It became the administrative centre of the district, with a police station, court, and the offices of the Barrabool Hills Road Board.

By 1865, it also had a flour mill, several shops, the offices for the Shire of Barrabool, a hotel, and Presbyterian and Bible Christian churches.

A new township developed around the railway station, and over time took prominence over the older Mount Moriac settlement.

[9] It also has a memorial to the artist Arthur Streeton, who was born at Mount Moriac (in the area once known as Clifford)[10] which is in the Parish of Duneed.

A separate hamlet named Clifford, located within the modern Mount Moriac locality, developed around the intersection of Cape Otway and Devon Roads and the Princes Highway in the early 1850s, and had a hotel (Gorell's Clifford Hotel), school, church, store and blacksmith.