Breakwater, Victoria

Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb
name = Breakwater
city = Geelong
state = vic

---

caption = V/Line train crossing the Breakwater Bridge
lga = City of Greater Geelong
postcode = 3219
est = 1837
pop = 1054 (2006)Census 2006 AUS | id = SSC22021 | name = Breakwater (State Suburb) | accessdate = 2007-10-01 | quick = on]
area = 3.1
propval =
stategov = Geelong
fedgov = Corio
near-nw = South Geelong
near-n = East Geelong
near-ne = Newcomb
near-w = Belmont
near-e = Whittington
near-sw = Grovedale
near-s =
near-se = St Albans Park
dist1 =
location1=

Breakwater is a residential and industrial suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia, located on the Barwon River, 4 km south-south-east of the Geelong central business district. Breakwater is also home to the Geelong Racing Club, Geelong Racecourse and the Geelong Showgrounds.

History

The name Breakwater originated from a rock ford constructed across the Barwon River by Geelong's first Police magistrate, Captain Foster Fyans, in 1837. The ford stopped the inflow of salt water to the fresh water river, supplying the town with fresh river water.

A Post Office opened on 1 January 1867 and closed in 1982. Citation
last = Premier Postal History | title = Post Office List | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&country= | accessdate = 2008-04-11 ]

Land between the industrial area and the river is prone to flooding. From 1913 - 1916 the Geelong Water and Sewerage Trust built a 750-metre long sewer aqueduct across the Barwon River to an ocean discharge point at Black Rock. It was retired after 80 years of service due to its poor structural condition which was beyond economic repair.

Census populations

* 1861 - 136
* 1871 - 312
* 1981 - 1,521

References

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050620101354/http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ncas/multimedia/gazetteer/list/breakwater.html Australian Places - Breakwater]