Warrnambool (pop. 32,894) is a city in Victoria, Australia. It lies on the coast, 163 miles (263 kilometers) west of Melbourne, where the Prince’s Highway meets the Great Ocean Road. Warrnambool is in the center of an important dairying, grazing, and vegetable-growing district. Dairy farmers in the area send their milk to the city’s large milk-processing factory and butter and cheese factories. The city also has textile and clothing factories.
Many people come to the city to see the herd of rare whales that visit Warrnambool each winter to calve. Specially built tourist attractions include the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village, a re-creation of a typical port of the 1800’s. Tower Hill, an extinct volcano 6 miles (10 kilometers) west of Warrnambool, is a state game reserve. It is the most recently active of the volcanoes that erupted and shaped Victoria’s Western District in past ages.
Warrnambool is an Aboriginal name, but experts disagree on its meaning. It is often translated as place between two waters. The first recorded visit by Europeans was made in 1802 by the French navigator Nicolas Baudin in the Geographe. He sighted Tower Hill. Warrnambool was proclaimed a township site in 1847. It became a city in 1918.
