Ouyen is a town in Victoria, Australia, located in the Rural City of Mildura at the junction of the Calder Highway and Mallee Highway, south of Mildura, and northwest of Melbourne. At the 2016 census, the town had a population of 1,045. History The area was first occupied by the Wergaia Indigenous Australians. The name is believed to be derived from the Wergaia word "wuya-wuya", which some believe means "pink-eared duck", whilst others claim it means "ghost waterhole". The town was established around the Ouyen railway station, built in 1906 on the Mildura Line. The Post Office opened on 22 October 1907. It is also the junction for a railway line west parallel to the Mallee Highway. This line is in poor condition and used only for collecting grain from silos in small towns between Ouyen and the South Australian border, as the Victorian part is broad gauge, but the line from Pinnaroo to Tailem Bend has been converted to standard gauge, with no facility for handling the break of gauge. The line was used for interstate freight and The Overland as a broad gauge connection while the main Melbourne to Adelaide line (through Bordertown) was being converted from broad to standard gauge in 1995. Property became available for purchase in 1911, and much of it was cleared for sheep grazing, and crops of wheat and oats. Present Ouyen is the commercial, cultural and transport centre for the surrounding grain farming region. Trucks bring grain to the silos at harvest time to be railed to Portland or Adelaide, South Australia for shipping, or to flour mills for processing. Ouyen has an Australian rules football team, Ouyen United, competing in the Sunraysia Football League. Golfers play at the Ouyen Golf Club on Daker Street. The clubhouse also houses the Ouyen Tennis Club. The area includes a number of previous localities which existed when the population was larger: on the Mallee Highway, Galah about to the west which had a post office open from 1911 (when the railway arrived) until 1976, Galah North with a post office from 1925 until 1927 and Tiega with a post office from 1911 until 1961; to the south-west Timberoo and Timberoo South with a post office from 1913 until 1933; in the north Wymlet with a post office from 1912 until 1963, Trinita with a post office from 1925 until 1936, Kiamal with a post office