Diamond Creek Accommodation, Hotels, Tours & Information

Diamond Creek

The small town of Diamond Creek, 23km north-east of Melbourne, takes its name from the crystalline minerals seen on the bed of the local stream, but the village was founded on gold.

Upstream strikes in 1855 kept prospectors interested in the area and in 1862 the Diamond Reef was discovered and the township was born.

The hill to the east of the town is still honeycombed with old mines and tunnels.

Diamond Creek is part of the Nillumbik Shire and the regional historical society has its headquarters in the district's oldest surviving home, a stone cottage built in 1865 by William Ellis. Ellis bought his 1107-acre property 15 years earlier at the going rate of one pound or $2 an acre.

Although Diamond Creek has been connected to Melbourne by electric train for many years, it is still a largely unspoiled area favoured as a bolt hole by writers and artists.

Diamond Creek lies just to the west of the Yarra Valley and its chain of 40-plus vineyards, restaurants, the Healesville Zoo Sanctuary and attendant tourist traps, horse-riding trails and its art and craft outlets.