Woomelang

Woomelang is a rural township on the Sunraysia Highway and the railway to Mildura in north-west Victoria. It is 70 km north-east of Warracknabeal and 30 km east of Hopetoun.

Woomelang is situated at the place first known as Cronomby Tanks, which were farm water storages on the Lake Wilhemina pastoral station. By 1893 the railway line had reached Birchip about 30 km south of Woomelang, encouraging the opening up of farm selections within reasonable travelling distance. Methodist church services were held at Cronomby Tanks in 1896. The railway extension came in 1899, and the name Cronomby Tanks was changed to Woomelang to avoid confusion with another similar sounding railway station. It is thought that Woomelang is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning poor or miserable.

In defiance of the likely meaning of the place name, Woomelang grew quite rapidly toward the end of the first decade. In 1911 a local guide book was published, recording a recreation reserve, a progress league, an annual horse show and a saleyard; Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic and Anglican buildings (1909-10), a public hall, tennis, cricket and football clubs and three friendly societies; the Woomelang Sun newspaper (1910-55); and numerous businesses including two hotels, a hardware shop, a bakery and an implement factory.

Woomelang’s farms are supplied with water for livestock by channels from the Grampians storages and from the Waranga Western Channel. Channels were substantially completed by the early 1920s, by when the town had a comprehensive range of amenities. A private generating plant supplied electricity until the State grid was connected in 1958 and a bush nursing centre was opened in 1934. Silos were built at the railway station in about 1939. A memorial hall was built in 1960, replacing the original building.

Woomelang has a large reserve with an oval and a swimming pool, a town reservoir, Anglican and Uniting churches, a caravan park, golf and bowling clubs, several stores, a hotel, a bush nursing centre, and a group school (54 pupils, 1998, 20 pupils, 2014).

The Woomelang and District Development Association has been active in the redevelopment of the Cronomby Tanks recreation precinct and the redevelopment of a site in Brook Street as a traveller's rest, monument and craft shop.

Woomelang’s census populations have been: