About Us
Approximately 27,000 residents call Moorabool home. Most live in the main centres of Bacchus Marsh and Ballan (70km west of the Melbourne CBD).
The first white settler in the district was Kenneth Clarke. He arrived with a flock of sheep in December 1836 and built a hut by the Lerderderg River near the present day golf course.
In 1838 Clarke moved on to the Pentland Hills and Captain William Henry Bacchus took over his land.
In those early days the eastern approach to the area was horrendous due to the marshy nature of the Lerderderg River there (a cut was made subsequently to directly join the Lerderderg to the Werribee River). This caused Clarke to refer to the area as Bacchus's Marsh, eventually becoming Bacchus Marsh.
When the gold rushes came the area developed as a service centre for those travelling to the gold fields.
Grazing and wheat farming were important early on with dairying taking over in the 1880's up until the 1960's. Other early industries include, Chinese market gardens, stone quarry, fire brick refractory and coal mining.
Today the Moorabool Shire straddles the Western Freeway in the heart of an important agricultural region, the 2112 square kilometre shire is a commuter settlement, popular tourist destination and centre of a large agricultural industry.
About 26,800 residents call Moorabool home with most living in the main centres of Bacchus Marsh and Ballan. About 40 per cent travel to Melbourne to work, either by train or along the freeway. A significant number also travel into Ballarat to work.
See information about the other smaller towns, villages and localities.
