Koroit

Koroit is a small rural town in western Victoria, Australia a few kilometres north of the Princes Highway, 18 kilometres (11 mi) north-west of Warrnambool and 272 kilometres (169 mi) west of Melbourne.

Koroitis a small rural town in western Victoria, Australia a few kilometres north of the Princes Highway, 18 kilometres (11 mi) north-west of Warrnambool and 272 kilometres (169 mi) west of Melbourne.It is in the Shire of Moyne local government area located amidst rolling green pastures on the north rim of Tower Hill. At the 2016 census, Koroit had a population of 2,055. The town borrows its name from the Koroitch Gundidj people who occupied the area prior to European colonisation.

Prior to British colonisation the Koroit area was a rich source of foods for the Koroit gundidj people, whose descendants retain special links with the area.The first European knowledge of the area is the confirmed sighting of Tower Hill by French explorers sailing with Captain Nicolas Baudin aboard Le Géographe in 1802. The first European settler came to the Koroit area in 1837.A large number of Irish immigrants made Koroit their home in the 1840s and 1850s.The township of Koroit was surveyed and the first town allotments were sold in 1857. The Post Office opened on 23 April 1858.

One of the strongest and most obvious links between Koroit and Ireland are the potato crops grown in the rich volcanic soil surrounding the town. Eight sites in Koroit are listed in the Register of the National Estate.

What became the Port Fairy railway was extended to the town in 1890, along with a branch to Hamilton, both being closed in 1977.Koroit was originally part of the Shire of Belfast (Belfast being the prior name of today's Port Fairy).In the latter part of the 19th century, the township of Koroit separated from the Shire of Belfast and formed the Borough of Koroit.In November 1870, after the proclamation of the Borough of Koroit on 7 October 1870, nine new councillors were elected from fourteen candidates.On 10 December 1870, the new Borough of Koroit elected its first mayor.In 1985, the Borough of Koroit merged with the Shire of Warrnambool and was incorporated into the Shire of Moyne in 1994.

The Koroit Magistrates' Court closed on 15 June 1977, not having been visited by a Magistrate since 1972.The author Henry Handel Richardson lived in the Koroit Post Office as a child after her family moved to Koroit in 1878.Remembering Koroit from her youth, the third volume in her The Fortunes of Richard Mahony trilogy is set in the town. When the author was six, her father Walter died in Koroit on 1 August 1879 and was buried at the Koroit cemetery.