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In Our Area

Minyip is a small Wimmera town famous for its association with The Flying Doctors TV series. Aboriginal for Ashes.Major Thomas Mitchell, the first European to explore the Wimmera district, was moved to describe the country he saw in 1836 as “Ready for the immediate reception of civilized man and destined perhaps to become a portion of a great empire.” Minyip had its early origins as part of a squatters run until the township was established early in 1870 and the sale of town blocks in 1875 attracted ex-miners and many South Australian farmers to the district. The town flourished as a service centre for this productive wheat growing district. Minyip is a small Wimmera town of some 500 people located in the wheat-growing shire of Dunmunkle, 305 km north-west of Melbourne and 30 km south-east of Warracknabeal. With its distinctive streetscape it became the setting for the TV series 'The Flying Doctors' in 1984. The impact of this now defunct series is still evident on various signs about town, including the one on Main St outside the Senior Citizens' Club which was used as the setting for the Coopers Crossing Flying Doctor Base.Even today tourist can often be seen photographing these sites.

The area was first settled by European selectors in the 1870s. The town became a railhead when the railway arrived from Murtoa in 1886. A grain shed was used to store local wheat until silos were built in 1939-40.

Things to see

St John's Lutheran Church The German Lutherans, fleeing religious persecution, came to the area around Minyip in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. One group formed at the tiny village of Kirchheim, 6 km south-west of Minyip. They built a weatherboard church there in 1875 but it was destroyed by a violent storm in 1889. This led to the construction, in that same year, of the present timber building. In 1935 this building, which had an estimated weight of 50 tons, was moved by steam traction engine to its present site on the corner of Church and Carrol Streets. It took three days to move the structure the 6 km from its original foundations. On the way it very nearly toppled over when it reached a rabbit warren and the weight caused the warren to collapse.


St John's is a Gothic design which retains its fine octagonal steeple with belfry, 19th-century pipe organ, stained-glass lancet windows and pews, although the men no longer sit on the opposite side of the aisle to the women.

Historic Buildings - Main Street

The town's courthouse dates from 1886 and the old office of the local newspaper The Guardian (1885) has been converted into an historical research centre by the local historical society. The Club Hotel (1907), which featured in the 'Flying Doctor' show, and the Commercial Hotel (1908) are Edwardian buildings with wrought-iron lacework and leadlight windows. Violet's General Store dates from 1897.