Balnarring, Victoria

Balnarring Victoria
Balnarring village shopping centre
Balnarring
Coordinates	38°22′16″S 145°07′05″E / 38.371°S 145.118°E / -38.371; 145.118Coordinates: 38°22′16″S 145°07′05″E / 38.371°S 145.118°E / -38.371; 145.118
Population	2,527 (2011 census)
Established	1860s
Postcode(s)	3926
Location	69 km (43 mi) from Melbourne 12 km (7 mi) from Hastings
LGA(s)	Shire of Mornington Peninsula
State electorate(s)	Nepean Hastings
Federal Division(s)	Flinders
Localities around Balnarring: Merricks North Hastings Bittern Merricks North Balnarring Bittern Point Leo Merricks Beach Balnarring Beach

Balnarring is a town in Victoria, Australia, in the southeastern Mornington Peninsula about halfway between Hastings and Flinders. Its local government area is the Shire of Mornington Peninsula.

Early reports of the area suggested the region was "thick with honeysuckle and sheoak", and that the area from Somers to Point Leo contained "good soil, good grass, and open forest timbered with Gums wattle and She Oak trees". Early settlers were involved in wattle bark stripping and cutting piles and sleepers for shipping to Melbourne via Shoreham to the southwest.

From 1857 onwards, the Government enacted a series of Land Acts designed to open the land, dividing it into small blocks and hoping to create a living for small-scale farmers. The Parish of Balnarring was surveyed in 1865, as part of the "Agricultural Area of Mount McMahon". Most of the selectors were orchardists although dairymen also took an interest in the area. In the 1920s, the construction of cool stores at Red Hill increased their ability to trade their produce with the outside world.

In 1866, a post office opened, and a school shortly afterwards, and in 1869, an inn and store called the Tower Hotel operated by the Van Suylens on their property, "Warrawee", was established to serve local residents on the Frankston-Flinders road. This and the Sandy Point Road had already been established as tracks, as indicated on an 1874 map of the area. An 1891 map shows a blacksmith's store where the panel beaters operation presently stands at this intersection.

A writer in 1902 described Balnarring as a "little wayside hamlet on the road between Hastings and Flinders....probably one of the least pretentious in the state. It consists chiefly of a state school, but there are a few buildings within sight of the main road". In 1962, the Victorian Municipal Directory stated Balnarring had a "post and telegraph office, two churches, mechanics' institute and library".