A City with History
Kilmore was discovered for European use by the famous Overlander Charles Bonney on about 21 March 1837 whilst he was laying the trail of the Sydney to Melbourne Road. His track formed the main highway between the capital cities for 139 years. Kilmore was settled by Bonney on about 17 June 1837 as a sheep station and he built Bonney’s Outstation on the townsite itself. Kilmore would have had its first European building within a couple of days of Bonney’s arrival.
Kilmore was a stronghold of early Celtic settlers from Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall and has a strong Celtic connection to this day with a market on the last Saturday of each month, and a Celtic Festival each June.
Kilmore Post Office opened on 1 February 1843, the fifth to open in the Port Phillip District. Many of Kilmore’s oldest extant buildings are made of bluestone including the hospital, old courthouse, former post office, some churches, a gaol, and a monument to Hume and Hovell near the golf course.