Skip to the A to Z

Golden Plains Shire · Wadawurrung Country

Smythesdale

A gold town on the Glenelg Highway, west of Ballarat: 1,189 people at the last census. Every shop, club, service and place in it, from A to Z.

What’s on

Clubs that meet every week are in the A to Z.

The town from A to Z

Scroll the list and the model shows where each one is. Four are off the model, and their rows say which way.

A model of Smythesdale on its own ground: Brooke Street running north-east through the middle, the Woady Yaloak River to the west, the rail trail beside the town, and the houses and shops along the streets.AutomotiveCountry VetsCaresiahCourt House HotelAnimal HospitalFarm SuppliesGenki FitIGALR Hair LoungePhoenix FeedsPost officeRustic EdgeSand and SoilService stationThru the GateClinicPolice stationFire BrigadeShire hubMobile libraryPharmacyPrimary SchoolCWAFriends of the WoadyPickleballRokewood Pony ClubPony ClubPetanqueProgress AssociationWalking GroupNetballHistorical SocietyRail TrailCountry MarketHistoric PrecinctRecreation ReserveGardensStreamside ReserveThe WellEquestrian Centre

  • Enfield State Park

    Bush · South-east, off the Sebastopol–Smythesdale Road

    4,400 hectares of bush with the relics of a century of mining and timber-getting.

    parks.vic.gov.au

  • Historic Precinct

    Heritage · Brooke Street, at the Heales Street corner

    The goldfield’s government camp: the 1861 court house, the bluestone lock-up, the police stables, the sexton’s office and the gallows.

  • IGA

    Supermarket · 40 Brooke Street

    Groceries.

  • Mobile library

    Library · Heales Street, at The Well

    The Golden Plains library van, with a returns chute and holds to collect at The Well.

    Fridays 10.30am–12pm · third Saturday 9am–12pm

    grlc.vic.gov.au

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · Building footprints © Microsoft · Terrain © Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2017; SRTM courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey; via Mapzen Terrain Tiles

For anyone who lives here

yourname@smythesdale.au

A smythesdale.au email address, free for anyone who lives in Smythesdale, forwarded to the inbox you already use.

It isn’t switched on yet. Write and put your name down, and you’ll hear when it is.

Ask for an address

Smythe’s Creek, then Smythesdale

The name is John Smythe’s, who took up a pastoral run here in 1849. Gold was found in 1853, the diggings ran south along Smythes Creek, and the town was called Smythe’s Creek until 1864.

By 1861 it had a court house and a borough council, and 1,794 people. The railway from Ballarat came in 1883. In 1915 the borough joined the Shire of Grenville, and the court house closed in 1983. The Woady Yaloak Historical Society has looked after it since 1985.