Watchupga

Watchupga is a rural locality and small village in north-west Victoria, 30 km north-west of Birchip. It is on the Sunraysia Highway and the railway line to Mildura.

By 1893 the railway line had extended as far north-west as Birchip, and in that year the first farm selections occurred in the Watchupga area. The Mallee soils favoured an endemic shrub, the Dodonea or Hop Bush, which was named Watchupga by Aboriginal communities. The wood of some species of hop bush is dense and hard, and was used for making native clubs.