Romsey - Culture and History

Prior to European settlement the area was occupied by the Wurundjeri people (a sub-group of the Woiwurung). The first white people on the present townsite arrived in the early 1850s. The soil proved fertile and agriculture soon emerged. The settlement was named after a town in Hampshire, England.

The arrival of the railway to Lancefield in 1881 meant improved access to the Melbourne markets. In later years sheep and cattle grazing tended to supplant cropping and, more recently, many vineyards have appeared.