Rainbow town

Rainbow is a small town of several hundred people at the southern end of the Mallee region of Victoria, Australia. Travelling down the main street, with its attractive median strip and palm trees, one gets the feeling that little has changed here in the last 40 or 50 years. The town serves a large area focused largely on farming although there are a number of stud farms in the district and a butter factory.

Rainbow is located 392 km north-west of Melbourne and 57 km north of Dimboola. Once occupied by the Wotjobaluk people, the first land grant in the area was 'Halbacutya' station, established by John Coppock in 1846. It stretched from Lake Hindmarsh to the northern end of Lake Albacutya. Coppock lived at the north-eastern corner of the lake until a dispute with Robert von Stieglitz of the 'Pine Hill' run forced him to move his residence to Lake Albacutya. Bushranger Dan Morgan held up the station in 1868, after Coppock's death. A rabbit plague ate the station out in the late 1870s.

Closer settlement of the area began when the property was subdivided in the late 1880s for agricultural development. A railhead was established in 1900, around which a township grew. It was named after an old property called 'Rainbow Rise' which, in turn, was named after a crescent-shaped ridge nearby upon which colourful wildflowers grew.

More about the Rainbow town.