburn Valley irrigation area. A cheese factory operated between 1919 and 1933, and a public hall was opened in 1925.
During World War II the mansion was used as a German internees camp and later for German prisoners of war. Since the war is has been a State prison and a rehabilitation centre, although the number of escapes have alarmed local residents.
Dhurringile has a school (15 pupils, 2014), a community centre and tennis court. Its census populations have been:
| census date | population |
|---|---|
| 1921 | 81 |
| 1947 | 211 |
| 1961 | 282 |
| 2011 | 414 |
Further Reading
W.H. Bossence, Tatura and the Shire of Rodney, Hawthorn Press, 1969
Joyce Hammond, Walls of wire: Tatura, Rushworth, Murchison, the author, 1990
