The history of the House Wattlebank and its owners date back to 1880, when the Corbett family first moved into Skipton and built a new house nearby the current Wattlebank, it wasn’t until approximately 1922 that the actual construction of Wattlebank began by Mr Andy Corbett.

The Corbett Family’s original home was moved in 1930, and it wasn’t until 1933 when four extra rooms were extended in the house, (which are the two current bedrooms, study, and living, as seen from the accommodation section). That the new Corbett family of Mr. Andrew and Mrs. Nelly Corbett moved in with their 5 children, and lived in the house until 1977.

During those years the property was mainly used for agriculture, grazing sheep for wool, and milk trading from the cows.

After 1977 the house was rented out for 20 years, until Andrew’s Grandson Gavin Corbett moved back in from 1997 to 2002.

The History of The Town Skipton

Skipton is a small rural town in western Victoria, located approximately 165 kilometres west of Melbourne on the Glenelg Highway, with a population of about 300 - 500 people.

Skipton does not have a very long history however, the town dates back to 1839 where the Australian people came in wagons and settled by the Emu Creek, and set up a shop getting their good from Geelong, as Mt Emu Creek are the original tracks where Geelong and Melbourne meet.

The town was named after a village in Yorkshire, England, Skipton traces back to the Anglo-Saxon word for ‘sheep town’ where the town hosted fine wool sales and became a major centre for pure wool trading.

Migration to Skipton was quite slow as by the year 1860 the town only consisted of two houses the Eagle Star Hotel which stands over the current post office now, and a court house. It wasn’t however until the 1900s until now that the development of the town took off. And such buildings such as the post office, the bank, the swimming pool, the hospital, the primary school etc was built.

You can see these buildings and the town’s attractions more clearly in the Attractions section.

Skipton is a lovely small town, although not consisting of a very long history, it has been a strong town that continually developed through the years although undergoing the fire in 1944 where fires burnt on the west and south east sides of the town. And the numerous floods caused by Mt Emu Creek.