Dunnstown Irish Festival

About

Come along to the inaugural Dunnstown St Patrick’s Day Irish Festival, a family fun day with something for everyone. Dunnstown is a small village just outside Ballarat one hour from Melbourne nestled in the foothills of Mount Warrenheip. It was named after Robert Dunn who established the Dunnstown Distillery in 1854 which is famous for being the first Irish Whisky Distillery in Australia. With its rich volcanic soil from Mount Warrenheip, it attracted many Irish settlers to the area who migrated after the great famine. The settlers farmed the land, raising their families with mixed farming, mainly growing potatoes. Many of those families still live in Dunnstown to this day, with potatoes still grown in abundance in the area. Because of its Irishness, Dunnstown was also known as “Little Ireland” in its day, so much so that the local pub was called The Shamrock.