The High Camp of today is a very different place to the High Camp that lives on in the memory of its oldest residents. There is no railway station, no school, no hotel, tennis courts, certainly no racetrack but farming is still central to life here.
Local residents travel to Kilmore East for train services, children to Pyalong, Kilmore, Willomavin or Broadford for their education and the nearest recreation and sporting facilities are at Kilmore and Pyalong.
According to the latest Census (2021) High Camp had a population of 122 with a median age of 46, (eight years above the Victorian and Australian median age of 38) with most listing their ancestry as English, Scottish and Irish.
High Camp is zoned farming by Mitchell Shire and farming still dominates life today. Most landholdings are large plots, some farmed with sheep and cattle, while others are lifestyle properties owned by people drawn to the beauty and serenity of the bush. A significant part of High Camp is the conservation precinct to the west of Back Creek Road and what was, after settlement, Crawfords, with several properties being Trust for Nature properties.
This conservation precinct covers eight different sets of landholders and 650 hectares of land. The conservation covenants are voluntary but binding agreements that permanently protect the natural and cultural values of this land. These covenanted lands play an important role in protecting threatened species, native plants and significant habitats and also support restoring the land to the biodiversity which existed here for thousands of years.
High Camp from the air.
Looking down the track.