Benwerrin, Victoria
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Benwerrin Victoria |
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 Benwerrin
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| Coordinates | 38°29′03″S 143°54′33″E / 38.48417°S 143.90917°ECoordinates: 38°29′03″S 143°54′33″E / 38.48417°S 143.90917°E | ||||||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 3235 | ||||||||||||
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| LGA(s) | Surf Coast Shire | ||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Polwarth | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Corangamite | ||||||||||||
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Benwerrin is a rural locality in the Surf Coast Shire, Victoria, Australia. In the 2011 census, the population of Benwerrin was too low to separately report; however in June 2014 the Victorian Electoral Commission recorded 15 enrolled voters in Benwerrin, living in 8 properties.
The original 1840s main track to Lorne passed through Benwerrin. The track was resurfaced with bluestone in 1877, but eventually bypassed for an easier alignment to the coast. Some remnants of the former track remain today, and are listed on the Surf Coast Shire's heritage inventory. Benwerrin Post Office opened on 1 November 1886 and closed on 30 June 1927.
Coal was found at Benwerrin in 1895, when mining began there on a small scale. The Great Western Coal Company being formed to mine it in 1897, and it initially carried the coal to Deans Marsh railway station by wagon. A second company was formed to build a tramway to the Forrest railway line in September 1898, but it went into liquidation by March 1899. The Great Western Colliery Company, which had taken over the mine, completed the tramway and it opened in 1893. The mine and tramway went into liquidation in December 1903; the tramway locomotive was sold in 1904 and the tramway lifted in 1905. The mine reopened in 1942 before closing for good in 1949, and little trace remains of the former tramway reservation.
Sawmilling in the area began in the 1870s and declined in the 1960s and 1970s. One mill which had survived the initial decline of the industry, Babington's Mill, closed in 1989 but reopened in 1991 as an open-air museum, the Babington's Benwerrin Sawmill Museum and Animal Nursery. The sawmill had been established in 1936 and survived the closure of many local mills in the industry by selling pulp and firewood before its eventual closure. Its reopening in 1991 by owner Erwin Babington saw the sawmill operate largely for tourist purposes, as both an indoor and outdoor museum with working demonstrations and guided tours. The museum no longer operates, but the site is locally heritage listed for its status as one of the few surviving mills in the area, and for its relatively intact complex of residential and industrial buildings and machinery.
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