Kalkallo, Victoria

Kalkallo is a town in Victoria, Australia, 33 km north of the Melbourne city centre. It is local government area is the City of Hume. At the 2016 Census, Kalkallo had a population of 105.Located on the Hume Freeway, Kalkallo has a few streets, a service station and a pub. It is surrounded by farms not yet developed by the urban sprawl of Melbourne. The nearest access to public transport is the Donnybrook railway station which is serviced by regional V/Line trains.HistoryThe Kalkallo area is located on the traditional lands of the people of the Woiwurrung. It is believed that the clan which occupied land including the South Morang area was the Wurundjeri William. Colonisation occurred in Victoria from 1835, and land sales commenced in the Parish of Kalkallo in 1840. An example of an early rural town settlement, Kalkallo contains many natural and cultural heritage sites of significance including churches, hotels, monuments, bridges, waterways and grasslands. In 1848 residents began requesting a post office for the township, and Kinlochewe Post Office opened on 1 November 1850. The post office was located in the Robert Burns Inn on Summerhill Road and Sydney Road. In 1854 it was moved and renamed Donnybrook, then renamed Kalkallo in 1874, before eventually closing in 1971. During the gold rush years the town boomed as travellers made their way up Sydney Road and the township featured seventeen accommodation houses, a police station, jail and court house. In the 1870s the duplication of the Hume Highway and the opening of the north-east railway decimated the population.