Why the name "Heidelberg"? Following the 1838 government land sales, which were held in Sydney, "Heidelberg" was the name used by some people for the district rather than the current Heidelberg suburb. It appears that land owner R.H. Browne called his farm "Heidelberg". It was Portion 6 in the 1838 land sale. It's southern border was the Yarra River, including the later named Sill's Bend and Fanning's Bend. The vast majority of his land was way to the north of the township. Its northern boundary line intersected the current Lower Plenty Road. To the east it did not reach the Plenty River, and to the west it was some way back from the current line of Rosanna Road. By the 2000s, the land was to be partly Viewbank, partly Rosanna and partly Heidelberg.

Like most of the 1838 purchasers, including Thomas Walker, R. H. Browne was looking for a quick profit. He did not keep his "Heidelberg" for long. "HEIDELBERG, July 26 (1839). Portions of land on the Darrebin River (sic) with right of road to the Yarra Yarra..." was part of an advertisement he placed in the "Port Phillip Patriot" on 29 July 1839. He was still around later in the year as an advertisement in the Port Phillip Gazette, 14 December, 1839, still refers to him as "R. H. Browne Esq. of Heidelberg." The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, Monday 9 March 1840, page 3, refers to "Heidelberg, the estate of R. H. Browne". For whatever reason occurred to him, he called his farm "Heidelberg" and the district came to be called "Heidelberg." We do not know whether or not he spent time at the German University town of that name. By mid 1843, he had sold the last sub-division of it.

In our museum, which is the former Heidelberg Courthouse, we have a collection of bound Victorian Government Gazettes in a number of volumes. The first few volumes have "Warringal" on the spine. From the 1860s onwards, it changes to "Heidelberg". The township was called Warringal until the 1860s.

At different times, the Shire/City of Heidelberg included Fairfield and Alphington to the south and went as far north as Hurstbridge. Our area of interest therefore covers areas included in municipalities under the name of Heidelberg at that time in our history. Since the demise of the City of Heidelberg in the 1990s, our subsequent interest is in the areas covered by the City of Banyule.