County of Bourke, Victoria

Bourke
Victoria
Location in Victoria
Established22 June 1853
Area4,457 km2 (1,720.9 sq mi)
Lands administrative divisions around Bourke:
Talbot Dalhousie Anglesey
Grant Bourke Evelyn
Grant Port Phillip Mornington
1866 map of Bourke County showing the parishes
1885 map of Bourke County (pink)
1886 map of Bourke County

The County of Bourke is one of the 37 counties of Victoria which are part of the Lands administrative divisions of Australia, (used for land titles and no longer other administrative or political function). 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 county was named after Irish born Sir Richard Bourke, the Governor of New South Wales between 1831 and 1837.[1] It is bordered by the Werribee River in the west; the Great Dividing Range in the north; Port Phillip in the south; and by Dandenong Creek, a small part of the Yarra River, and the Plenty River in the east. The county was proclaimed in 1853.

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.[2] There was also the "Bourke County Court" in the 1850s,[3] which became the County Court of Victoria. Melbourne is also referenced as being in "Bourke county" in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition.[4]

  1. ^ Bourke street Melbourne Archived 2006-10-03 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ State Library of Tasmania, Electoral Rolls
  3. ^ Bourke County Court
  4. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Melbourne" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 90.

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