A Brief History of Boort by Russell Malone.
Source: http://www.regional.org.au/au/countrytowns/change/malone.htm
Boort is an Aboriginal name meaning, “ smoke from the hill”. The town is situated on a lunette and on the edge of a lake – Little Lake Boort. The area around Boort and east to the Loddon River was a regular camping area of the Jaara Aborigines. Many middens (cooking mounds) still exist today; some, in the lake-bed of the Big Lake Boort are very well preserved.
Boort Post Office 1917 - 1930
Any history of Boort, however brief, must include acknowledgement of the Jaara people and the way they lived in close harmony with their environment and the respect they had for the entire ecosystem.
Major Mitchell who travelled through the area in 1836 wrote,“My experience enables me to speak in the most favourable terms of the Aborigines. They are never awkward, in manners and general intelligence they appear superior to any class of white rustics
Their shrewdness shines through even the medium of imperfect language and renders them very agreeable companions”
In early 1840’s white squatters began bringing flocks into the Loddon area which earlier had been given very glowing reports by Major Mitchell . In 1843 Henry Godfrey moved to Boort and took over the Boort Station.
The Boort Township was founded in 1871 to service the growing agricultural, pastoral and dairying industries of the district. In those early years there were some industries other than agriculture that contributed to the local economy. In the early 1900’s gypsum was mined and employed up to 60 men. A clothing factory provided employment for 18 women in the early 1940’s.
In 1947 the population of Boort was recorded as 711. The population grew steadily until 1976 when it reached 878. It then levelled out and started to fall until 1986. Since 1986 the population has remained fairly stable at just over 800.
