Bairnsdale: Difference between revisions
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Bairnsdale's commercial centre is laid out along the wide avenue of Main Street which is a continuance of the Princess Highway. |
Bairnsdale's commercial centre is laid out along the wide avenue of Main Street which is a continuance of the Princess Highway. |
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Coons.... |
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==History== |
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The [[Indigenous Australians|Aboriginal]] name for Bairnsdale was Wy Yung (or Wy-yung), meaning [[spoonbill]] (a type of wading bird). Wy Yung is now the name for a suburb of Bairnsdale, located north of the town across the Mitchell River. |
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The current name was taken from the name of the property owned by pioneer settler Archibald Macleod, who took up the run on the west bank of the Mitchell River in 1844. Bairnsdale is probably derived from the name of Macleod’s family home on the [[Isle of Skye]], [[Scotland]], which had the name ‘Bernisdale’. An alternative interpretation was that Macleod returned after a long absence to find a number of ‘bairns’ (a Scottish term for babies) at the station. The name may in fact be a conjunction of these two stories, accounting for the transformation of ‘Bernis’ to ‘Bairns’. |
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The town site was surveyed in 1859, with the first blocks of land sold in 1860. Lucknow on the east bank of the river (named for the Indian city of [[Lucknow]] to which horses bred in the Bairnsdale area were sent to aid the British Crown during the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Indian uprising]]), was already a thriving village. The Post Office opened on 2 February 1858 at Lucknow and was relocated to the township and named Bairnsdale on 3 April 1862.<ref name = "a">{{Citation | last = Premier Postal History | title = Post Office List | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&country= | accessdate = 2008-04-11 }}</ref> Lucknow remains as a suburb of Bairnsdale. |
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Descriptions of Bairnsdale and its inhabitants in the 1920's feature prominently in ''The Watcher On a Cast-Iron Balcony'', an autobiography by [[Hal Porter]] |
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Bairnsdale was proclaimed as a City on 14 July 1990.<ref name=vmd>{{Citation|title=Victorian Municipal Directory|year=1992|publisher=Arnall & Jackson|location=[[Brunswick, Victoria|Brunswick]]|pages=292}} Accessed at [[State Library of Victoria]], La Trobe Reading Room.</ref> |
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==Landmarks== |
==Landmarks== |
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Revision as of 00:12, 19 October 2011
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2007) |
| Bairnsdale Victoria | |||||||||
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 Bridge over the Mitchell River in Bairnsdale | |||||||||
| Population | 11,282 (2006)[1] | ||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 3875 | ||||||||
| Elevation | 49 m (161 ft) | ||||||||
| Location | |||||||||
| LGA(s) | Shire of East Gippsland | ||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Gippsland East | ||||||||
| Federal division(s) | Gippsland | ||||||||
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Bairnsdale (Template:Pron-en, locally [ˈbeːnzdæɪl])[2] is a small city in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. With a population at the 2006 census of 11,282, it is a major regional centre of eastern Victoria along with Traralgon and Sale.
Bairnsdale is located on the river flats of the Mitchell River, near where the Mitchell River flows into Lake King.
Bairnsdale is the commercial centre for the East Gippsland region and the seat of local government for the Shire of East Gippsland.
The origin of the city's name is uncertain, however it is believed to have been derived from the name of the property owned by pioneer settler Archibald Macleod.
Geography
Bairnsdale is sited on a bend of the Mitchell river, with the river flowing in along the northern edge of the town, before turning south to flow along the eastern edge, although suburbs are now found across the river to both north and east. The river floods at infrequent intervals, affecting town areas close to the banks.
The Mitchell River flows into Lake King at Eagle Point Bluff. Between the town of Bairnsdale and Eagle Point Bluff are found the Mitchell River silt jetties (a type of digitate River Delta), second only in length to those formed at the mouth of the Mississippi River in the United States.
Bairnsdale's commercial centre is laid out along the wide avenue of Main Street which is a continuance of the Princess Highway.
Coons....
Landmarks
One of the most notable landmarks of Bairnsdale is the St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Main Street known for its distinctively tall tower and murals on its ceiling and walls. These murals were painted by out of work Italian artist Francesco Floreani during the Great Depression and remain a fascination to this day.
Also of note are the gardens maintained on the median strip of Main Street. This very wide median strip stretches from the Mitchell River to the western edge of town, a distance of about 4 kilometres (2 mi). The main garden section runs for over 500 metres (550 yd) through the central commercial district and features beds of flowering annuals and perennials, numerous mature deciduous and evergreen trees, war memorials and a restored historic band rotunda. The rotunda was constructed in 1910 and restored to its present condition in 1993.
Education
Educational facilities in Bairnsdale include two high schools, Bairnsdale Secondary College which has approx 1200 students (Government) and Nagle College which has about 800 students (Catholic Private), a number of primary schools and kindergartens, and limited tertiary education facilities mainly consisting of the East Gippsland Institute of TAFE.
Transport
Bairnsdale's main form of transport is the automobile. The city is near the junction of the Princes Highway and the Great Alpine Road. Bairnsdale is 285 kilometres (177 mi), or approximately three hours drive, east of the state capital Melbourne.
Rail transport is facilitated by the major railway station in Bairnsdale railway station which is the terminus of the Bairnsdale railway line. V/Line provides rail services.
Bairnsdale Cabs provides a local taxi service around the city.
The East Gippsland Rail Trail begins in Bairnsdale. Almost 100 kilometres (60 mi) in length, the multi-use trail permits walking, cycling and horseriding as it follows the alignment of the former railway line to Orbost.
Bairnsdale also has a small regional airport.
Media
Newspapers
Bairnsdale's local newspapers are the Bairnsdale Advertiser for sale on Mondays and Fridays and East Gippsland news delivered free on Wednesday every week. Both publications along with several others are owned and published by East Gippsland Newspapers[3].
Television
Commercial television networks Prime7, WIN and Southern Cross Ten all broadcast into Bairnsdale from the Latrobe Valley transmitter at Mt Tassie as well as local relay transmitters located at Mount Taylor approximately 12-13km NNW from Bairnsdale. All the commercial stations are based in Traralgon and have local commercials placed on their broadcasts. WIN TV also broadcasts a local news bulletin from Monday to Friday at 6.30pm. Both national public broadcasters, ABC (ABC1) and SBS (SBS ONE) are broadcast into Bairnsdale as well, relayed from Melbourne via Mount Tassie.
New channels broadcast by all the networks in addition to the ones listed above are available on the digital service called Freeview (Australia) to viewers in Bairnsdale and the Gippsland \ Latrobe Valley region. These channels include ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBS Two, One HD, Eleven, 7Two, 7mate, GEM and GO!.
Radio
Local commercial radio services TRFM 99.9 and Gold 1242 are operated by Ace Radio and broadcast to Bairnsdale and most listeners in the Gippsland as far west as the town of Orbost. The Gold 1242 AM 1242 kHz transmitter is located in Myrtlebank between Maffra and Sale. ABC stations Triple J and ABC Classic FM are broadcast from Mount Tassie. ABC Radio National and ABC News Radio are rebroadcast locally from Mount Taylor. ABC Gippsland radio station 3GI broadcasts into Bairnsdale on 828 AM from Longford, near Sale.
Sport
The town has three Australian rules football clubs, with Bairnsdale Football Club (the Redlegs) competing in the Gippsland Football League and Lucknow and Wy Yung competing in the local East Gippsland Football League.[4]
Bairnsdale has a horse racing club, the Bairnsdale Racing Club, which schedules around eight race meetings a year including the Bairnsdale Cup meeting usually held on the first Sunday in January.[5]
The town has two field hockey clubs in the East Gippsland Hockey Association. The Bairnsdale Hockey Club is based at the WORLD fields, while the Nagle Hockey Club is based at Nagle College, just out of town to the west.
Golfers play at the Bairnsdale Golf Club on Paynesville Road, Eagle Point [6] or at the course of the Goose Gully Golf Greens on Balfours Road.[6]
With its close proximity to the Gippsland Lakes and Ninety Mile Beach, along with easy access to the Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo Rivers; Bairnsdale proves to be a popular destintion for recreational anglers and good catches are reported regularly. Bait and tackle supplies, along with the required angling licenses are readily available in Bairnsdale.
Notable people
- Hal Porter (author)
- Cameron White (Australian cricketer)
- Tom Alvin (Carlton AFL footballer)
References
- ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Bairnsdale (Urban Centre/Locality)". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
- ^ Australian pronunciations: Macquarie Dictionary, Fourth Edition (2005). Melbourne, The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd. ISBN 1-876429-14-3
- ^ www.eastvicmedia.com.au
- ^ Full Points Footy, Bairnsdale, retrieved 2008-07-25
- ^ Country Racing Victoria, Bairnsdale Racing Club, retrieved 2009-05-07
- ^ a b Golf Select, Bairnsdale, retrieved 2009-05-11 Cite error: The named reference "golf" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- Gardner, P.D. (1997) Names of the Great Alpine Road Between Bairnsdale and Omeo. Ensay: Ngarak Press.
- Land.vic Vicnames
External links
37°50′S 147°37′E / 37.833°S 147.617°E
