Monument Hill, Kilmore, Victoria, AUSTRALIA

View From Monument Hill

Kilmore is a rural town about 50 kilometres from Melbourne. It prides itself on being the first inland town in Victoria. As proud as Kilmore is of this title, there are a number of other towns who also make this claim. It doesn't really matter, Kilmore is pretty old in Australian terms. We do know that its Post Office, opened in 1843, was one of the first in the Port Phillip District, outside Melbourne.

Kilmore was a stopping place on the road  to the Bendigo gold diggings, just over the brow of the Pretty Sally Hill. 

Well the early settlers of Kilmore were very wise. As the town developed they put aside the hill behind the town as a reserve. Just below this hill is the old town reservoir. Not only was it the town's water supply, it was also the swimming pole and picnic area. The present people of Kilmore are very lucky to still have this area as a reserve. Within its boundaries are the golf course, the cricket ground and adjacent, the Kilmore Race Track.

  

Monument in The Early Days

There remains 76 hectares of bush, Crown Land administered by the Mitchell Shire. Perched on the top of the hill is a blue stone monument. This was erected in 1924 by the Kilmore community, to mark the centenary of the 1824 expedition by Hamilton Hume and William Hovell, as they sought an overland route from Sydney to Port Phillip. Communities all along the route were asked, to build a cairn of some sort to mark the event. The people of Kilmore, not to be outdone by others, took the blue stones from the Kilmore gaol, carted them up to the top of the hill and built the monument. Hence the name used today, Monument Hill.   

In More Recent Times

Some people believe that Hume and Hovell climbed Monument Hill in the hope of being able to see the water of Port Phillip. There are no details in the diaries of Hamilton Hume to show this is so and many have deduced from the diaries, that they actually passed further to the east, perhaps through the Mount Disappointment area. The name, Mount Disappointment coming from the let down the explorers felt when unable to see their destination. "Are we there yet?"