Beveridge, Victoria

Beveridge is a town in Victoria, Australia, located along the Hume Highway, 42 kilometres north of Melbourne in the Shire of Mitchell. An eastern rural portion of the locality is within the City of Whittlesea in Greater Melbourne. At the 2016 Census, Beveridge had a population of 2,330.HistoryBeveridge was named after Scottish sheep farmer Andrew Beveridge who built the Hunters' Tryste Inn in 1845. The Inn still serves as a hotel, as well as post office and general store.Beveridge Post Office opened on 1 January 1865.Near Beveridge is Mount Fraser, an eroded extinct volcanic cone. It is a large scoria volcano with two craters, which last erupted about one million years ago. The north side of the hill is quite steep and reaches a height of 125 metres above the surrounding basalt plain. From this location the explorers Hume and Hovell first saw Port Phillip on 14 December 1824. A quarry now operates at the side of the hill and supplies most of Melbourne's scoria. A copy of the original Eureka flag flies atop this hill every year to commemorate Ned Kelly.Ned KellyThe town is principally known as the birthplace of bushranger Ned Kelly and his home for the first nine years of his life. Ned's birth was not officially recorded. Ned was born in December 1854 at Beveridge on the 41acre Kelly farm near the Big Hill (now known as Mount Fraser). John 'Red' Kelly sold his farm for £80 and headed further north up the Old Sydney Road to Avenel in 1863 where they rented 40acre the banks of the Hughes Creek.