Colac, Victoria
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Colac Victoria |
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The Princes Highway running through Colac
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 Colac
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| Coordinates | 38°20′0″S 143°35′0″E / 38.33333°S 143.58333°ECoordinates: 38°20′0″S 143°35′0″E / 38.33333°S 143.58333°E | ||||||||||||
| Population | 11,817 (2015) | ||||||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 3250 | ||||||||||||
| Elevation | 134.0 m (440 ft) | ||||||||||||
| Time zone | Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) (UTC+10:00) | ||||||||||||
| • Summer (DST) | +11:00 (UTC) | ||||||||||||
| Location |
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| LGA(s) | Colac Otway Shire | ||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Polwarth | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Corangamite | ||||||||||||
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Colac /ˈkoʊlæk/ is a small city in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, approximately 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne on the southern shore of Lake Colac and the surrounding volcanic plains, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) inland from Bass Strait. Colac is the largest city in and administrative centre of the Colac Otway Shire. At June 2015, Colac had a population of 11,817.
A commercial centre for a major agricultural district, it was named after nearby Lake Colac and was proclaimed a city in 1960.
For thousands of years clans of the Gulidjan people occupied the region of Colac, living a semi-nomadic life.
The area was first settled by Europeans in 1837 by Hugh Murray, and proclaimed a town, Lake Colac, in 1848.
The Post Office opened on 1 July 1848 as Lake Colac and was renamed Colac in 1854.Colac Botanic Gardens in Queen Street located on the shores of Lake Colac, were established in 1868.
In 1854 town founder Hugh Murray employed a couple of shepherds named Thomas Brookhouse and Patrick Geary. Brookhouse who was looking for missing sheep disappeared without a trace. Patrick Geary and his wife soon left the district. Fifteen years later a boy out rabbiting found the skeletal remains of Thomas Brookhouse under a pile of rocks near Lake Corangamite. Brookhouse had his head smashed in. It took Police two years to track Patrick Geary and charge him with Brookhouse's murder. A friend of Geary told the court that Geary had killed Brookhouse with an axe to stop him from informing Murray of Geary's sheep stealing activities. Geary was hanged in Melbourne in 1871.
A plaque on the southern side of the Memorial Square commemorates two historic speeches given on consecutive nights in Colac, beginning on 31 July 1914 with the then Federal opposition leader, Andrew Fisher, and followed the next night by the Prime Minister Joseph Cook. The two speeches declared Australia's commitment to follow Britain into World War I, with Fisher declaring "Should honor demand the mother country taking part in hostilities, Australians would stand beside her to the last man and shilling." and Cook's famous reiteration that "If the old country is at war, so are we." Fisher became Prime Minister for the third time on 5 September.
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