Town by town snapshot: Bannockburn

The size of Bannockburn is approximately 82.7 square kilometres and has three parks covering nearly 4 per cent of total area.

The population of Bannockburn in 2011 was 3513 people and by the 2016 was up to 5256 showing growth of 49.6 per cent.

Bannockburn is a prosperous rural township 20km north-west of Geelong on the railway line to Ballarat.

Bannockburn is on the east side of Bruces Creek named after an early settler James Bruce.

It appears that his name influenced the choice of Bannockburn as the name of the township on Bruce’s Creek, probably commemorating the Battle of Bannockburn, Scotland (1314) when Robert Bruce defeated England’s Edward II.

A Bannockburn Road District was created in 1862, the forerunner of Bannockburn Shire which commenced in 1864.

The opening of the railway line from Geelong to Ballarat in 1862 through Bannockburn ultimately ensured the formation of a district township.

By the 1970s several of the early unused subdivision blocks were being built on and there were numerous rural/residential settlers.

The land was relatively cheap, possibly because it had a lower rainfall than the Bellarine Peninsula which was attracting similar settlement.

Today Bannockburn, with one of regional Victoria’s lowest median age of 34, is booming as young families look to this lifestyle town to raise their family in a semi-rural environment.

CoreLogic data indicates that the predominant age group in Bannockburn is 0-9 years with households in Bannockburn being primarily couples with children and are likely to be repaying $1800 – $2399 per month on mortgage repayments, and in general, people in Bannockburn work in a trades occupation.