Lake Bolac, Victoria

Lake Bolac is a town in the Western District region of Victoria, Australia, in the Rural City of Ararat, 91 kilometres (57 mi) west of Ballarat.[2] At the 2016 census, Lake Bolac and the surrounding area had a population of 330.[1] The town is on the shores of Lake Bolac, a freshwater lake popular with anglers. The Glenelg Highway passes through the town. Lake Bolac Post Office opened on 1 November 1864.[3]

Lake Bolac
Victoria
Main street of Lake Bolac
Lake Bolac
Coordinates37°42′0″S 142°51′0″E
Population330 (2016 census)[1]
Postcode(s)3351
Location
LGA(s)Rural City of Ararat
State electorate(s)Lowan
Federal Division(s)Wannon

Lake Bolac has a Prep to year 12 school. There is a caravan park on the lake that is popular in summer with holidaying families.

The football team is combined with nearby town Wickliffe known as the Magpies and plays in the Mininera & District Football League.

Golfers play at the course of the Lake Bolac Golf Club on Mortlake Road.[4]

History

Lake Bolac was the northern boundary of the Girai wurrung people's traditional lands, according to Norman Tindale, while large groups of up to 1,000 Djab wurrung and other peoples gathered here for a couple of months during the annual short-finned eel migration.[5][6]

George Augustus Robinson recorded in 1841 that 800 Aboriginal people had gathered at Lake Bolac – 'Lake Boloke' – to feast on plentiful eels, when "...local tribes numbered only sixty individuals".[7]

Anthropologist Harry Lourandos noted evidence of semi-permanent settlement near the lake.[8]

The Lake Bolac stone arrangement is an Aboriginal ceremonial site near the town, in the shape of a giant stone eel.[9]

2006 Tornado

At roughly 11pm on 19 January 2006 Lake Bolac was hit by what has been described as a "mini-twister". Power lines were torn down, several buildings suffered mild to severe damage, more than 100 trees were uprooted, and eight grain silos were either damaged or destroyed. A ute's windscreen was smashed by a falling tree at the caravan park, and a grain silo was lifted off the ground and was found 3 km away. It is estimated 400 residents lost power due to the tornado. The damage bill was estimated at two million dollars.[10]

References
  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Lake Bolac (State Suburb)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  2. "Great Circle Distance between LAKE+BOLAC and BALLARAT". Geoscience Australia. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  3. Premier Postal History, Post Office List, retrieved 11 April 2008
  4. Golf Select, Lake Bolac, retrieved 11 May 2009
  5. Clark, Ian D. (1995). Scars in the Landscape: a register of massacre sites in western Victoria, 1803–1859 (PDF). AIATSIS. pp. 57–84. ISBN 0 85575 281 5.
  6. Mallett, Ashley (2002). The Black Lords of Summer: The Story of the 1868 Aboriginal Tour of England and Beyond. University of Queensland Press. pp. 169–175. ISBN 978-0-702-23262-6.
  7. Vivienne Rae-Ellis (1988) Black Robinson: Protectors of Aborigines, University of Melbourne Press, Melbourne, p.244
  8. Lourandos, Harry (1997). Continent of Hunter-Gatherers: New Perspectives in Australian Prehistory. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-35946-7.
  9. Flanagan, Martin (2 January 2009). "The lady of the lake". The Age. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  10. The Ballarat Courier (21 January 2006), Two million dollars' worth of damage, retrieved 16 January 2010

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