The Briars is a former homestead in Mount Martha, Victoria, Australia, now managed by the Mornington Peninsula Shire as a conservation park. The property was originally established in 1840 by Alexander and Emma Balcombe with a 6,000 acres (2,400 hectares) pastoral licence, later reduced to 1,000 acres (400 hectares). Partially used for wine production, it was then handed down through generations of the same family until in 1976, the property was transferred to the National Trust of Australia and the Shire.
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1 explorer visited this place
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Mount Martha is a suburb on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 50 kilometres south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local government area. Mount Martha recorded a population of 19,846 at the 2021 census.
Mount Martha is located on the southeastern shores of Port Phillip and offers a bathing beach. A boardwalk winds its way for more than 5 kilometres along the Balcombe Creek, its North beach mouth to the Briars Historic Park. The suburb's highest point bears the area's name and reaches 160 metres. The peak was named in 1836 after Captain William Hobson's mother, Martha Jones.
It marks the start of the Selwyn fault, a geological formation that runs to the eastern Dandenong Ranges.
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The electoral district of Mornington is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. The electorate can be described as outer metropolitan and rural, including animal farming, grape production and wineries. The district is 155 square kilometres in area.
It was first created in 1859 when the Electoral district of Evelyn and Mornington was abolished and split in two. The district of Mornington initially included the entire Mornington Peninsula, Phillip Island and French Island. Currently it includes Mornington, Mount Eliza, Mount Martha and Tuerong, and parts of Baxter and Moorooduc.
Mornington has been held by the Liberal Party since it was re-created in 1985. Since 2022, the member for Mornington is Chris Crewther, who previously held the overlapping federal seat of Dunkley from 2016 to 2019.
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The Mornington Tourist Railway is a heritage railway near Mornington, a town on the Mornington Peninsula, south-west of Melbourne, Victoria. The line is managed by the Mornington Railway Preservation Society and operates on part of the former Victorian Railways branch line which ran from Baxter to Mornington.
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Mornington is a seaside suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia located on the Mornington Peninsula 46 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District. It is the most populous locality in the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local government area. Mornington had a population of 25,759 at the 2021 census.
Mornington is a tourist destination renowned for its bay beaches and wineries, with a town centre that runs into the foreshore area and local beach.
The site now consists of the homestead, gardens, a wildlife sanctuary, a public nursery, a public park and other private facilities such as an outdoor education camp.