Footer
Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
Partners
(3064, 36 km N, Hume City)
An important coach stop on the main Sydney Road, Kalkallo replaced an earlier settlement at Kinlochewe to the south, razed in the bushfires of Black Thursday in 1851. Settlement clustered at the Rocky Water Holes, named Donnybrook by Surveyor Robert Mason in 1853 when the post office was transferred from Kinlochewe. Tenant farmers, road workers and passing traffic supported inns, hotels, courthouse, gaol, tannery, flour mill, and stores. The police station, opened 1853, stabled the Ovens Gold Escort. The population declined when road traffic reduced after the opening of the North Eastern Railway in 1872. A name change in 1874 distinguished Kalkallo from the smaller settlement of Donnybrook. Widening of the Hume Highway during the 1970s necessitated the demolition of remaining town buildings on the western side of the main street.