Bacchus Marsh - Culture and History

Prior to European settlement the area is thought to have been occupied by the Kurung Aborigines. The first white settler was Kenneth Scobie Clarke who, in 1836, transported sheep and other livestock from George Town in Van Dieman's Land on behalf of the Great Lakes Pastoral Company. He took up land between the Werribee and Lerderderg Rivers.

However, the town is named after Captain William Henry Bacchus (also of Van Dieman's Land) who occupied the valley when Clarke headed west in 1838. The 'Marsh' part of the equation reflects the fact that the valley was once full of marshland associated with the river system, although these were drained and the riverbed altered by early European settlers.

In the late 1830s the valley was considered as a site for settlement by retired military officers. Two townsites were surveyed: Maddingley to the south of the Werribee River and Lerderderg to the north of the Lerderderg River. However, Bacchus Marsh began to emerge when gold was discovered at Ballarat in 1851. The Border Inn (built in 1850 and still standing) became a coach stopover for those travelling from Melbourne to the goldfields. It was the first coaching stop on the route and arguably the first coaching service stop in the state. Other businesses began to emerge on this busy line of road. The three settlements ultimately merged into one. Bacchus Marsh became a municipality in 1871.

Chicory, a coffee additive, was grown and roasted locally from the 1880s. A factory making concentrated and preserved milk opened in 1890 and, until 1915, stibnite, an ore of antimony, was excavated in a mine that was one of the country's major antimony producers. Brown coal has been mined here since World War II.

Novelist Frank Hardy was raised at Bacchus Marsh and Peter Carey was born here in 1943. The Bacchus Marsh Show is held in late October and Cup Day in the Park is preceded by a five-day festival in early November.