Macedon, Victoria

The village of Macedon is home to a heritage listed war memorial Avenue of Honour,[17] an extensive planting of 224 oak trees on both sides of the avenue for approximately one kilometre in length between the cemetery at Bent Street and Mt Macedon Road. The trees, comprising Pin Oaks, English oaks, Algerian oaks and oak hybrids were planted by members of the local community working each Saturday for three months in 1918, with each tree planted representing the life of an enlisted soldier from the local area.[18]

The opening ceremony for the Avenue was held on 10 August 1918 with "the State Premier (Mr. Lawson) and the Federal and State members for the district are expected to be present, and a strong band is to be in attendance".[19][20][21] The Premier said that this Avenue "would serve to remind the future generations of their obligations to the men, and women too, who were now doing so much for mankind, and, furthermore, would stand as an example of great public service" and that the community "will regard it as a sacred duty to look after this avenue, care for the trees, and remember the grand purpose underlying the whole movement".[20]

The autumn colours of the Avenue of Honour attract a large influx of visitors annually, prompting the local council to introduce temporary traffic and parking restrictions in recent years.[22]

Macedon was one of the towns extensively damaged by the Ash Wednesday bushfires on 16 February 1983, with 2 deaths in the town and 64 houses destroyed.

Most of the shops, the Catholic Church (circa 1891) and Anglican church (circa 1931) were burnt, along with the Jubilee hall, the fire station, the school and the Water Board's office.[16]

The Victorian newspaper The Age reported the next day that "A fire officer came out of Macedon at 3am and said: 'I saw one house and one pub standing.'" Australian Defence Force members were deployed to assist the town in the aftermath after the Victorian Minister for Police and Emergency Services requested help from the Federal Government.[23]

A public park near the centre of Macedon, located across the road from Macedon's railway station, now serves as a memorial to the losses of Ash Wednesday.[24]

In recent years, Macedon's popularity has increased:[25] proximity to Melbourne, boutique bed and breakfast accommodation,[26] food and wine industries and arts scene have made the region highly sought after, drawing tourists and new residents, making the local population growth rate among the fastest in regional Victoria.[27]

Locals, worried about the environmental and cultural impacts of this growing popularity, successfully campaigned for new planning controls to protect the character of the region.[28]

A number of media reports have made reference to the influx of young professionals, artists and 'hipsters' to the region,[29][30][31] drawn by the region's natural environment, proximity to the city and access to city-style cafes and restaurants.[26][32]

There are several commercial vineyards open to the public in the area immediately surrounding Macedon, including North Wine[33] and Mount Macedon Winery, which at one time was owned by entertainer Olivia Newton John.[34]

Wild Action Zoo, a licensed private zoological facility on 11 acres of land is located in Macedon and provides education about animals via prearranged visits or via a mobile zoo around the State of Victoria.[35] The zoo's owner, Chris Humfrey starred in a TV series "Chris Humfrey's Animal Instinct" which ran on the Australian version of Animal Planet, a Pay-TV channel.[36]

Macedon Primary School is a State public school that was established in 1869. The school maintains a current enrolment of 242 students as at 2019.[43]

Macedon Grammar was a secondary school that operated from 1979 to 2014. In November 2014, Macedon Grammar school went into administration and the Victorian government announced in December 2014 that the school would close.[44]

After Macedon Grammar school was closed in 2014[45] the site was purchased the following year by children's author John Mardsen who opened the Alice Miller School, a secondary school for 200 pupils focused on the arts. It is based on the same principles as his Candlebark School (opened 2006) in the Macedon Ranges. The school campus occupies a site of 80 acres of primarily bushland. Facilities include 15 classrooms, science laboratories, gymnasium, 10 metre indoor heated pool, tennis and basketball courts and a five-hole golf course.[46]

However the timber industry had so denuded the entire surrounding mountain range, that in 1872, the State Government established the 100 acre Macedon State Nursery,[47] to encourage the replanting of the mountain and to supply seedlings to all parts of Victoria, which it did at no cost to public institutions such as schools, benevolent institutions, hospitals and reserves. By 1888, annual production was around 200,000 seedlings with a projected annual output by 1890 of 700,000-1 million plants.[48]

Newspaper articles from the late 19th and early 20th century describe the wide variety of plants that flourished at the State Nursery in spite of its poor topsoil and craggy terrain.[49] Cool-climate trees like cypress, larch, cedar and pine thrived at the high altitude; deciduous species of oak, ash and birch grew well, as did native eucalypts and casuarinas.[50]

The majority of the trees that were propagated at the nursery were of European and English varieties with which the landowners were familiar, hence the unique character of many of the early avenues in nearby towns such as Gisborne and in the grand gardens of Mount Macedon.[51] Trials of the cultivation of other crops such as tea and tobacco were undertaken, with little success.[52]

This nursery also provided employment for many of the former timber industry workers.

Perhaps as a consequence of its success, Macedon Nursery periodically received complaints of unfair competition from the nursery industry until it was closed by the Government in 1995.

There are a number of established commercial timber plantations around Macedon in the Black Forest. The plantations were established by the State Government in 1880[53] and were privatised through the sale of the Victorian Plantations Corporation in 1998 to Hancock Timber Resource Group for $550 million to form Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP).

The Macedon Black Forest plantations are now owned and operated by a private company HVP Plantations.[54]