Map - Barwon Heads, Victoria (Barwon Heads)

Barwon Heads (Barwon Heads)
Barwon Heads (previously known as Point Flinders ) is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the west bank of the mouth of the Barwon River below Lake Connewarre, while it is bounded to the west by farmland, golf courses and the saline ephemeral wetland of Murtnaghurt Lagoon. At the, Barwon Heads had a population of 3,875.

Barwon Heads lies within the territory of the Waddawurrung Balug clan, of the Wathaurong people. Its traditional name is Koornoo. Barwon derives from the Wathaurong word Barrwang or Baarwon meaning magpie. The river and upstream lakes (Lake Connewarre and Reedy Lake) were frequented by Aboriginal hunters and fishermen, including the escaped convict, William Buckley, who lived with the Wathaurong for 32 years.

When European settlers arrived in Port Phillip in June 1835, a camp was established at Indented Head. Port Phillip Association surveyor, John Helder Wedge, explored the Bellarine Peninsula, including the Barwon and its lakes, in August 1835.

It is unknown when colonists first took up land at Barwon Heads but, by the 1870s, a township was formed, with a Post Office opening in the area on 15 December 1889 (renamed Connewarre East in 1890 when a new Barwon Heads PO opened in the township).

Fishing was the mainstay of the town in its early years. In the 1920s and 1930s, the town became a popular holiday resort, and a number of the wealthier families of Melbourne and the Western District built houses here. The summer period still sees a large influx of holidaymakers to the town.

In 1959, the closing scenes of the film On the Beach, based on a Nevil Shute novel about the end of the world, were filmed in the town.

The Barwon Heads Golf Club clubhouse, located on Golf Links Road and dating from 1923 to 1924, is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

The former Barwon Heads Bridge was also listed on the Register, but it was demolished in 2009 after being declared irreparable. A new bridge was constructed, which used components and design elements of the original bridge. A separate footbridge was built parallel to it.

 
Map - Barwon Heads (Barwon Heads)
Country - Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7617930 km2, Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
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AUD Australian dollar $ 2
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