Framlingham is a rural township located by the Hopkins River in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, about north-east of the coastal city of Warrnambool. In the 2016 census, the township had a population of 158. The town lies within the traditional lands of the Girai wurrung (Kirrae Wuurong) people. In the decades following European settlement in the 1840s, a general store, post office, hotel, school and Presbyterian church were established in Framlingham, as increasing numbers of graziers and dairy farmers settled the area. The Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve was established by the Board for the Protection of Aborigines between Purnim and the township of Framlingham in 1861, upon the request of an Anglican mission. It was located beside the Hopkins River, not far from the boundary with the Gunditjmara people. After various attempts at closure, the reserve operated until 1916, albeit with the land reduced in size. Much of the Aboriginal community continued to live there until the present time. Some of the land that was originally part of the reserve became Framlingham Forest, which is now part of the Framlingham Forest Indigenous Protected Area (IPA). History 1840s: White settlement European settlement began around 1840, the village beginning with the establishment of the Brefnay Hotel in about 1848. A store opened within the next decade, and a Presbyterian church in 1870. A great deal of land was cleared of trees in order to establish dairy farms and other forms of agriculture. 1861: Aboriginal reserve established The Church of England in Warrnambool obtained of land for an Aboriginal mission station to "ameliorate the present wretched conditions of the Aborigines", and requested establishment of an Aboriginal reserve in the area. The Victorian Board for the Protection of Aborigines created Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve in response. The reserve was occupied in 1865 by many of the surviving members of the Kirrae Wuurong clans, who originally inhabited the area between Mount Emu Creek and the Hopkins River, and much of whose language was recorded by a Scottish squatter, James Dawson. Members of the Djargurd Wurrung from the Camperdown area and Gunditjmara people from Warrnambool were also relocated to Framlingham, but Gunditjmara from Portland and Lake Condah refused to settle here due to tension with the other clans, leading to the establishment of the Lake Condah reserve in 1869. In 1867 the reserve was closed by the Central Board appointed by the Government of Victoria and