Rhymney Reef

Rhymney Reef, a rural locality and former goldmining area, is 10 km west of Ararat and 200 km north-west of Melbourne. It was presumably named after the town of Rhymney in Monomonthshire, England.

Gold was discovered in the Ararat area in 1854, at Ararat itself in 1857, and at Rhymney Reef in 1868. Rhymney Reef also featured as one of several pioneering wine-producing places extending northwards to Great Western. A school was opened in 1875.

Farming and agriculture succeeded mining and Rhymney Reef was better known for those activities from the early 1900s. The settlement can be identified by an oval and numerous old gold workings to the east.

The school closed in 1949.

Rhymney Reef’s census populations have been: