DIXONS CREEK (district)
Dixons Creek is believed to be named after Dr John Dickson who held a pastoral lease extending from the present Gulf Station north to the ridge line now traced by the Kinglake-Toolangi Road, and east from Skyline Ridge to approximately Pauls Lane in Tarrawarra. It forms part of the parish of Burgoyne and part of the parish of Tarrawarra North.
The first records known relating to Dr Dickson in the district are dated 1843. Dickson sold his pastoral lease to William Bell of Kangaroo Ground in the 1850s. In 1857 William Bells son William and Thomas Armstrong formed a partnership and purchased 1188 acres. Thomas Walters purchased 181 acres in the Pauls Creek area and Nathaniel Ellis selected 208 acres. In 1862 and 1865 new Victorian Government Land Acts enabled selectors to purchase smaller parcels of land including areas previously occupied by the pastoralists. Among the early selectors were the Williamson brothers who purchased land including High Bow Hill and the Hargreaves family who took up land in the vicinity of the present school. In 1875 the first school at Dixons Creek was opened on the northern side of Gulf Hill. It moved to its present site in 1916. Nathaniel Ellis opened a General Store around the turn of the twentieth century and he was appointed post master in 1904. The area remained a farming area until the 1960s when the construction of the Melba Highway coincided with the introduction of vineyards and diversification.
