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Gold was found in the Wangaratta area during the 1850's and this is reflected in the name of a nearby town of Eldorado
where the remains of an old dredge can still be seen today. The Post Office in the area opened on 1 February 1843 as
Ovens, and moved to the township and was renamed Wangaratta in 1854. The Ovens office, and the Kilmore office
which opened the same day, these were the fifth and sixth to open in the Port Phillip District and the first two inland
offices.

There is one football team in Wangaratta, the Wangaratta City Football Club. Founded in 1951, they compete in the
Albury Wodonga Football Association. There are three Australian rules football clubs in Wangaratta, the Wangaratta
Football Club, the Wangaratta Rovers Football Club (both competing in the Ovens and Murray Football League), and
the North Wangaratta Football Club, which competes in the Ovens and King Football League. The close proximity of
the Rovers and Wangaratta grounds reflects the historical sectarian split in membership of the clubs; Rovers
membership being predominantly Catholic and Wangaratta being predominantly Protestant/Anglican. The city hosted
several games for the 2005 Australian Football International Cup event, with several countries competing in the sport
of Australian rules football. The event was played at the City Oval and Show grounds and set the attendance records
for the tournament to date. Cricket in Wangaratta is organised by the Wangaratta and District Cricket Association.
Clubs include Wangaratta Magpies, Rovers United, City Colts and Bruck Cricket Clubs. Wangaratta has a horse
racing club, the Wangaratta Turf Club, which schedules around eleven race meetings a year including the Wangaratta
Cup meeting in April. The Wangaratta Greyhound Racing Club holds regular meetings at the same venue, Avian Park.
Golfers play at the course of the Wangaratta Golf Club on Yarrawonga Road,[9] or at the course of the Jubilee Golf
Club at Wangandary nearby. [10] A nine hole course is at Boorhaman to the north of Wangaratta.

Wangaratta has three secondary schools: Galen Catholic College (private), Cathedral College (private) which has two
campuses and Wangaratta High School which has three campuses. The Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE has two
Wangaratta campuses. The Docker street campus offers a broad range of courses from business studies to music
with a central area containing a cafeteria, library and student services. The Christensen Lane campus on the outskirts
of Wangaratta is the home for the National Centre for Equine Education as well as providing courses in horticulture.

Historically, there has been disagreement about whether the first syllable in wangarratta should be pronounced
'Wong' or 'Wang'. The 'Wong' pronunciation was never used by a majority of the population, and never received
any wide currency outside the district. It was officially disavowed by the Wangaratta City Council's declaration in
favour of the 'Wang' pronunciation in the 1980s. Some locals, particularly the elderly, continue to use the 'Wong'
pronunciation.

The station is on the main railway line between Sydney and Melbourne and is usually served by V/Line services
between Melbourne and Albury as well as a twice daily Countrylink XPT service in both directions between Melbourne
and Sydney. Two railway gauges ran in parallel to Melbourne and Albury; the Victorian broad gauge of 1600 mm
(5' 3") and the standard gauge of 1435 mm (4' 8½"). The broad gauge line closed in 2008 and will be converted to
standard gauge as part of a track renewal programme. Buses are replacing V/Line services for the duration of the
project, while XPT services continue to operate.  There was a branch line commenced in 1873, running east to
Beechworth, reaching the town in September 1876, but this was closed in January 1977. Another branch line ran to
Bright until its closure. This has since been converted into a cycling and walking track, known as the Murray to the
Mountains Rail Trail. Another short branch line ran west to a wheat silo located on the north side of the Ovens River
at Boorhaman. A second rail branch was a narrow gauge (762 mm, 2' 6") line from Wangaratta to Whitfield constructed
during the late 1890's and opened in 1899. The line operated until 1953 and was famous for its special engines imported
from Baldwin Locomotive Works in the USA. Some of these 2-6-2T locomotives now operate on the Puffing Billy Railway
outside Melbourne. A book, Focus on Victoria's Narrow Gauge, with photos, maps along the line and of Wangaratta
station with its dual track gauges was published in 2002.

Wangaratta is also serviced by a small regional airport, Wangaratta Airport. A city bus service runs every half an hour
during the day on weekdays and on Saturday mornings on a route covering Wangaratta's West End, the business
district, Yarrunga and more recently, Yarrawonga Road.

John Bowser (2 September 1856 – 10 June 1936), Australian politician, was the 26th Premier of Victoria. He was
born in London, the son of an army officer, and arrived in Melbourne as a child with his family. He grew up at Bacchus
Marsh and when he left school got a job with the Bacchus Marsh Express. As a young man he went to Scotland and
worked on newspapers while studying at Edinburgh University. Returning to Australia, he settled in Wangaratta, where
he farmed and managed the Wangaratta Chronicle, which he eventually bought. In 1894 Bowser was elected to the
Victorian Legislative Assembly for Wangaratta and Rutherglen - no doubt owning the local paper was a big advantage.
He represented Wangaratta for 35 years. He was Minister for Public Instruction in the Liberal government of Thomas
Bent in 1908-1909, but thereafter did not hold office again until he became Premier. He emerged as one of the leaders
of the conservative rural faction of the Liberal Party, known as the Economy Party, concerned with getting roads and
railways to their districts, cutting government expenditure, and keeping country areas over-represented in the
Assembly.

William (Bill) Ah Ket (20 June 1876 – 6 August 1936) was a noted Australian barrister. He was born in Wangaratta,
Victoria. He is noted for fighting against the requirements of the 1907 Factories (Employment of Chinese) Act, which
discriminated against Australian-born Chinese.[2] He successfully opposed proposed legislative amendments in 1904,
905 and 1907 which would have specifically discriminated against Chinese in the furniture industry. Ah Ket was a
co-founder of the Australian-Chinese Association and the Victorian delegate to the opening of the Chinese national
parliament in 1912. In 1913-14 and 1917 he acted as Consul-General for China in Melbourne. His daughter Malaan is
the mother of the British guitarist John Williams.

Australian Singer Nick Cave is originally from Wangarratta! He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically
acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and
musical styles. Before that, he had fronted the group The Birthday Party in the early 1980s, a band renowned for its
highly dark, challenging lyrics and violent sound influenced by free jazz, blues, and post-punk. In 2006, he formed the
garage rock band Grinderman that released its debut the following year. Cave's music is generally characterised by
emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences, and lyrical obsessions with "religion, death, love, America, and
violence." As a child, Cave lived in Warracknabeal and then Wangaratta.

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Ernest Edward "Weary" Dunlop, AC, CMG, OBE (12 July 1907 – 2 July 1993) was an Australian
surgeon who was renowned for his leadership whilst being held prisoner by the Japanese during World War II. Dunlop
was born in Wangaratta, Victoria, the second of two children of his parents James and Alice. He started an
apprenticeship in pharmacy when he finished school, and moved to Melbourne in 1927. There, he studied at the
Victorian College of Pharmacy and then the University of Melbourne, where he obtained a scholarship in medicine.
Dunlop graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1934 with first class honours in pharmacy and in medicine and
excelled as a sportsman at Melbourne University and Ormond College.

Dean Anthony Woods, OAM (born June 22, 1966) is an Australian cyclist from Wangaratta in Victoria known for his
track cycling at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. On Australia Day 1985 he was awarded the Order
of Australia medal for service to cycling. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles Woods, with team mates
Michael Grenda, Kevin Nicholls, and Michael Turtur, won the 4000m team pursuit. Critics did not give them much chance.
The team was coached by Charlie Walsh and dubbed Charlie's Angels. In the final the Australians defeated the USA by
3.86 seconds, even though the Australians were riding conventional bikes while the Americans had high-tech machines.
Woods told The Border Mail in 2004, "Expectations weren't high for us from the press, but we thought we would do
pretty well. We had a close team." In the 4000m individual pursuit Woods was beaten for bronze by Leonard Nitz (USA).
In the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul Wayne McCarney, Stephen McGlede, Scott McGrory, Brett Dutton and Woods
won the bronze medal for the team pursuit, defeated by the USSR (gold) and German Democratic Republic (silver). In
the individual pursuit Woods won the silver medal. Woods won a bronze medal in the team pursuit in the 1996 Summer
Olympics. At the 1986 Commonwealth Games he won the individual pursuit event. In the Melbourne to Warrnambool
Classic Woods set the record of 5h 12m in 1990. Woods established and works at a bicycle shop, Dean Woods Direct,
at Wangaratta.

The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz is an annual festival of jazz and blues held in the town of Wangaratta, 2.5 hours from
Melbourne in North East Victoria, Australia. It has become the premier jazz event in Australia and is renowned
internationally. Since inception in 1990, the festival has grown to include 90 events and over 350 national and
international artists performing each year. The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz also hosts the National Jazz Awards, Youth
Jazz Workshops, master classes and events throughout Wangaratta and surrounding wine regions. In 1999 the festival
won a National Tourism Award and was inducted into the Victorian Tourism Hall of Fame. In 2000 the Wangaratta
Festival of Jazz was elevated to a Victorian Hallmark Event. The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz began in 1989 as the
dream of local business people who wanted to establish a significant festival for their town and region - a festival that
would be unique and that would attract many tourists to the area. A feasibility study was commissioned and the study
concluded that, although there were numerous festivals in Australia, there was the opportunity to base one on modern
and contemporary jazz. As no such event existed in Australia, it was recommended that such a festival be built around
an internationally recognised competition. Since its first year in 1990, the festival has demanded uncompromising
excellence in performance and a balanced showcasing of all jazz styles. At the core are the National Jazz Awards for
young musicians.

The first European explorers to pass through the Wangaratta area were Hume and Hovell (1824) who named the
Oxley Plains immediately south of Wangaratta. The New South Wales Surveyor-General, Major Thomas Mitchell, crossed
the Ovens River in 1836 during his Australia Felix expedition. There is a "Mitchell tree" near where Murphy Street,
Wangaratta, meets the Ovens River, stated to be a place where Mitchell stopped. In the following year George and
William Faithfull settled at the Bontharambo pastoral station, north of Wangaratta. In 1838 their place was taken by
Joseph Docker. Docker's Bontharambo homestead (1858) is on the Register of the National Estate. A punt for crossing
the Ovens River was begun by a man named Rattray in 1838. The Hope Inn, now the Sydney Hotel at Ovens and
Templeton Streets, was opened in 1840. Ovens Crossing, as it was called, formed a settlement which became
Wangaratta. In 1848 the Port Phillip surveyor, Robert Hoddle, arranged for a town survey at Ovens Crossing,
consisting of eleven streets and about 200 blocks. It was named Wangaratta, reputedly derived from an Aboriginal
word meaning cormorant's resting place. Land sales took place in 1849-50. A primary school was opened in 1850, and
the site continues as that of the Wangaratta State primary school.

The discovery of gold in the Ovens Valley in 1852 stimulated the growth of Wangaratta, as miners used the punt crossing
and the bridge which replaced it in 1855. On 19 June, 1863, Wangaratta was created a borough. By about that time
Wangaratta had a petty sessions court, a racecourse, branches of banks and insurance companies, an agricultural
society, flour mills, breweries, and Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches. (In 1902
Wangaratta became an Anglican Diocese, and a Cathedral Church was built.) In 1873 the railway line from Melbourne
to the State border, via Wangaratta, was opened. By about the turn of the century Wangaratta's preeminence in
north-eastern Victoria was emerging - the creation of the Anglican Diocese being an example. Wangaratta became a
provincial retailing area for north-eastern Victoria, Callenders emporium and Osmotherly's drapery being examples.
The North-Eastern Co-operative Society advertised itself as running the Greatest Store in the North East. Wangaratta
also became a provincial educational centre with the opening of a State high school (1909), a Catholic technical school
and a State technical school (1923). Manufacturing in the form of butter and cordial factories, a foundry and coach
works was significantly diversified in 1923 when the proprietor of Callender's emporium was made the first chairman
of the Wangaratta Woollen Mills.

In 1942 an aluminum factory was established at Wangaratta as a war-time industry. Although the factory ceased
operation as the Japanese forces retreated, the building was taken by Bruck Mills (Canada) in 1947 for rayon production.
The Bruck Mills workforce exceeded 1,000 at its peak. It had been a civic-minded firm which had sponsored public
utilities and financially assisted the building of houses. During the first fifteen postwar years Wangaratta's population
doubled to over 13,000 persons. Partly this was attributed to some emigration from rural centres, but a steady growth
of manufacturing and tertiary employment was more significant. Housing was built by local co-operatives and the Housing
Commission. The Commission's estate is south of the city, close to the textile mills. Wangaratta borough became a city
on 15 April, 1959.

Edward "Ned" Kelly was an Australian bush ranger, and, to some, a folk hero for his defiance of the colonial authorities.
Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish convict father, and as a young man he clashed with the police. Following an incident
at his home in 1878, police parties searched for him in the bush. After he murdered three policemen, the colony
proclaimed Kelly and his gang wanted outlaws. A final violent confrontation with police took place at Glenrowan. Kelly,
dressed in home-made plate metal armour and helmet, was captured and sent to jail. He was hanged for murder at Old
Melbourne Gaol in 1880. ‘The Story of the Kelly Gang’ was probably the longest narrative film ever made when it was
released in 1906. It was also probably the world’s first feature film. Most films at the time ran for less than 20 minutes.
This film was closer to an hour in length and was billed as being over 4,000 feet long. It told the story of Ned Kelly and
was divided into six sequences, including the Kelly gang ambushing a police camp, and Ned Kelly’s capture at
Glenrowan. The film was based on a theatrical production, and was made as a way of helping the theatre company
reach audiences in suburbs of larger cities and in country areas. It was first screened in Melbourne in December 1906.
It was very popular in Australia, and was eventually released in England. For a while Australia led the world in producing
such films: it had made sixteen feature length films by the time other countries began producing them in about 1911.

The Kelly gang, as they were known, came into existence by sheer misfortune. The young men (Joe Byrne & Steve
Hart) who were with Ned & Dan at Stringybark Creek at the time of the police shootings would become 'the Kelly
gang'. Up until this point they were merely four bush larrikins. Apart from the four above, there was a man named
Tom Lloyd Jr who was at pretty much every gang activity and somehow despite the police knowing this was to live a
free mans life. Another man, named Aaron Sherritt also spent a lot of time with the gang, before being killed by
best friend and gang member Joe Byrne. As a gang, they robbed two banks, whilst holding up entire towns in
meticulously planned raids. The raid on Glenrowan was to be their downfall and would see the destruction of the gang.
There were four 'official' gang members, brothers Ned & Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne & Steve Hart. They were all young men
and had been convicted of minor crimes prior to the police killings at Stringybark Creek.

Inspector Sadleir to Ned Kelly after his capture: "You wanted then to kill the people in the train?"
Ned's reply: "Yes, of course I did. God help them, they would have  got shot all the same. Would they not have tried
to kill me? Joe Byrne after Bracken escaped: "Let me catch him and I'll make a Bracken of him"
Ned: "shoot you bloody cocktails, you cannot hurt me, I'm in iron" Ned to Reardon who was taking his time to remove
rails: "Old man, you are a long  time breaking up this road. If you don't look sharp I'll tickle you with this revolver."
Ned to Gascoigne: "Fire away you bloody dogs, you can't hurt us" Hare when first hit by a bullet: "good gracious, I am
shot!" (not sure if I believe that one...reckon there would have been a bit of &^&*@%$$(# words in there).
Jesse Dowsett as he fired at Ned: "how do you like that", he replied, "how do you  like this", as he leant over a log
and fired. Ned Kelly  to Phillips: "Good shot boys."

The town of Glenrowan would be but a dot on the map (and a small dot at that) if not for the exploits of The Kelly
Gang. For some townsfolk that is good and for others not so. Either way, if not for the happenings of 1880 I doubt we
would even know where this place was! Many 'siege sites' are now vacant land, the site of the Glenrowan Inn, the site
of the first volley, the railway station, the stationmaster's house, McDonnell's Hotel and more.  An original
tation-masters house is there if you know where to look, as is the stump where Ned fell and was captured. Thankfully
most of these sites are undeveloped. Nothing much has happened to them since the original buildings rotted away.
Bring along your imagination and you can find yourself stepping back in time to when the gang held up the entire town.
Stand at the (replica) train station and imagine a flurry of activity as the police arrived and the shootout commenced.