Minyip, Victoria
The "Need to Knows"
Location:
320 km north west of Melbourne, in the Wimmera region. Horsham is the closest main town, 50km to the South.
See and do:
Lots of historic building to see as Minyip has changed little in its 150 year history
Child friendly:
Not particularly, as the town is very tiny. Minyip makes a great (but brief) historic visit if you are travelling through Victoria’s wheatbelt or following the silo art trail.
Website:
Minyip is a small town in the heart of Victoria’s wheatbelt region, 320km north west of Melbourne. It will turn 150 in 2022 and little has changed in the town over its history. For this reason, there are plenty of well kept historic buildings, however, pick your day to visit or you may feel more like you are the only person in this tiny town.
We visited Minyip on our travels as Troy’s family is tied to the area. His ancestors, after arriving from Germany, established themselves as farmers in the area and his father was born in Minyip. A number of relatives reside in the Minyip Cemetary, and we ventured out to Boolite to visit the well named Nuske Road. In short, we wanted to see the town for ourselves- and it was much smaller, and more remote than we had imagined.
With a population of around 500 people, most who live on farms in the area, the townwas practically deserted when we visited I think we saw one person walking down the street and two other tourists who briefly stopped before driving off again after realising the pub was shut. As we wandered the street we read the historic notes that explained the history of the shops and buildings and admired the range of art that existed, both as murals and the wheat farming sculpture that featured prominently in the roundabout.
Some of the notable buildings in the town include several old bank building, the Minyip Memorial Hall, the railway station, the Commercial hotel which was build in 1908 and the Club Hotel, build in 1906. The former Minyip Post Office is said to be the first post office build in Western Victorian after federation and is in excellent condition.
Possibly, Minyip’s most significant building is St John’s Lutheran Church. Many German Lutherans settled in the area around Minyip, and a weatherboard church was built in Kirchheim in 1875. The church was 6km south-west of Minyip and in 1889 it was destroyed by a storm, resulting in the community building the current timber church in the same year. Years later, in 1935, it was decided that the Church would be moved to Minyip. Weighing an estimated 50 tonnes, it took three days to move the Gothic designed Church to its current location on the corner of Church and Carrol streets.
More recently, Minyip was used as a filming location for the Flying Doctors TV series. Minyip provided the location for the fictional setting of Coopers Crossing and a number of its buildings featured in the show. Of significance are the Senior Citizens Centre (which was used as the base for the Flying Doctors), the garage and The Club Hotel, which was subsequently used for filming The Dry.
