Nathalia

Overview

Nathalia is a town with an old-fashioned country feel in a flat agricultural and dairying area, 220 kilometres north of Melbourne via Shepparton. Consisting of some 1500 people it is spread over both banks of Broken Creek on the Murray Valley Highway, between Echuca and Cobram.

It is testimony to the vagaries of Australian place names that some proponents claim 'Nathalia' is an Aboriginal word meaning 'place with no stones' while others say it is named after Peter the Great's mother.

History

The area is thought to have been occupied by the Yota-Yota people prior to white settlement. The first European in the district was explorer Charles Sturt who followed the Murray to its junction with the Goulburn River in 1838. Squatters soon followed and the town was to develop on the 'Kotupna' station, established by W.J. Locke in 1843. This was divided in two in 1861 then broken up for closer settlement after the 1869 Land Act, despite the strenuous resistance of the squatters.

One of the selectors, Richard Blake, took up land on the future townsite in 1875. He built a sawmill in 1876 and a flour mill in 1877. A village was in existence by 1876, when the first hotel was licensed, and a regular coach service was established the following year. The first post office, state school and Wesleyan Church opened in 1878. When the first survey was conducted in 1879, there were about 150 persons living on both sides of Broken Creek. The streets were named after early landholders.

Places of interest

Accommodation

To book accommodation please contact the friendly staff at the Nathalia Community Craft & Tourist Information Centre:

Address: 30 Blake Street, Nathalia Victoria 3638
Telephone: 03 5866 3063
Website: http://www.moira.vic.gov.au/
Open:  10.00am-4.00pm Monday to Friday and 10.00am-1.00pm Saturday

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