Sunbury is undergoing a population boom, with a number of rapidly expanding housing estates popping up across town.
The area is known for its historical significance to the region, and its wineries, which spread from the east of Sunbury to as far as Rockbank in the Melton Shire.
The Rupertswood Mansion, built in 1874, is one of Sunbury’s greatest treasures.
At its peak, the estate covered 31,000 acres, or 125 square kilometres.
Its claim to fame is as the Birthplace of the Ashes. When the English cricket team visited Australia in 1882, the estate’s owner Sir William Clarke invited the team over for drinks and a match against the house staff.
The English cricket team won, and as a memento of the occasion the lady of the house, Lady Janet Clarke, burnt the bails and placed them in an urn, thus creating the famous Ashes.
Then there was the Sunbury Pop Festival, which ran on Australia Day weekend from 1972 to 1975.
It attracted thousands from around Australia, to see local acts like Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Skyhooks, Daddy Cool and Max Merritt and the Meteors and international bands like Deep Purple.
Before they were one of the biggest bands on the planet, Queen performed at Sunbury, but were apparently booed off the stage by the drunken revellers.
Freddie Mercury promised to return to Australia and show the crowd what they were made of.
About the Sunbury Leader
The Sunbury/Macedon Ranges Leader is one of Leader Community Newspapers’ oldest papers, originally being published as Sunbury News in 1892.
The paper has had many masthead changes since the mid 1960s when, under Broadglen Publishing Company, the first replated editions for Sunbury and the Macedon Ranges were published under the Regional banner.
On July 31, 2001, the Sunbury/Macedon Ranges Regional became known as the Leader and increased its circulation throughout the Macedon Ranges Shire, Sunbury, Bulla and Diggers Rest.
The ground-floor office at the southern end of the Sunbury retail district is situated 60km from the paper’s most remote circulation point, Malmsbury.