Avoca /əˈvoʊkə/[2] is a town in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, 71 kilometres (44 mi) north west of Ballarat.

The town stands in the gently undulating basin of the Avoca River, which rises in the Pyrenees Ranges to the west.

To the south, the region is bounded by low hills of the Great Dividing Range; eastwards, the basin ends in a dry forested rise; to the north the Avoca River runs slowly through the plains of the Wimmera before joining Lake Bael Bael and the lake and swamps just south of the Murray.

The region takes in an area of about 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi), and includes the towns of Redbank, Natte Yallock, Rathscar, Bung Bong, Lamplough, Amphitheatre, Percydale, Moonambel, and Warrenmang.

Since the 1970s, the wine industry has grown to be one of the most significant economic drivers and the sector is now the largest employer in the region and has increased tourism.

He found the area more temperate in climate and better watered than inland New South Wales, and he encouraged settlers to take up land in what he described as "Australia Felix".

With a Court, a police station, Post Office (opened 1 September 1854),[5] gold wardens, churches, and schools, Avoca had established itself as an administrative centre.

[6] All that is visible today of the Golden Stream Mine is several large mullock heaps of mainly white pipeclay on the west side of the Sunraysia Highway between the railway crossing and the Avoca Cemetery.

Across Australia rural productivity was rising, partly through the development of agricultural machinery by implement makers such as Mackay and Shearer.

Avoca, too small to be allocated a gun for a war trophy, built a monument on a scale suitable for the largest twenty per cent of communities.

Having not built a band rotunda to date, it appears that the community may have used the opportunity of erecting the memorial to overcome this deficiency in the town's furnishings.

The Avoca memorial, which was initially conceived as a band rotunda, is an irregular octagon with eight piers carrying a roof obscured by a parapet.

A frieze above the columns contains the names of the main areas where volunteers from Avoca fought: Gallipoli, France, Palestine and Belgium.

The entrances on the other sides are guarded by free-standing granite tablets, inscribed with the names of soldiers from the district who fought in the First World War.

The Avoca region is home to an established agricultural and winery industry thanks to its Mediterranean climate, good soil and running streams.

The Tourist Information Office provides a pamphlet outlining a walking tour of the town's historic buildings which lists around 40 separate destinations.

In 2017, there is a proposal entitled the, Murray Basin rail project designed to link Mildura to Portland with standard gauge track to carry grain and mineral sands on the now disused Avoca railway line.

[21][22][23] Today's Avoca town water supply is largely dependent upon the "Bung Bong Bore" which was originally installed in an attempt to overcome flooding of deep lead mine shafts at Caralulup.

[24] In the late twentieth century viticulture was re-established and wine and tourism are now of significant economic importance to the region.

While wineries extend from near Waubra in the south to St Arnaud in the north, Avoca is considered the epicentre of the wine region.