Trafalgar

Named, presumably, by an admirer of British naval hero Lord Horatio Nelson who scored his most notable victory over the French and Spanish fleets off Spain's Cape Trafalgar in 1805, the La Trobe Valley town of Trafalgar is at the centre of a lush dairy district 120km east of Melbourne. For many years Trafalgar was sustained by dairy processing industries, but with the intense development of nearby coalfields it has become largely a dormitory suburb for the heavy industry and power stations of the La Trobe Valley. Jim Forsyth, former Essendon Aussie Rules high-flyer, is a local while his son, Tim, became the youngest Olympic high jump medallist in history when he took bronze at the age of 18 in the 1992 Games in Barcelona. Trafalgar is a convenient launch pad for trips into the Upper Latrobe and Tanjil River valleys in the mountains to the north and to take in the scenic sights from Grand Ridge Road. There is a lookout over the nearby Narracan Falls and Henderson's Gully and the local streams attract the serious trout fishermen.