Buninyong is a suburb of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. The town is on the Midland Highway, south of Ballarat on the road to Geelong. It is the site of the first inland town proclaimed in Victoria and was where gold was first discovered in the area, leading to the large Gold Rush of the 1850s. The population at the 2006 census was 3,085.
The name originates from an Aboriginal word also recorded as 'Buninyouang', said to mean 'man lying on his back with his knees raised', which is in reference to the shape of Mount Buninyong. European settlers named it Bunnenyong and the name later simplified to its current form.
History
Buninyong has an important place in history as the major inland community of pre-gold rush Victoria. It was explored in 1837 by the Learmonth Brothers - Thomas and Somerville - and others, and then subsequently settled in 1839 as a pastoral settlement.
A Post Office opened on 1 January 1845 to serve the needs of the settlers and was known as Bunnenyong until 1859.
Although gold was being found in the area from about 1840 the 'official' finding of gold was when it was found 3 kilometres west of the town in 1851 by Thomas Hiscock, the local Buninyong blacksmith, at an area still known as Hiscock's. Evidence is slowly emerging that the early pastoralists were finding gold, but not making their good fortune known because of the fear the Colonial Government would confiscate their finds because the whole area was Crown Land. By 1871 there were 2281 people and 20 hotels at Buninyong.
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