Detailed History
In the first copy of the East Charlton Tribune, published on 20th May 1876, were printed these words:
"East Charlton stands on the eastern bank of the Avoca River in a beautiful valley between two ranges of hills, and is distant twenty miles from Wedderburn and twenty- eight miles from St. Arnaud. The country around is of a very rich nature and bids fair to become the finest agricultural district in the colony. The whole of the land for many miles around has been selected. The wheat grown in the vicinity of East Charlton during the past season realized the highest price of any in Victoria."
The Editor was obviously writing with pride of the district with which he was connected. Now, nearly 150 years later, we write with the same pride of our town, with its successes and failures, and of how it has developed in the years between.
Charlton is the first town along the Calder Highway that does not owe its existence to gold mining. It is based entirely on Agriculture and its subsidiary Industries.
Settlement: The district was inhabited by the Jajawurong and Wotjobaluk native tribes who roamed over the area from Buckrabanyule hills to Mount Wycheproof and Lake Buloke, travelling from one water supply to the next. The group of low hills just west of where Charlton is now situated, was once a semi permanent aboriginal camp site. The aborigines named the area Youanduk, meaning a basin in a rock, as there were a number of rock depressions on the hillsides providing a reasonable good water supply.
In 1835 Major Thomas Mitchell returned to Sydney after surveying through Central Victoria to Portland. During the journey he crossed and named the Avoca River some 50 kilometers upstream from where Charlton is now. As a result of the report, pastoralists took up leases which gradually opened up the whole state from the Murray to the sea. The first white settlers in the Charlton area were squatters Robert Cay and William Kaye, who took out a huge tract of land in 1844 west of the Avoca River , with Mr. W.M.Bell as manager. The Avoca River was the boundary between the Districts of Westernport Bay and Portland Bay (Wimmera), each having a separate Commissioner of Crown Lands, so Charlton was technically two runs, with the result that they were officially known as East and West Charlton. The official postal address of the area from 1862 to 1876 was Yowan Hill, but in 1876 this was altered to East Charlton. As the township grew and spread across both sides of the river, this became inappropriate. However the Charlton near Beaufort became Chute and on 1/10/1879 East Charlton officially became Charlton and was declared a town in 1885.
Township of Charlton.
Some 20 years after the Squatters arrived, other smaller farmers came much to the annoyance of the Squatters. Because of the attitude of the squatters who leased the west side of the river, the settlement of Charlton was developed on the east side and so it was called East Charlton. In 1863 Mr Flug built an Inn on the bank of the east side of the Avoca River which laid the foundation for the township of Charlton. Shortly afterwards the area was surveyed for a town. This place was an appropriate one for the settlement, as it was the best crossing place of the Avoca River for traffic going north from Bendigo and Ballarat for many miles in either direction. The town developed rapidly during the 1870's with hotels, churches, shops and a school being built to cater for the rapidly growing population. The first school in 1875 was in an old bark hut, and teacher R.A.Nicholson had 42 students. It was 1876 before a new school building was ready for its now 68 pupils. By then Mr. Flugg had moved his wine shanty to High Street and built a Hotel and General store next door. He sold this to C.Luth for about $8,000. There was a lot of building going on as the town and its industries grew. However, it was not declared a town until 1885.
Bridges crossing the Avoca.
In the mid 1860's there was agitation for a bridge to be constructed, and James Paterson of Wedderburn was contracted by the Korong Shire to build it. The bridge was finished in 1867, but because of severe drought there was no water flowing under it until 1870 when raging flood waters covered the bridge up to the middle rail. The whole town lay several feet under water and the river extended to the base of Barrakee Hill. After the construction of this bridge the roads were increasingly busy with loads of wool, mail coaches and settlers traveling north to take up land. This bridge served everyone well until, in 1921, there was a meeting in Charlton of thirteen Shires from Gisborne to Mildura, and it was decided to make the road from Melbourne to Mildura a national highway. It was this meeting that decided the route of the Calder Highway although it wasn't named that until 1927. One matter needing urgent attention in Charlton was the wooden bridge over the Avoca River. This had become old and dilapidated, with a load limit of 7 tons placed on it. A new concrete bridge 12 metres long was erected on the site of the old bridge, the new bridge opening in 1924. This bridge served the town until 1963 when it too became unable to cope with modern traffic. The bridge was then widened to 10 metres with a separate footpath being added. Little is discarded in Charlton, as the original wooden bridge, which had stood firm against innumerable floods and served the area for many decades was dismantled and re-erected further downstream, where it became known as the "Low Water Bridge". This 122 year old bridge was replaced in 1989 by a new bridge that is still called the Low Water Bridge but built high enough to not go under water when it floods. However there was a flood and the Official opening was done in the Hall and then they had to row out to the Bridge to inspect it afterwards.
Local Government.
From 1880 the Charlton and district residents had been agitating to form a more compact shire, with Charlton as its centre, and there was much jubilation when, 15 years later, on Mary 27th 1895, they were granted permission to form a new shire, named the Shire of Charlton. This new shire had approximately 3000 residents and covered an area of 117800 hectares of productive farming and grazing land. It had formerly been the forgotten corner of the Shires of Korong, Gordon and St. Arnaud.
The Shire served Charlton for 100 years until 1995 when Amalgamation caused the Shires of Charlton, Birchip, Donald, and Wycheproof to combine and form the Buloke Shire.
