Trentham

Trentham is a small town in the Shire of Hepburn and Shire of Moorabool local government area, Victoria, Australia.

Trentham is a small town in the Shire of Hepburn and Shire of Moorabool local government area, Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census, Trentham had a population of 1,180, with a median age of 55 years.

Located at an altitude of 700 metres (2,297 ft), the town is 87 kilometres (54 mi) north-west of Melbourne.

Although pastoral runs were taken up in the area as early as 1838, Trentham was first settled by gold prospectors in the 1850s, and later developed for its timber resources from the surrounding Wombat State Forest. The Post Office opened on 16 July 1862.A railway line arrived in 1880. At its peak carried up to 21,000 tonnes of freight (mostly timber) annually. The station once had a timber tramway which transported timber to the goods platform. In the 1950s, however, the railway declined as better roads were built to connect the town with the major settlements of Victoria, and it was closed during the 1970s. The station is now the Trentham Agricultural and Railway Museum, with the restored station building, the mainly intact yard with some rolling stock, and a platform in good condition.

The township notably experiences large influxes of non-migratory birds notably pelicans and falcons, which has led to them featuring on the towns crest and motto "Tu falco agitare et cum Pelicanis volare" roughly transcribed from Latin: "to drive a falcon and fly with pelicans"

Potato growing (due to a fertile strip of red volcanic soil), grazing and tourism later became the mainstays of the town's economy.

The climate is cool and moist: the mean summer temperature (February) is 17.5 °C, nights fall to around 9.8 °C in December (summer); whilst winters are distinctly cold with the mean daytime temperature 7.8 °C (July) and mean night temperature 2.5 °C. The coldest temperature recorded was –6.0 °C; snowfall is not uncommon in winter; sleet and snow fall on an average of 13 days per annum.

Trentham has an average annual precipitation of 1110.9 mm; the highest single-day rainfall was 154.9 mm, and the highest monthly rainfall was 317.5 mm. The region has a distinct winter rainfall maximum. Rainfall occurs through the summer but tends to be more erratic and unreliable, often occurring in heavy downpours associated with thunderstorms.