Minyip is a town in the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia, north west of Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Yarriambiack local government area. At the , Minyip had a population of 524. The name "Minyip" is derived from an Aboriginal word for "ashes" or "camping place". The town is known as the "Heart of the Wheat Belt". Dryland agriculture especially grain production and handling is one of the region's major industries. History The area was first settled by European selectors in about 1872. The town became a rail-head when the railway arrived from Murtoa in 1886. A grain shed was used to store local wheat until silos were built in 1939–40. The town's courthouse dates from 1886 and the old office of the local newspaper The Guardian (1885) has been converted into an historical research centre by the local historical society. The Club Hotel (1907) and the Commercial Hotel (1908) are Edwardian buildings with wrought-iron lacework and leadlight windows. Violet's General Store dates from 1897. Minyip Post Office opened on 1 May 1875. There was a branch of the Commercial Bank of Australia in Minyip by 1891. The Colonial Bank of Australasia had a branch in the town by 1902. Scots-born Aboriginal rights activist and medical doctor Charles Duguid and his first wife, Irene, lived in Minyip for about 2 years after their marriage in 1912. He practised as a general practitioner during this time. The Minyip Magistrates' Court closed on 1 January 1983. An agricultural show was held in Minyip between 1887 and 2018, but was ceased due to an inability to gather a committee to run it. St John's Lutheran Church The German Lutherans, fleeing religious persecution, came to the area around Minyip in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. One group formed at the tiny village of Kirchheim, south-west of Minyip. They built a weatherboard church there in 1875 but it was destroyed by a violent storm in 1889. This led to the construction, in that same year, of the present timber building. In 1935 this building, which had an estimated weight of 50 tons, was moved by steam traction engine to its present site on the corner of Church and Carrol Streets. It took three days to move the structure the from its original foundations. On the way it very nearly toppled over when it reached a rabbit warren and the weight caused the warren to