Diggers Rest 3427 |
Diggers rest, a small township set in rural surrounds, in on the Calder Freeway 30 km. north-west of Melbourne.
Unlike several small townships on the plains north-west of Melbourne, Diggers Rest is not positioned in a protected hollow or beside a watercourse. Rather, several streams flow away from the slight rise where the town is built, making it exposed and prone to dry conditions. Diggers Rest's origins lay in it being a convenient stopping place for gold miners en route to the Bendigo and adjacent goldfields, and Caroline Chisolm had a women's shelter at Diggers Rest.
A railway station was opened on the line from Melbourne to Sunbury (1859). The convenient hotel stopping places, however, were between two and three kilometres either side of the station. A primary school was opened in 1874. The third hotel, the "Diggers Rest", came later, situated at the junction of the Bendigo and Bulla roads. Diggers Rest became a postal village with a general store, post office, weighbridge, mechanics' institute and a chaff mill.
The exposed landscape provided a suitable venue for the escapologist, Harry Houdini, to achieve Australia's first officially recorded powered flight in 1910. There is a commemorative marker west of the town.
Diggers Rest became well known to car travellers in the postwar years, where the highway negotiated an awkward crossing of the railway line. The Calder Freeway later bypassed the town, probably providing relief for the residents in the growing numbers of houses. The town has three recreation reserves, a community hall, football club and Houdini Drive beside the largest reserve. Large Defence Department installations occupy space south of the town.
Diggers Rest's census populations have been 186 (1891), 215 (1947) and 267 (1961).
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