It is located 177 kilometres (110 mi) north west of the state capital, Melbourne in the Shire of Pyrenees local government area.

Djab wurrung was the primary language before European settlement and some early arrivals in the region like Tom Wills of Ararat, spoke it.

Gold mining had taken off in the 1850s, and took the form of extensive digging of individual pits in the Fiery Creek valley and on the slopes of Mount Cole.

Belmont at 643 Main Lead Road dates from 1858, and was built by a successful mining engineer, James Frazer Watkins.

Other financially independent residents have relocated rurally, moved from the state capital, Melbourne or from the regional center of Ballarat.

Mount Cole Road hosts a former artist's colony of mud brick houses and studios built in the 1970s, constructed on cheap land scarred by gold mining.