Counties of Victoria

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1877 map of the counties of Victoria

The Australian state of Victoria is divided into 37 counties. They are part of the cadastral divisions of Australia. These counties were gazetted in stages between 1849 and 1890 as Victoria was progressively opened up to European settlement. Unlike counties in the United States and the United Kingdom, Victoria's counties have no administrative or political function. They exist purely as cadastral units: used for the purposes of identifying the location of any piece of land. The counties are furthermore divided into 2914 parishes and townships.

The county names have also been traditionally used as names for electoral districts, although these districts seldom have boundaries coinciding exactly with county boundaries. The Victorian Legislative Assembly currently has electoral districts called Benambra, Evelyn, Lowan, Mornington, Polwarth, Ripon and Rodney. The counties are also related to the boundaries for the Victorian forecast districts.

[edit] Former counties

1852 map of eastern victoria, showing seven former counties

The counties in the Gippsland area in the eastern part of the state were changed during the mid nineteenth century; what became the counties of Buln Buln, Tanjil, Dargo, Tambo and Croajingalong were once part of the counties of Douro, Bass, Haddington, Bruce, Abinger, Combermere and Howe. These counties are shown on several early maps such as 1845 map and 1848 map. They were presumably changed in the mid 1860s, as they appear on maps up until 1864 [1], but the new counties appear on an 1865 map.