Delacombe

Delacombe is a residential and industrial suburb 4 km south-west of the centre of Ballarat.

Delacombe is on the Glenelg Highway and has one of several heritage-listed mileposts (pre-1870), giving distances between Linton and Ballarat.

Its industrial origin was a munitions factory, opened in 1941 during World War II. It was known as the gun-cotton area. The factory was south of Victoria Park, Newington, and the spur railway line to the nearby cattle yards was extended to the factory.

Non-military industrialisation and residential subdivision occurred during the late 1960s. The suburb was named after Major General Sir Rohan Delacombe, Governor of Victoria, 1963-74.

Delacombe has State and Catholic primary schools (1981, 1990), a recreation reserve and a small shopping centre. A drive-in theatre existed for a while. The western half of Delacombe is mainly rural but the Ballarat city council has commissioned plans for its future development. Delacombe primary school had 267 pupils in 2014.

In September 2010 and again in January 2011 many parts of regional Victoria experienced widespread severe flooding. In Delacombe a number of homes were inundated by floodwater after a spill into the town from Lake Wendouree which had been artificially filled in 2010 following drought.

Delacombe’s census populations have been: