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Trawalla is a town in central Western Victoria, Australia, located on the Western Highway, 41 km west of Ballarat and 154 km west of Melbourne, in the Shire of Pyrenees. At the 2006 census, Trawalla and the surrounding agricultural area had a population of 224.
Trawalla sits at the headwaters of the Mount Emu Creek where
it crosses the Western Highway. The Ararat railway line passes
through the area. A railway station was in service at Trawalla but
closed in the 1960s. A local primary school, a roadhouse and the
minimum security prison farm HM Prison Langi Kal Kal, are the
focal points of the area. In local aboriginal language Trawalla
means 'wild water'.
In 1836 the district was traversed and noted by explorer Sir
Thomas Mitchell after ascending Mount Cole. The first
European settlers to arrive in the area were squatters, the
Kirkland brothers and a Mr Hamilton, who established sheep and
cattle grazing runs. Trawalla Station, was established by
Hamilton in 1838 and acquired by Adolphus Goldsmith three
years later. After passing through several owners the property
was taken over by Rear Admiral Bridges in 1887. It was under
his ownership that Trawalla House was constructed.[3] Trawalla
Post Office opened on 3 December 1864 at the time of closer
settlement and closed in 1974.
After Bridges' death in 1917 a large part of the Trawalla estate
was acquired and subdivided by the Commonwealth
Government for the Soldier settlement scheme. The Langi Kal
Kal pastoral run was subdivided for the same purpose after
World War II in 1948.
Trawalla is the birthplace of Australia's ninth Prime Minister James Scullin. James Henry Scullin was on 18 September 1876. He died in Melbourne on 28 January 1953. He married Sarah McNamara in 1907, but had no children. He was commonly known as Jim. He was the fifth of the nine children of John Scullin and Ann Logan, both immigrants from Derry, Ireland. His father, John Scullin had been a miner and later a platelayer on the railways. He attended small state schools, first at Trawalla and later at Mount Rowan
near Ballarat. A memorial cairn is located close to where Scullin lived.
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