Serpentine, Victoria: Travel guide and things to do

Serpentine is a rural centre graced with shady green pepper trees and eucalypts and some pleasant homes and gardens. It is situated in a district given over to wheat and stock and is located 201 km north-west of Melbourne and 51 km north-west of Bendigo on the Loddon Valley Highway. There is a general store, an hotel and a roadhouse.

The first European in the area was Major Mitchell who viewed the Loddon River plains in 1836 during his Australia Felix expedition. He wrote of "the open grassy plains, beautifully variegated with serpentine lines of wood". The reference is to the stands of red-gum which grow beside, and hence follow the snaking course of, the waterways. The epithet was transferred to Serpentine Creek and hence to the 'Serpentine' run (90 000 acres), taken up in 1843. The entire area was initially tied up in four large holdings, of which 'Serpentine' was the largest. They were used for the grazing of sheep and the only occupants were shepherds, station hands and overseers.

However, the Victorian Land Act of 1862 opened the area up to selectors who were able to take up 320-acre allotments. The large holdings were soon broken up and grazing replaced by wheat farming as selectors moved into the area from the western district of Victoria and the Riverina of New South Wales.

The need for centres of trade and business arose and Serpentine emerged on Serpentine Creek, an offshoot of the Loddon River. It was initially a bullock driver's camp and a changing place for a coaching company, although a post office had been located on the site since 1848. Burke and Wills and John King allegedly passed the townsite in 1860 on their expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria. King, then a celebrity, was one of the Cobb & Co passengers to pass through Serpentine the following year after the failure of the expedition.

The first allotment of the townsite was granted in 1863. At that time there was an inn, Cobb & Co stables, a log cabin and a bark hut. There was plenty of through traffic as the township was located on a major stock route connecting the Riverina of New South Wales, the Western District of Victoria, and the markets of southern Victoria.

The site became known by its present name at that time. When it was surveyed in 1866 officials bestowed the name of Janiember but local usage was already too strong and Serpentine remained the name of choice.

Land sales proceeded at Serpentine in 1867. At that time it was still a staging post with no more than 30 inhabitants - a storekeeper, publican, postal officer and the caretaker of the stockyards, along with shepherds and farm hands.

East Loddon had been proclaimed a road district in 1864 and a hall was constructed as a meeting place in 1867-68. The shire was proclaimed in 1871 and the hall became the council offices. It also served as a centre for social activities and a meeting place for Presbyterians, Anglicans and, briefly, for Catholics. It was demolished in 1969.

In this way Serpentine became the administrative centre of the East Loddon Shire, rendering its survival beyond doubt. The local area also benefited from a plentiful supply of water and supply channels were established in the early 1880s. They allegedly constitute the earliest water supply system in Victoria. Later they became the basis for an extensive irrigation system.

On 27 August 1920 an event known as an Aerial Derby started at Serpentine. This is recognised as Australia's first official air race. Hugh Victor McKay (1865-1926), born at nearby Raywood, was the inventor of the Sunshine Harvester which, in 1885, became the first harvester to enter commercial production. The father of famous cricketer Bill Ponsford (1900-1991) was a landowner in the district before moving on to Melbourne.