Bacchus Marsh

Victoria, Australia

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Bacchus Marsh, town in southern Victoria, Australia. It is located 32 miles (51 km) northwest of Melbourne (to which a growing proportion of its residents commute daily) on the east bank of the Werribee River. In 1838 Captain William Henry Bacchus founded the town, and it grew as a stopping place for Cobb and Company coaches traveling from Melbourne to the Ballarat goldfields. Bacchus Marsh is situated in a fruit-growing, grazing, dairying, and mixed farming area and is also a centre of light manufacturing that produces hardboard, plastic goods, clothing, and engineering equipment. Maddingley open-cut mine provides much of the state’s supply of brown coal. A park, nearby Werribee and Lerderderg gorges, and the Avenue of Honour, an elm-tree lined entrance to the town commemorating fallen servicemen, are tourist attractions. The Manor, originally Bacchus’s home, is one of the oldest colonial-period buildings in Victoria. Pop. (2001) urban centre, 11,279; (2011) 17,155.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.