The vibrant rural city of Wangaratta is centrally located in northeast Victoria, 235 kilometres from Melbourne, just off the Hume Highway, the main travel route from Melbourne to Sydney. It’s a popular place to stop and stretch your legs or stay a little longer and enjoy all the area has to offer. Sitting on the banks of the Ovens and King Rivers, Wangaratta is an important city in the Ovens Murray region.
Gateway to Victoria’s famous High Country and Alpine Region, Wangaratta boasts renowned wineries and distilleries, a host of cycling trails and walking tracks, and an exciting restaurant and cafe scene. The city is surrounded by 30 mountain peaks with Crosscut Saw being the highest and Mount Emu the most prominent. Wonderful natural attractions like lakes, rivers, waterfalls, wetlands, forests, lookouts and the picturesque Warby-Ovens National Park are all waiting to be explored.
Wangaratta’s first European settler was sheepherder George Faithfull who arrived in the area in 1837. Proclaimed a town in 1845, gold was discovered in 1852 in the Ovens Valley. Wangaratta continued to grow, becoming a borough in 1863 and finally a city in 1959.
Wangaratta may have developed into a city, but it maintains a distinct country feel. Its proud history is on display with prominent buildings like Saint Patrick’s Church from 1865, the former Presbyterian Church, now Wangaratta Art Gallery built in 1899 and the imposing Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral completed in 1909. riverside parklands. Also worth a visit is the Wangaratta Museum housed in the former Fire Station that opened in 1896.
Today, Wangaratta is a thriving regional city, well known for its wineries, local produce, fabulous eateries and riverside parklands. One of its annual drawcards is the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues featuring local and international performers.
As the gateway to Victoria's High Country and Alpine Region, Wangaratta provides the perfect base to explore some of the state’s most popular attractions. Conveniently located near the Great Alpine Road which travels through and around the Great Dividing Range, Wangaratta tours and day trips are aplenty!
Just half an hour from Wangaratta and you’re in the Rutherglen wine region, known for its fortified wines, or head to Beechworth, home of the famous Beechworth Bakery. If you want to take to the ski slopes, Wangaratta is only a couple of hours from the ski resorts of Mount Bulla, Mount Hotham, Mount Buffalo and Falls Creek.
On the way, call into the pretty alpine town of Bright at the base of the Victorian Alps with its snow-capped peaks, pristine rivers and quiet valleys. The Bright Autumn Festival is a wonderful celebration of the town’s stunning Autumn colours and fabulous local foods.
The estimated population of Wangaratta in 2022 was 29,903.
There are several wine regions in the area including Alpine Valley where 33 different grape varieties grow, ranging from traditional Chardonnay and Shiraz to lesser known varieties of grapes such as Nebbiolo and Sauvignon Vert.
King Valley is known for Italian varieties such as Sangiovese and Prosecco with the Rutherglen region producing some of the world’s most famous Muscats. Beechworth has one of the world’s most diverse wine growing ecologies and produces some of Australia’s best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Wangaratta day tours and winery tours take visitors to some of the famous vineyards and cellar doors in these regions.
Wangaratta city centre has some beautiful gardens and parks, from the English-style King George V Gardens to the lovely Apex Park which runs along the Ovens River or for something different, explore the sunken gardens of Merriwa Park.
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