Lockington, Victoria

For over 26,000 years, the Dja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung and Yorta Yorta people had made the area around Lockington their home. Prior to early settlement, these groups were the primary custodians of the land, maintaining it whilst also practising their culture upon it. The first trace of European settlement can be traced back to the 1840s when it was owned by squatters under lease-hold tenure. At the time the whole area surrounding the present location of Lockington, an area made up of approximately 42,000 hectares, was known as Pine Grove and was owned by John Hunter Patterson. This land would go on to be sub-divided into East and West in 1864. The East was owned by Myles Patterson, who went on to sell it to Hugh and Robert John Glass in 1867. The East went on to switch ownership two more times, first going to Adam Burness in 1867 and then to W.J. Clarke in 1871. However with the gold rush subsiding in the 1860s, unemployment within the area rose drastically leading to multiple requests by locals to the state government to allow for farming. With the approval for farming being granted, there was another influx of people into Pine Grove in 1873. This in turn also led to the majority of Aboriginal tribes around the area to disappear. With the expansion of farming in the area, challenges around water supply would commonly be present, despite the creation of dams which in turn led to wells becoming an important source of water. As the area continued to grow, new schools were established but were moved around depending on the number of children in the specific districts. After the severe drought of the 1890s in Victoria, there were multiple attempts to create irrigation schemes for the state. With no other places holding such a name, Lockington was officially gazetted in 1921. ==The Town today==