Sunbury, town, south-central Victoria, Australia, on the road and rail route between Bendigo and the state capital, Melbourne, 24 miles (39 km) to the southeast. The Aboriginal name for the area was Koora Kooracup, but, when a gold rush to Bendigo began in 1851, a hotel (built on Jacksons Creek to house travelers to the goldfield) was named Sunbury, after Sunbury, Middlesex, England; the town took its name from the hotel. Surveyed in 1851 and proclaimed a municipality in 1866, Sunbury became the service centre for a prosperous district supporting dairying, sheep grazing, and the growing of wheat, oats, and barley. It is now an outer suburb of Melbourne. Many of its fine 19th-century buildings have been classified by Australia’s National Trust. Pop. (2001) urban centre, 25,156; (2011) urban centre, 33,062.