Heywood
Postcode: 3304
Heywood is a small service centre on the Fitzroy River. It is situated at an elevation of 27 metres amidst rolling green hills in an agricultural, pastoral and timbercutting district. Heywood is 357 km west of Melbourne at the intersection of the Princes and Henty Highways, about 30 km north of Portland.
Prior to European settlement the area was occupied by the Kuurn Kopan Noot Aborigines. David Edgar built the Bush Tavern on the townsite in 1842. A settlement emerged. Initially known as Edgar’s it was surveyed in 1852 by Lindsay Clarke who named it after Heywood in England. The first town allotments were sold in 1854.
Heywood is on the railway line to Portland, at the junction of the presently-unused branch to Mount Gambier, South Australia.