{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2012}} {{Infobox Australian place | type = town | name = Wandong | state = vic | image = WandongEntrySign.JPG | caption = Entry sign | coordinates = {{coord|37|21|S|145|01|E|display=inline,title}} | use_lga_map = yes | pushpin_label_position = right | lga = Shire of Mitchell | postcode = 3758 | pop = 1,340 | pop_year = {{CensusAU|2016}} | pop_footnotes = <ref name="ABS2016">{{cite web |title=2016 Census QuickStats Wandong |url=https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/SSC22663 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics |accessdate=3 August 2019}}</ref> | est = | elevation= 307 | stategov = [[Electoral district of Euroa|Euroa]] and [[electoral district of Yan Yean|Yan Yean]] | fedgov = [[Division of McEwen|McEwen]] | dist1 = 55 | dir1 = N | location1= Melbourne | dist2 = 11 | dir2 = SE | location2= [[Kilmore, Victoria|Kilmore]] | dist3 = 4 | dir3 = N | location3= Heathcote Junction | near-nw = [[Kilmore, Victoria|Kilmore]] | near-n = [[Broadford, Victoria|Broadford]] | near-ne = [[Waterford Park, Victoria|Waterford Park]] | near-w = [[Wallan, Victoria|Wallan]] | near-e = [[Clonbinane]] | near-sw = [[Wallan, Victoria|Wallan]] | near-s = [[Heathcote Junction]] | near-se = [[Upper Plenty]] }} '''Wandong''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ɒ|n|d|ɒ|ŋ}} is a town in [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], Australia. The town is about {{convert|50|km|mi|-1}} north of the state capital, [[Melbourne]], on the [[Hume Highway]]. It adjoins the town of [[Heathcote Junction, Victoria|Heathcote Junction]], and at the {{CensusAU|2016}}, the two towns had a population of 1,340.<ref name=ABS2016/> The main centre nearest Wandong is [[Kilmore, Victoria|Kilmore]].
==History==
The [[traditional owners]] of Wandong are the [[Taungurung]] people, a part of the [[Kulin people|Kulin]] nation that inhabited a large portion of central Victoria including Port Phillip Bay and its surrounds.<ref>Clark, Ian D. Aboriginal languages and clans: an historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800-1900, Dept. of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Melbourne, 1990, p363.</ref> Wandong itself is an Aboriginal word meaning "Spirit".<ref>Mission to the Aborigines, Sydney Herald, 7 July 1836, p. 2.</ref>
The first Europeans to reach Wandong were Hamilton Hume and Captain William Hilton Hovell who travelled through the centre of the future town of Wandong on 13 December 1824. The explorers proceeded 1,260 metres South of Arkell’s Lane, Wandong and crossed the Dividing Range at the low peak there that they named Hume’s Pass. They then moved South along Eastern Ridge, Hidden Valley, and downhill to the Merri Creek, Wallan East near Kelby Lane.
That made Wandong the second township site in Victorian history to be traversed by European explorers. Broadford was the first: Hume and Hovell had passed through it on the same morning.
This exact route has been proven by decoding the map drawn by Hamilton Hume which conforms exactly to the original journal of William Hovell.<ref>Williams, Martin. Hamilton Hume Sketch Maps: Origins and Modern Treatment, Victorian Historical Journal, Vol. 92, No. 1, June 2021, p. 21</ref> Hamilton Hume in 1867 corrected his own earlier error that the party crossed the Dividing Range at Big Hill, Bylands.<ref>Letter from Hamilton Hume to William Westgarth, 12 June 1867, Ah 12/5, Hamilton Hume correspondence, 1810–1867, with associated papers, 1910-1919, SLNSW.</ref>
Wandong was a pastoral region from at least 1843.<ref>Pickett, Ron, Ghosts, Gold and a White Elephant, Wandong/Heathcote Junction Community Group Inc. 2011. p. 11.</ref>
By 1876 a small settlement had arisen and a post office gazetted to Mr. F. G. Arkell.<ref>F. G. Arkell, Wandong, Kilmore Free Press, 26 October 1876, p. 2</ref>
From 1880 Wandong became a major sawmilling and processing town and region.<ref>Pickett, Ron, Ghosts, Gold and a White Elephant, Wandong/Heathcote Junction Community Group Inc. 2011. p. 16.</ref>
The town is now a major transport hub with the [[Hume Highway]] and the [[Albury-Wodonga railway line|Albury-Wodonga]] and [[Shepparton railway line|Shepparton]] railway lines passing through it. It has its own [[Wandong railway station|railway station]].
The local school was originally situated to the south of Wandong/Heathcote Junction and was known as Lightwood Flat Common School when it opened in 1871.<ref name=WPS>{{cite web|title=Wandong Primary School |url=https://www.wandongps.vic.edu.au/ |access-date=24 March 2021 }}</ref> The school was transferred to its current site in Wandong in 1882, and is currently known as Wandong Primary School.<ref name=WPS/> The school was damaged slightly in the [[Black Saturday bushfires]].<ref name=WPS/>
The town hosts the [[Wandong Country Music Festival]].
==Ghost sightings & local folklore==
The area has been known for sometime as being a local ghost haunt. Locals & supernatural enthusiasts have often travelled to the region in search of the ghost of Richard Hard who was a prospector during the [[Victorian gold rush|Victorian Goldrush]] and local resident and famously disappeared after working the Golden Dyke mine in Clonbinane.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://find.slv.vic.gov.au/discovery/fulldisplay/alma9921681733607636/61SLV_INST:SLV | title=Ghosts, gold and a white elephant : a history of Wandong, Clonbinane and Heathcote Junction | first=Ron | last=Pickett| year=2011 | publisher=Ron Pickett | isbn=9780646552095}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://wandongheathcotejunctionhistory.com.au/cyanide-works-industrial-history-wandong-heathcote-junction/ | title=Cyanide Works | Industrial History Wandong Heathcote Junction }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category-inline|Wandong, Victoria}}
{{Towns in Mitchell Shire}}
{{authority control}}
[[Category:Towns in Victoria (state)]] [[Category:Shire of Mitchell]] [[Category:Hume Highway]]
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