Waitchie
Waitchie is a rural locality in the eastern Mallee of north-west Victoria. It is on the railway line between Quambatook and Robinvale and is 42 km west of Swan Hill. Waitchie was the name of a pastoral leasehold dating from the 1870s.
Land at Waitchie was proposed for subdivision into farms of one square mile or thereabouts in 1891. Settlement did not occur for some years, however, and any significant development awaited the extension of the railway line from Ultima in 1909. A school was opened at Waitchie South in 1906 and at Waitchie in 1908. As the railway moved northwards, the Ultima storekeepers, Herbert Cuttle, opened a store at Waitchie (1909) before moving on to pioneer Robinvale. Waitchie’s hall was opened in 1906 and a Presbyterian church in 1925.
Waitchie has served a large wheat growing district but its village has comprised little more than a post office, wine hall, store, hall and a church. Waitchie’s present facilities comprise a hall, a Uniting church and a wheat silo. The district’s schools have closed, the last in the 1980s.
Waitchie had an active landcare group in the early 2000s with plans for managing rabbit numbers and controlling roadside weeds.
Waitchie’s census populations have been:
| area | census date | population |
|---|---|---|
| Waitchie | 1911 | 326 |
| 1933 | 285 | |
| 1961 | 77 | |
| Waitchie and environs | 2006 | 118 |
| 2011 | not recorded |
Further Reading
Lesley Scholes, A history of the Shire of Swan Hill: public land, private profit and settlement, Swan Hill, 1989
Graeme Chamberlain, Waitchie, c1980
