Junortoun

Junortoun is a rural/residential locality on the McIvor Highway, about 8 km east of Bendigo.

The locality was originally named Homebush, after the Homebush Hotel (nearly opposite the site of the Farmers Arms Hotel at Junortoun) and after the Homebush Estate, a large holding owned by the Lazarus family. The wife of Samuel Lazarus was Mary Junor, and her surname probably inspired the place name.

Homebush primary school was opened in 1875, and it continued until 1958 apart from two short closures during the 1930s and 1940s.

In 1954 the Bendigo District Trotting Club opened its trotting track (Lord’s Raceway) at Junortoun, and about 20 years later rural/residential subdivisions began there. Although there was no local State school, a Catholic secondary college had been established in the 1950s. These facilities are located along the highway, in a slight valley. Southwards, the land rises to the Junortoun ridge.

Junortoun has a general store, a post office, a hotel, the Homebush hall, various trades and businesses along the McIvor Highway and a caravan park. In 2009 the Farmers Arm Hotel (1896) was destroyed by fire.

Its census populations have been: