A short history of Learmonth

Squatters and a lake

The district takes its name from the Learmonth brothers, Thomas Livingston Learmonth and Somerville Learmonth, who took up pastoral runs in the area from 1838. The township grew beside the lake that also carries their name, and its first land sales were held in November 1859 and February 1860.

A stop on the road to gold

Positioned on the route from Ballarat toward the Avoca goldfields, Learmonth was an easy day's ride from Ballarat and became an overnight stopping place, with hotels, stables and boarding houses serving travellers. Through the 1860s and 1870s the town supported blacksmiths, bakeries, general stores and other trades, and for a time it served as the administrative seat of the former Shire of Ballarat.

What survives today

The Learmonth Heritage Precinct, recorded on the Victorian Heritage Database, preserves much of this era: the Stag Hotel building of around 1854, timber Presbyterian and Catholic churches from around 1857, the police station with brick stables and lock-up, and the courthouse erected in the 1860s, all set on the original nineteenth-century subdivisions.

At the 2021 census Learmonth had a population of 396, and the town today serves the surrounding agricultural district while welcoming visitors drawn by the lake and the heritage streetscape.

Keep planning