Ondit

Ondit is a rural locality in western Victoria about midway between Colac and Beeac. The name arose from the Ondit pastoral run, which included Lakes Beeac and Ondit. The run was taken up in 1837, and the origin of the name (apart from a probable Aboriginal expression) is unclear.

The Ondit district has comparatively fertile soil, being just east of the volcanic Warrion hills. Its area was also extensive, reaching from Beeac to Irrewarra. The first Ondit school was opened in a Methodist church in 1862, and its site is occupied by the Beeac school. The second Ondit school was opened in 1872, and its numbers were boosted by the Irrewarra soldier settlement farms in the 1920s. It closed in 1951.

By 1865 Bailliere's Victorian gazetteer described Ondit under the Beeac entry. Apart from the schools, a railway station kept the name going from 1889 until 1953. Ondit is mostly pastoral area with a scatter of buildings, much reduced in extent. The Calvert family's 'Gnarwyn' homestead (1886) is historically important, and the Ondit memorial school ground in Ondit-Warrion records humbler things.

Ondit's census populations have been: