Agent TypeOrganisationHistoryA photograph very similar to these (especially No.2) appears in Lorna L. Banfield's 'Like the Ark: The Story of Ararat' (Melbourne, 1955), opposite p.34.
Prior to the European settlement of Australia, Ararat was inhabited by the Tjapwurong Indigenous Australian people.
Europeans first settled in the Grampians region in the 1840s after surveyor Thomas Mitchell passed through the area in 1836. In 1841, Horatio Wills, on his way to selecting country further south, wrote in his diary, "like the Ark we rested" and named a nearby hill Mt Ararat. It is from this entry and the nearby Mount that the town takes its name. The Post Office opened 1 February 1856 although known as Cathcart until 31 August 1857.
In 1857, a party of Chinese miners en route to the Central Victorian gold fields struck gold at the Canton Lead which marked the beginning of great growth in Ararat. The Chinese community was substantial in Ararat. Rapid growth brought about a municipality which was incorporated on 24 September 1858 and known as the Municipal District of Ararat, headed by a chairman. In 1862 it was declared as a borough and known as the Borough of Ararat headed by mayors.
Ref: City of Ararat, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Ararat, accessed 19 April 2012
Ref: Ararat, Victoria, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ararat,_Victoria, accessed 19 April 2012
Borough of Ararat. University of Melbourne Archives, accessed 11/12/2025, https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/58817
