DEVENISH
(www.northeastvictoria.online)
Devenish village is located about 25km north of Benalla, in an area that was first settled in the mid-1840s, following on from knowledge gained by the explorations of Major Mitchell.
Devenish was part of a district known as Major Plains, and was probably named after the small village of Devenish, not far north of Enniskillen in north-western Ireland.
Major Plains first came under pastoral occupation in 1844, alongside the nearby Goorambat and Mokoan Runs; other selections occurred in the early 1870s.
The Major Plains school opened in 1876, and the railway (that became the Benalla - Oaklands Line) from Benalla reached Devenish in 1883 (a plaque in the village commemorates the Centenary of this event).
The Post Office opened in 1877 (as the Broken Creek Post Office) but was renamed Devenish in 1878.
Items of interest in the village include the excellent women’s war service murals on the wheat silos, and the nearby community hall, which is home to resonant WW1 and WW2 Honour Rolls.
The murals were created by street artist Cam Scale (see camscale.com.au), and bring lots of people to the village on a sunny day.
Devenish is part of a popular touring loop from Benalla and Glenrowan, and the current village population is about 360 - about a third of these people being directly involved in farming.
The community owned hotel (the Devenish Hotel) serves lunch and dinner several days a week (nice rustic bar and dining room).
A more recent item of great interest is a memorial to that heroic nurse of WW2, Vivian Bullwinkel; Vivian suffered horendous experiences during her service, and the memorial recounts some of this trauma.
Adjoining this memorial, there is another new memorial, dedicated to the sniffer dogs that are used to detect unexploded bombs etc.
Benalla Visitor Information Centre
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COPYRIGHT © 1995-2025, Chris McLaughlin.