Runnymede

Runnymede is a rural locality in northern Victoria 5 km south of Elmore, near where Mount Pleasant Creek joins the Campaspe River. It is identified only by a cemetery, a few ruins and the Runnymede State Forest about 10 km to the south-east.

Runnymede was the name of a parish, probably derived from the name of the English meadow where King John reputedly signed the Magna Carta in 1215.

Bailliere’s Victorian gazetteer, 1865, recorded that Runnymede had a post office and a hotel, and the district had grape and tobacco growing along with pastoral activity. A school opened in 1880 and another in 1881. The latter, at Runnymede East, had its name changed to Runnymede when the first one closed in 1912. It lasted until 1964. In 1903 the Australian handbook described Runnymede:

A church and the hotel continued until the 1930s. By the 1940s the hotel was omitted from description of Runnymede and by 1970 the cemetery was the only feature to be noted.

Runnymede’s census populations have been: