A Brief History of Gnotuk/Camperdown Region

Source: SMH.com



Prior to European settlement it is though that the Kuurn Kopan Noot Aborigines lived in the area. The first whites in the area were probably a search party looking for missing explorers Gellibrand and Hesse in 1837. The first settlers in the district were John, Thomas and Peter Manifold from Van Dieman's Land. They took up a 100, 000-acre run in 1839 called 'Purrumbete', based on the northern shore of Lake Purrumbete. Their first hut was replaced by Purrumbete homestead in 1842 and it is still standing. Funds were later provided by the family for a public hospital, a road to the top of Mount Leura, extensions to the high school library and the town's fine clock tower.

In 1841 George Robinson, Chief Protector of Aborigines, visited 'Purrumbete' and submitted a report on the relations between the Manifolds and the local Aborigines: 'The Manifolds stated that they did not allow the natives to come to their huts. At first they did so and the natives were very useful. But when they were getting their potatoes they detected the natives stealing them and sent them away. At another time they lost some sheep and went to the stony rises (see entry on Colac) to see if they could find anything out, when they were suddenly surrounded by natives who gave them battle'.

On the other hand James and Isabella Dawson, two tireless defenders of the Aborigines, later settled on nearby 'Wuurong' farm. James wrote Australian Aborigines: The Language and Customs of Several Tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australia (1881). An Aboriginal reserve was established on the townsite in the 1860s.



Thomas Alexander Browne (aka Rolf Boldrewood), arguably Australia's first novelist of any note, passed by Lake Purrumbete in 1843 while overlanding 1000 head of cattle to his own property further west.

Another literary figure with more direct connections to Camperdown was John Streeter Manifold (born in 1915), a descendant of the original squatters, who became a noted poet and a composer and editor of Australian folk songs. His far-left political views estranged him from his family and he was forced to cut his connection with his family's property although the impact of the landscape on his imagination is regarded as evident in his work.

A town known as Old Timboon began to develop at a site about 3 km north of Camperdown in the early 1850s. Duncan McNicol built the first store - a crude slab hut with a canvas door. However, the land was regarded as too marshy by the government surveyor who travelled to, and approved, the present townsite. After sleeping overnight at the foot of Mount Leura he records that he 'awoke to the musical chorus of the magpie and kookaburra singing from a tree-belt which sparkled in the sun as jewels set in a seemingly endless countryside. There are miles of fertile plains, hills and valleys surrounding the mount - all suitable for development.' The first house was built on the townsite in 1853 where the Commercial Hotel now stands. Postal services commenced the following year and the first hotel opened in 1857.

Governor Latrobe chose the new township's name in 1854. It is said that he initially suggested the name 'Duncan' after Timboon settler Duncan McNicol but his companion on a kangaroo shoot, Niel Black (see entry on Terang), thought it a poor choice and, so, Latrobe thought of 'Camperdown' as the Earl of Camperdown was an Admiral Duncan who won his title due to his efforts in a 1797 naval battle.

When James Bonwick visited the town in 1857 he recorded that Camperdown was 'romantically situated upon the slope of that grand old volcano, Leura... The soil is of the richest description, and the gardens around... testify to its goodness. I was quite surprised to find that a population of 400 people could do with only one public house; fortunately that one is out of the township, else a thirstier habit would have been long since produced'.

A courthouse, the Leura Hotel, a school, a police station, a survey office and a store were all being erected in 1859 and a Presbyterian Church was established in 1860. A Bible Christian Church was completed in 1862 and St Paul's Anglican Church in 1864. The first post office, constructed in 1863, is still standing.

A regular coach service from Geelong to Warrnambool commenced in the 1860s, stopping at Camperdown en route. The early 1870s saw Cobb & Co commence a regular service between Warrnambool and Camperdown

Garnet Walch visited the town in 1880, noting a population 'of about 2000'. Another late 19th-century visitor, who was charmed with Camperdown, was English novelist Anthony Trollope.

The railway arrived in 1883 and a cheese factory opened in 1891 at a time when the area was dominated by a few large landowning graziers who controlled the factory while the smaller landholders tended to supply the milk. A large cooperative dairy factory was established in 1914. Camperdown became a municipality in 1952 and a town in 1959.