Hawkesdale

Hawkesdale, a rural town in western Victoria, is 33 km north of Port Fairy and about midway between there and Penshurst.

The first white settlement in the Hawkesdale area comprised three pastoral runs (1843-44) which had boundaries converging near Hawkesdale. One of the runs, Kangatong, was acquired by James Dawson in 1847. Dawson occupied it for 20 years and gained a reputation for a sympathetic interest in Aboriginal Australians. His book on Aborigines of the Western District was published in 1881 and was republished in 1981.