Casterton - VIC

Casterton is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Glenelg Highway, 42 kilometres east of the South Australian border, in the Shire of Glenelg. The Glenelg River passes through the town. Casterton is named after the village of Casterton in south-east Cumbria in England. It is the home of the annual Kelpie Muster.

It is an amusing comment on small town competitiveness that two towns - Casterton in Victoria and Ardlethan in NSW - both lay claim to being the home of the kelpie dog. Ardlethan asserts its claim by having a bronze statue of a kelpie in Stewart Park. Casterton is home to the annual Australian Kelpie Muster. Fortunately both towns have legitimate claims. The truth is that the first kelpie was born near Casterton and the refinement of the breed occurred near Ardlethan.

Casterton was the heartland of Thomas Mitchell’s Australia Felix. Mitchell, the New South Wales Surveyor General, travelled south-westerly, entering the Wando Valley and crossing the Glenelg River near Casterton. He then saw the Wannon Valley east of Casterton, describing all the land as containing excellent soil and grass, surpassing in quality any he had seen in New South Wales. He reported this to the Henty brothers who were established at Portland on the coast. Subsequently Francis Henty settled at Merino Downs, south-east of Casterton, in 1837. By 1841 the land west of Casterton was under pastoral runs and the land east of Casterton was taken up by 1844.

After both World Wars the huge pastoral runs were subdivided into Soldier Settlement blocks, giving rise to the generally smaller but successful farming operations of today.