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Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
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(3337, 40 km NW, Melton Shire, Macedon Ranges Shire)
A rural settlement on the Toolern Creek, north of Melton, Toolern Vale's first European resident was John Hunter Patterson, who took up the Green Hills pastoral station in 1837. Selectors grew wheat, oats, barley and hay in the district from the 1860s. Timber was cut in the nearby Wombat State Forest, and a village with a school and Mechanics Institute developed. In the first decade of the 20th century Green Hills was divided and sold by the Closer Settlement Board to aspiring small farmers. The area, devastated by bushfires in 1965, now has a number of horse studs.