Heathcote

	Heathcote Victoria 3523
	Population: 2,750, Elevation: , Latitude: 36.55.00 Longitude: 144.42.00 Location: 110km north of Melbourne Highway: Northern Hwy Nearest Major Town: Bendigo Nearest Airport: Bendigo Touring Area: Goldfields
Small town on the Northern Hwy at the foot of the Strathbogie Ranges. Lake Eppalock is just west and provides fishing and swimming activities. Founded on gold in the 1850s and ruins can still be seen. The first European to visit the area was Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836 on his epic Victorian trek. By 1851 about 400 Europeans took up pastoral properties in the area and in 1852 gold was discovered at nearby McIvor Creek. Within six months some 40,000 miners were camped in the vicinity working one of the richest finds of the Australian gold rushes. The gold was so easily found that it was soon largely exhausted by the end of the year and a large number of the miners went to other recent finds. During this activity the Victorian government gazetted a township and ordered the construction of several official buildings. The post office opened on 1 July 1853 as McIvor Creek but six months later was renamed Heathcote. With the decline of gold mining the region reverted to pastoral activities. The most famous incident of the gold rush era was the Melbourne Private Escort Robbery in July 1853. This took place very close to where one of Australia's worst aviation disasters occurred in 1945.