| Nhill | |
Location: | 375km northwest of Melbourne on the Western Highway |
Council: | Shire of Lowan |
Population: | 1891 |
Postcode: | 3418 |
Nhill lies on the Western Highway, exactly half way between Melbourne and Adelaide. The township was founded on Dugald McPherson's Nhill grazing station because his homestead became a centre from where squatters collected their mail. In the 1870s the land was taken up by wheatgrowers who erected the town's first building, a stonegrinding wheat mill. Nhill had the distinction of becoming the first town in Victoria to have its streets lit by electricity in 1892.
Nhill is a township that likes to commemorate the labour involved in opening up the Wimmera region. The Wagon Tourist Information Bay displays an old wheat wagon and the wheat connection with the town is reflected in Stanley Hammond's sculptured Draught Horse Memorial celebrating the magnificent beasts which hauled agricultural machinery and wagons of wheat.
The Lowan Birds Monument in front of the Shire Hall commemorates the centenary of the Shire of Lowan and depicts the lowan or mallee fowl, a bird unique to the area. John Shaw Neilson Cottage, in a park on the Western Highway, was resited here from Penola in South Australia where the poet was born. Documents and artefacts relating to Nelson's life are found in here.
From Nhill there is access to Little Desert National Park where sandy tracks wind through flowering teatree and brightyellow mallee.