Bannockburn, Victoria

Bannockburn is a rural township near Geelong, Victoria, Australia, 93 km southwest of Melbourne. It is located in Golden Plains Shire. In the, Bannockburn had a population of 5,283. .HistoryThe township, originally named Leigh Road, was founded in the early 1850s. It is presumed to have been named after the 14th century battle site in Scotland, and grew as a coaching stop during the 1850s and 1860s, when the main route to the Ballarat goldfields was via the port of Geelong. The railway came to the town with the opening of the Geelong-Ballarat line in 1862. The local railway station was originally called Leigh Road but the name was changed to Bannockburn in 1904. Today, only grain and freight trains use the line.The township grew around the station and a Post Office, called Leigh Road Railway Station, opened on 18 May 1863. It was renamed Leigh Road in 1873, Wabdallah in 1875, and finally Bannockburn in 1892.Bannockburn township contains notable examples of Victorian colonial architecture, such as the former Somerset Hotel (1854), now a private home, and the Bannockburn Railway Station (1863). The former Bannockburn Lock Up in Victor Street (1860) was relocated from Lethbridge to its present site in 1869. In the 1940s, the lock up's adjoining police station residence became a farmhouse at a Hills Road property in Batesford. Both the railway station and former lock up are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.