Welcome to beautiful Buninyong
The pretty township of Buninyong lies at the foot of landmark Mt Buninyong, 11KM south of Ballarat in Victoria.
Surrounded by a precious belt of farmlands and wooded ridges, Buninyong treasures the beauty of its natural environment and the picturesque gold-era buildings and gardens which give it an old-world tranquillity and charm. At the same time, its contemporary cafés, shops, markets, festivals and amenities all contribute to a spirited community life in the peace and beauty of the countryside.
News
Updated July 2010
Community Bank Branch Opening!
The Board of the Buninyong & District Community Bank is pleased to advise that the company's Bank Branch will open at 4pm, Friday August 6th 2010. There are to be two events over two days, and you are invited to attend both of them!
Formal Opening: Friday, 6th August, from 4pm - lots of activities including aerial photographs, jumping castle, celebratory cake and afternoon tea.
Family Day: Saturday 7th August, from 9am - open for business with more fun such as a brass band, sausage sizzle, face painting for kids.
See the Community Bank® pages for details.
Espresso Depot opens
Buninyong's newest coffee shop, Espresso Depot, provides excellent coffee and cake in a stylish new café environment in the former Whykes butcher shop in Learmonth Street. Along with delectable cakes and focaccias, Espresso Depot also sells a range of other taste treats such as sourdough breads and gourmet pies.
Uniting Church Steeple Restoration
Restoration of the beautiful Uniting Church steeple is well underway. Heavily shrouded in scaffolding while the old slates and rotting timbers are replaced, the steeple should soon emerge restored to its former glory.
Thank you to everyone who supported the Church's Steeple Restoration Project.
Rebuilding of Buninyong Police Station
Meanwhile, two doors away in Scott Street, the previous relocatable Buninyong Police Station was lifted up on 16 June and driven away to Sebastopol.
With the area now cleared for rebuilding, a rare and likely to be short-lived view of the picturesque old Police Stables at the rear of the block has opened up from Scott Street, (see below).
These stables, left from the days when Buninyong housed a Mounted Policeman, are of particular historic interest as Buninyong was the last of Victoria's 211 Mounted Stations. As many older residents will recall, the Buninyong Mounted Station did not close until 1965, and the policeman mounted on his horse was a familiar sight in our streets. The former Police Paddock, opposite the Uniting Church in Scott Street, was sold for housing around 1990.
Construction of our new permanent Police Station started mid July.
2010 Buninyong Film Festival
The 2010 Film Festival program was a great success again this year, with a wonderful selection of well-made, thought-provoking films interspersed with the festival's traditional yummy food breaks. An interesting highlight was the screening of the locally made film "We of the Walls" followed by a question and answer session with the producer and lead actor, Pascal Mercay and Geordie Taylor. Next year's festival will be held on 6 - 7 May 2011.
See this year's program: 2010 Film Festival program or find out more about this fantastic annual event at: Buninyong Film Festival website.
A selection of photos from this year's festival will be posted soon.
Old Gold Mines
Did you know that the names and location of old gold mines around Buninyong (and elsewhere in Victoria) can be found using the excellent GeoVic Explore Victoria Online mapping application in the Earth Resources section of the Department of Primary Industries website?
Directions: Open the DPI website, then click on the coloured GeoVic map to open the black and white GeoVic map. Zoom in on Buninyong and activate the Layers tool on the top menu bar, then select Minerals then Mines and Mineral Occurences to see mine shafts in the area. Refresh the map and zoom in closer if necessary (eg 1:10,000). For more detailed information about any mine, click on the grey 'i' button next to Mines and Mineral Occurences (it turns black when activated) then click the dot marking the mine shaft of interest.
Other layers of valuable information such as topography can also be added.
Buninyong Heritage Walks booklet - An excellent new booklet of walks around Buninyong is on sale now for $5.00 
More info ...
If you know of a coming event or any other development affecting Buninyong and District that you would like to publicise, let us know so we can help spread the word. Any photos would be great, too. You can email the details to the Buninyong Website
It's all about Buninyong & District
This site aims to cover all aspects of public life in Buninyong and the surrounding district, including neighbouring Mt Helen and nearby hamlets such as Scotsburn, Clarendon, Lal Lal, Yendon, Navigators, Magpie, Napoleons, Scotchmans Lead, Durham Lead and Garibaldi.
If you can't find what you are looking for on these pages, clicking a link to one of the local community groups, businesses or services with specialised knowledge should bring the answer.
Alternatively, you can email us at the Buninyong Information Centre and we guarantee to follow up your query.
Buninyong Information Centre
408 Learmonth St, Buninyong
Hours: 10am - 3pm, five days a week: Wednesday - Sunday.
Tours of Buninyong
Interested in a group tour of Buninyong?
The Buninyong Information centre has organised several very popular tours of the township and surrounding district.
More info about touring Buninyong ...
Opening Hours for Buninyong's Historical Records
The Old Courthouse (next to the Town Hall) is open to the public 9.30am - 1.30pm on Farmer's Market Days, ie on the 3rd Saturday of the month.
The Courthouse holds the records of the Buninyong & District Historical Society with many fascinating photographs, maps and records documenting Buninyong's story to the present day. It is well worth a visit and members of the Historical Society are on hand to answer your queries.
Buninyong and District Historical Society
The Buninyong and District Historical Society holds many fascinating historical records and its members are actively engaged in cataloguing and documenting its growing resources.
The Society's collection is stored in the former Courthouse (next to the Town Hall) and is open to the public on the third Saturday of the month, 9.30am-1.30pm.
Its website at: www.vicnet.net.au/~buninhis has more information about Buninyong's history including copies of the Society's excellent newsletter.
