Gisborne, Victoria

Gisborne is a town approximately 55km north-west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The town was named after Henry Fyshe Gisborne (1815–1841), the first Commissioner for Crown Lands of the Port Phillip District. Gisborne is part of the Shire of Macedon Ranges.HistoryIn 1834, John Aitken arrived in Melbourne with others and deemed the land south of Mount Macedon ideally suited to sheep grazing. He selected a sizeable area of land and in the following year, shipped merino sheep from Tasmania. Despite his ship running aground at Dromana, Aitken managed to rescue many of his flock and transport them to the Gisborne area with the help of aborigines. He named his property "Emmeline Vale," after his wife Emmeline. Aitken reared six children on the property and produced some of the finest merino wool in the Colony.From the late 1830s, many pastoralists, arriving from Tasmania and New South Wales, began taking up areas of land in the surrounding districts. The first recorded settlers were: Barbour and Matson, who settled at Bullengarook, Hill at the "Turitable Run" south of Mount Macedon, Stainforth in the area around the present Rosslynne Reservoir, and Aitken and Howey in the area to be later known as Gisborne.