Balmoral - Culture and History

This area was known as 'Darrangurt' by the local Aborigines. They constructed large-scale artificial drainage systems to the north-east of Balmoral. Dated to c.1700 A.D., these channels, which covered an area of 3 km, drained marshy ground lying between two natural swamps. When it rained the swamps overflowed and eels and fish were flushed into the channels where a series of traps were established. They may also have been a way of preventing floods during heavy rainfall and of retaining water in dry periods. The main channel was originally 2.5 metres wide and over one metre deep. Sections of it are well preserved.

The first Europeans in the area were the party of Thomas Mitchell who passed nearby on their Australia Felix expedition of 1836. The first land was taken up hereabouts by whites around 1840 and several homesteads from the 1840s remain: 'Fulham' was erected of coursed rubble basalt in the 1840s for pastoralist George Armytage who was a major landholder in the Western District; 'Englefield' is on the road to Hamilton, and the original 'Congbool' homestead, on Mathers Creek, is a timber-slab homestead constructed between 1842 and 1859.

The township began to emerge around a river crossing on the Glenelg for those travelling between Melbourne and Adelaide. An inn was built, along with a fellmongery, store and woolshed. The early European settlers called it 'Black Swamp' but, reflecting the predominance of Scottish settlers, it was renamed 'Balmoral' after the initial town survey, in honour of the royal residence in Scotland.

A police camp was established here in the 1850s to catch out Chinese immigrants who landed at South Australia and walked to the Victorian goldfields to avoid paying a poll tax which was imposed if they disembarked at Victorian ports (in order to discourage their immigration).

By 1870 the red gums of the area were being exploited by timbergetters, altering the landscape from forest to open grassland. In the early 1950s, 600 construction workers arrived in the area to build Rocklands Dam.

The Pastoral and Agricultural Show is held each year in March.