Smeaton
Postcode: 3364
Smeaton is a small rural town in the state of Victoria, Australia near the town of Creswick, The town was founded by English settler Captain John Hepburn who was a colonial squatter in the 1840s. Hepburn held under Government licence about 20,000 acres (80 km²) for his sheep and cattle run which he drove overland from Sydney. He built Smeaton House in 1849 with the assistance of British colonial migrants.
Hepburn became a very high profile figure in the district, promoted gold mines and became a Justice of the Peace before he died in 1860.
The death of Capt John Hepburn was published in the Creswick Newpaper and Argus (Age) Newpapers of that period.
Smeaton is a tiny hamlet located in a farming and grazing area 142 km north-west of Melbourne, via Creswick and 31 km north of Ballarat.
Prior to white settlement the area was inhabited by the Wemba-Wemba people. Overlander and pastoralist John Hepburn, a retired ship’s captain, settled in the area in 1838, naming it after an estate in Scotland. He built one of the state’s earliest substantial country homes which still stands today.
Some gold was found in the area in the early 1850s but supplying the miners of the district proved more profitable.