Woorinen South
Postcode: 3588
Woorinen South is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is situated within the Rural City of Swan Hill within the Mallee region of north-west Victoria. In the 2001 census, Woorinen South had 323 residents. The town is located 350 km north-west of Melbourne and 10 km north-west of the regional centre Swan Hill. The town contains a number of small businesses and is in the centre of a prosperous and diverse agricultural area which produces wine, stone fruit, vegetables, wool, and cereal crops. The town hosts the annual Vintage Steam Rally.
Aboriginal people have lived in the wider Murray River region for thousands of years. The language groups living in the Central Murray area at the time of European contact were the Wemba Wemba and the Wati Wati people.
The first European settlers arrived in the area in the late nineteenth century and began clearing the land of its Mallee Scrub and planted crops. In the early years there was very little infrastructure. Transport and crop production was achieved through horse power or bullock teams.
The Woorinen irrigation area was started largely as a soldier settlement following the end of World War I. The Woorinen Central School (No. 3945) opened for classes in 1917 at Reserve Road. The Woorinen Soldiers Memorial Hall was constructed in 1923 at the corner of Chillingollah Road and North South Road. It was used as a meeting place for local people and was used for a number of years for RSL club meetings. The next school to open in the area was the Woorinen North School (No. 4148) at Monash Drive in 1925. The Woorinen South School (No. 4456) opened in 1930 in the Woorinen South township, which had gradually sprung up along Palmer Street on the north side of the Swan Hill to Piangil railway line which was finished in 1915.
Due to dwindling class numbers and the Victorian state government cost cutting, the Woorinen Central School and the Woorinen North School both closed at the end of 1993. At this time, the Woorinen South School changed its name to Woorinen District School to reflect its new status as the only school left open in the area. Post-primary aged students attend one of the secondary schools in nearby Swan Hill.