Mangalore

Mangalore is a rural locality 12 km north of Seymour in central northern Victoria. It is the junction where the northern railway line branches to Shepparton and Wodonga.

In 1838, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Anderson, ex-commandant of the Norfolk Island prison, took up a pastoral run immediately east of the Goulburn River. He named it after the Indian military station, Mangalore, commanded by his brother, General John Anderson. (Anderson later speculated in land in South Yarra, giving his name to Anderson’s Hill and Anderson Street).

Farm selections began in the Mangalore district in the 1860s and the railway line came through Mangalore in 1872. The construction of the branch line to Shepparton in 1880 increased freight movement at Mangalore until 1989 when the railway junction was moved to Seymour and Mangalore station buildings were removed.

A school was opened at Mangalore West (1868-1926) and at Mangalore (1878). The latter has ceased operation.

The range of buildings at Mangalore has been the school, a post office, a store, a hotel and the railway station. During World War II storages for wheat and military material were built near the railway station. In 1942 an aerodrome was constructed north of the village, and it has been upgraded to take international aircraft when the Melbourne Airport is unavailable for landings. A pilot training school opened there in 2007. The ‘Mangalore’ homestead is nearby.

Mangalore’s main social centre is now the Railway Hotel, although that was damaged by fire in 2003. Studies were conducted in 2003 for a Mangalore Food and Logistics Precinct.

Mangalore and Mangalore and environs census populations have been:

At the 2011 census, farming accounted for 18.8% of employment.