Benalla

Benalla is a small city located on the Broken River in the High Country north-eastern region of Victoria, Australia, about 212km north east of the state capital Melbourne. At the the population was 9,328.It is the administrative centre for the Rural City of Benalla local government area.HistoryPrior to the European settlement of Australia, the Benalla region was populated by the Taungurong people, an Indigenous Australian people.It was first sighted by Europeans during an expedition of Hamilton Hume and William Hovell in 1824, when the area, first named "Swampy" was noted as agricultural settlement. The expedition was followed by that of Major Thomas Mitchell in 1834.Reverend Joseph Docker settled in 1838 creating a pastoral run called Benalta Run, said to be from an Aboriginal word for musk duck. An attack by indigenous people on the camp of sheep herders George and William Faithful became known as the Faithful Massacre; eight settlers were killed in the incident. Following the massacre, in 1839 a police station was established and the name of the settlement became Broken River.