Trawalla Station was one of the first settlements in the Western District of Victoria.
First settled in 1838 by squatters Kenneth Kirkland and his wife Katherine, the sheep and cattle grazing runs were established by Katherine’s brothers Robert and James McGregor Hamilton.
The station was acquired by early Victorian politician Adolphus Goldsmith in 1841, and changed hands several times over the next fifty years.
The original homestead (still with bark roofing under the corrugated iron) and some outbuildings are still there. They are some of the earliest documented in Victoria, dating back to the 1840s, and are classified by the National Trust.
The large mansion (pictured at the top of the page) was constructed by Rear Admiral Bridges in 1891.
Outbuildings include stables and coach house, fruit and vegetable house, chicken house, dog kennels, octagonal gazebo, grooms’ quarters, schoolhouse, gas plant room, conservatory and other garden structures. The red brick Trawalla Church was also built on the estate in 1896.
After Bridges’ death in 1917, a large part of the estate was acquired by the Commonwealth Government for the Soldiers Settlement Scheme.
It is believed that Katherine Kirkland was the first female settler in Western Victoria. In 1845, she anonymously published an article “Life In The Bush”, in Chambers Miscellany. This is regarded as a historically important piece as it describes a woman’s perspective of rural living in the 1830s.