Colac

Postcode: 3250

Colac is a town in the western district of Victoria, Australia, situated approximately 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne on the southern shore of Lake Colac. It is approximately twenty five miles inland from Bass Strait and is on the Princes Highway, which is the main road from Melbourne to Adelaide and part of Australia's circumnavigational Highway 1, which is reputed to be the longest road in the world. At the 2001 census, Colac had a population of 10,164.

The area was first settled by Hugh Murray in 1837 and proclaimed a town in 1948. Colac Botanic Gardens in Queen Street located on the shores of Lake Colac, were established in 1868, and remodelled in 1910 by William Guilfoyle and include a huge diversity of plants with many old and rare trees and a rose arbour. As one of the gateways to the Otway Ranges, Colac is an entry point to some of Victoria's most picturesque scenery. The Twelve Apostles, Shipwreck Coast and the Great Ocean Road are all readily accessible on sealed roads.

Colac is the home of the annual "Cliff Young Australian 6-day race". The event has been going for over 20 years and is a running/walking event. It is held on the Memorial Square which is right in the Heart of Colac and attracts entries from all over the world. A plaque on the southern side of the Memorial Square commemorates two historic speeches given on consecutive nights in Colac, beginning on September 5th 1914 with the then Federal opposition leader, Andrew Fisher,and followed the next night by Prime Minister Joseph Cook. The two speeches declared Australia's commitment to follow Britain into World War I, with Fisher declaring "Australia will stand by the mother country to our last man and our last shilling" and Cook's famous reiteration that "If the old country is at war, so are we."

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