Kyneton ( ) is a town in the Macedon Ranges region of West Central Victoria, Australia. The Calder Freeway bypasses Kyneton to the north and east. Kyneton is on Dja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung country. The town has four main streets: Mollison Street, Main street, Piper Street and High Street. Piper Street has the oldest streetscape of these, and still has many of its original buildings. The railway station, about from Melbourne on the Bendigo railway line, is a terminus for two weekday peak-hour trains. The town is the council seat of the Shire of Macedon Ranges. At the 2021 census, Kyneton recorded a population of 7,513. History Major Thomas Mitchell, New South Wales Surveyor-General crossed and named the Campaspe River near present-day Kyneton on his 1836 expedition. Charles Ebden was the first European occupier of the region that includes the site of Kyneton. He set up a head station for his sheep run at Carlsruhe, Victoria 6 km south of Kyneton on 26 May 1837. In 1837 Thomas Walker, a Sydney businessman, walked from Sydney to Melbourne, following much of the route taken by Thomas Mitchell the year before, and recorded the trip in a journal "A month in the Bush of Australia" which is now in the British Library. Thomas Walker met Ebden in May 1837 on the journey south. In June 1838 the Waterloo Plains massacre of 8 - 23 Djadjawurrung people occurred on the newly established Barfold sheep run north of Kyneton. Unlike a majority of towns in the area, Kyneton predates the separation of the Port Phillip District from the Colony of New South Wales and the Victorian gold rushes, having been established in 1850, whereas separation occurred and the gold rushes started the year after. Construction of Kyneton’s oldest surviving stone building, the Church of England Rectory, located at 61 Ebden Street, commenced in 1850 and is a rare surviving example of a pre-gold rush and pre-separation dwelling. At this time, Kyneton was a growing rural centre, and served as a major stop for those heading to the gold rushes at Mount Alexander and Bendigo. The post office opened on 1 July 1843 as Mount Macedon and was renamed Kyneton on 1 January 1854. Local government came to Kyneton with the proclamation of the Kyneton Municipal District in 1857. This body was short-lived, as it was amalgamated with the Carlsruhe, the