Minyip, Victoria

Minyip is a town in the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia, 320km north west of Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Yarriambiack local government area. At the, Minyip had a population of 667.The name "Minyip" is derived from the Aboriginal word for "Ashes".The town is known as the "Heart of the Wheat belt". Dryland agriculture especially grain production and handling is one of the region's major industries.HistoryThe area was first settled by European selectors in the 1870s. The town became a railhead when the railway arrived from Murtoa in 1886. A grain shed was used to store local wheat until silos were built in 1939-40.The town's courthouse dates from 1886 and the old office of local newspaper The Guardian (1885) has been converted into an historical research centre by the local historical society. The Club Hotel (1907) and the Commercial Hotel (1908) are Edwardian buildings with wrought-iron lacework and leadlight windows. Violet's General Store dates from 1897.Minyip Post Office opened on 1 May 1875.St John's Lutheran ChurchThe German Lutherans, fleeing religious persecution, came to the area around Minyip in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. One group formed at the tiny village of Kirchheim, south-west of Minyip. They built a weatherboard church there in 1875 but it was destroyed by a violent storm in 1889. This led to the construction, in that same year, of the present timber building. In 1935 this building, which had an estimated weight of 50 tons, was moved by steam traction engine to its present site on the corner of Church and Carrol Streets. It took three days to move the structure the from its original foundations. On the way it very nearly toppled over when it reached a rabbit warren and the weight caused the warren to collapse.