County of Bourke

Infobox Australian cadastral
name = Bourke
state = Victoria


caption = Location in Victoria
near-nw = Talbot
near-n = Dalhousie
near-ne = Anglesey
near-e = Evelyn
near-se = Mornington
near-s = "Port Phillip Bay"
near-sw = Grant
near-w = Grant

:"There is also Bourke County, New South Wales"The County of Bourke is one of the 37 counties of Victoria which are part of the cadastral divisions of Australia, used for land titles. It is the oldest and most populous county in Victoria and contains the city of Melbourne. Like other counties in Victoria, it is subdivided into parishes. The original name for the area was the Port Philip District, which was renamed to Bourke County after Richard Bourke, the governor of New South Wales between 1831 and 1837. [ [http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=53&pg=732 Bourke street Melbourne] ] It is bordered by the Werribee River in the west; the Great Dividing Range in the north; Port Phillip Bay in the south; and by Dandenong Creek, a small part of the Yarra River, and the Plenty River in the east.

The Melbourne and County of Bourke Police was the name for the police force in the area before 1853. The County of Bourke was used on the name of the electoral roll in 1845. [ [http://www.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/whatdo/services/famhistory/electoralrolls State Library of Tasmania, Electoral Rolls] ] There was also the Bourke County Court in the 1850s [ [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pobjoyoneill/Keilor/brkcntycrt.html Bourke County Court] ] , which became the County Court of Victoria. Melbourne is also referenced as being in the County of Bourke in the 1911 Britannica. [ [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Melbourne,_Australia 1911 Britannica, Melbourne, Australia] ]

Parishes

Parishes within the county (many of the links below link to the modern day suburb or town which is usually in the same area as the parish, but not necessarily the same - the parish would be larger than the modern suburb). Several of the parishes were also part of a neighbouring county. These parishes were in Bourke as well as the County of Dalhousie; Bylands, Forbes, Goldie, Lancefield and Newham. Several others were in Bourke and the County of Evelyn; Morang, Toorourrong and Yan Yean. The parish of Ballan was located in Bourke and the County of Grant.

References

* [http://services.land.vic.gov.au/vicnames/place.html?method=edit&id=30381 Vicnames, place name details]
* [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kenmac/victowns/ Research aids, Victoria 1910]

External links

* [http://www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/about/historyandheritage/resources/onlinetrailofgardinerscreek/planofpartofthecountyofbourke1835-1855 Plans of the County of Bourke 1835-1855]