Horsham, Victoria
| Horsham Victoria | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Firebrace Street, Horsham's main street, in 2006 | |||||||||
| Coordinates | 36°43′S 142°12′E / 36.717°S 142.200°E | ||||||||
| Population | 16,985 (2021 census) | ||||||||
| • Density | 710.7/km2 (1,841/sq mi) | ||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 3400 | ||||||||
| Elevation | 128 m (420 ft) | ||||||||
| Area | 23.9 km2 (9.2 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Location | |||||||||
| LGA(s) | Rural City of Horsham | ||||||||
| County | Borung | ||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Lowan | ||||||||
| Federal division(s) | Mallee | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Horsham (/ˈhɔːrʃəm/) is a regional city in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia. Located on a bend in the Wimmera River, Horsham is approximately 300 kilometres (190 mi) northwest of the state capital Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, Horsham and surrounds had a population of 20,456. It is the most populous city in Wimmera, and the main administrative centre for the Rural City of Horsham local government area. It is the eleventh largest city in Victoria after Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Wodonga, Mildura, Shepparton, Warrnambool, Traralgon, and Wangaratta.
An early settler James Monckton Darlot named the settlement after the town of Horsham in his native England. It grew throughout the latter 19th and early 20th centuries as a centre of Western Victoria's wheat and wool industry, becoming the largest city in the Wimmera and Western Victoria by the early 1910s. Horsham was declared a city in 1949 and was named Australia's Tidiest Town in 2001 and Victoria's Tidiest Town in 2021.