Warragul

Warragul is a town in West Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, between the Strzelecki Ranges and the Mount Baw Baw plateau. Its name is a word of the Darug language of New South Wales for a wild dingo, and several local businesses carry the words Wild Dog in their names.

The country around the town belongs to the Gunai/Kurnai people, and the land of the Boonwurrung begins to the west. The town began as a construction camp on McLeod's Track, now Brandy Creek Road, where the surveyed route of the railway met the coach road. Parliament approved a railway from Oakleigh to Sale in 1873, and the line was built from both ends at once. Warragul railway station opened in 1878, and the town grew as a market for the farms cleared from the forests of the district.

Dairy farming is the main industry of the hills around Warragul, and milk from its farms goes to the dairy factories of Gippsland. The district is also known for gourmet foods, with farm cheeses, berries and small wineries along the roads to the ranges. Warragul is the main service town of the Shire of Baw Baw, with its shops and schools serving the farming towns around it.

The West Gippsland Arts Centre, in the civic center of the town, stages plays, concerts and touring shows. Mount Baw Baw, to the north, has a small alpine resort with ski runs and snow play in winter. The Strzelecki Ranges to the south hold the forests and fern gullies of Tarra-Bulga National Park, and walking tracks follow the old timber tramways of the district.