Werribee, Victoria

Werribee is a suburb of the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is situated 32 km south-west of the center on the Princes Highway in the administrative area ( LGA) City of Wyndham. At the last census in 2006 had 36,641 inhabitants Werribee. Through the city flows the same Werribee River.

History

The name Werribee means as much as backbone in the language of the Aborigines. It is thought that this name is due to the characteristic shape of the flow curve. The Werribee River presented at the same time constitutes a natural boundary between two tribal areas, which although other groups have visited the area of Woiwurong in the northeast and the Wathaurong in the southwest. One of them was the Yawangi strain, whose last survivor " King" Bill Leigh in 1912, died in the station Wooloomanata.

The first European farmers settled here under the leadership of John Batman and his Port Phillip Association. The first settlement was established in the early 1850s. The place was Wyndham, today the name of the local administrative area in honor of the Scottish soldier Sir Henry Wyndham, called. The first post office was opened on 12 January 1858. Received its current name of the city, 1909.

One of the most famous personalities at this time was Thomas Chirnside attracted by the particularly suitable for agriculture, vast plain he was here at the end of the 1840s down and had, along with his brother Andrew, about 1863 already more than 280 square kilometers of land in the region. The mid-1870s, he built one of the most beautiful colonial houses Victoria, now known as Werribee Park Manison. Until the mid- 1880s, the two brothers were able to expand their land to over 400 km ².

The town grew steadily at that time which was also due to the in 1857 newly built railway line from Melbourne to Geelong.

During the period of the First and Second World War, many military installations were installed in and around Werribee: the air base of the Royal Australian Air Force at Point Cook with the two airports in Laverton and Avalon; Ammunition depots and temporary to start and runways. During the second half of the 20th century the military personnel contributed significantly to the cultural and economic development of the city. Werribee 1971 had 12,000 inhabitants.

With better access to the Centre Melbourne, first with the West Gate Bridge over the Yarra River in 1978 and with the connection to the railway network in 1985, the appeal continued to grow.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Thomas Francis Little (1925-2008), Archbishop of Melbourne
• Danny Tiatto (born 1973 ), Australian football player