Diggers rest, a small township set in rural surrounds, in on the Calder Freeway 30 km. north-west of Melbourne.
Unlike several small townships on the plains north-west of Melbourne, Diggers Rest is not positioned in a protected hollow or beside a watercourse. Rather, several streams flow away from the slight rise where the town is built, making it exposed and prone to dry conditions. Diggers Rest's origins lay in it being a convenient stopping place for gold miners en route to the Bendigo and adjacent goldfields, and Caroline Chisolm had a women's shelter at Diggers Rest.
The exposed landscape provided a suitable venue for the escapologist, Harry Houdini, to achieve Australia's first officially recorded powered flight in 1910. There is a commemorative marker west of the town.
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