Location
Highton is a residential suburb on the Barwon River, 4km west of Geelong's city centre. It is bordered by the Barrabool Hills to the south-west and the Barwon River to the north-east.

Description
The hills of Highton offer superb views across the river and city, and over Corio Bay, making Highton a much sought-after place to live. Housing development since the 1950s, and more recently home unit building, has taken full advantage of Highton's location. Most streets are tree-lined and close to neighbourhood parks. Queens Park, at its northern boundary, fills a large bend of the Barwon River and contains a superb established golf course. The main Highton shopping centre, in Bellevue Avenue, is in the middle of the suburb. There are town water supply service basins in the more elevated sections to the north-west. Three primary schools and fine secondary schools, including Christian College, all serve the suburb. The land around the children's homes to the south of the suburb has been sold and subdivided for popular housing estates. Highton also boasts an extensive recreation centre, Leisurelink, offering pools, waterslides, a gymnasium and bowling lanes. A delightful walking and cycling track skirts the Barwon River and Highton is just five minutes from Geelong and 25 minutes from the Surfcoast.

History
Grazier John Highett set up a farm and finished building his house on a hill overlooking the Barwon River in 1837. Later his property became the Montpellier vineyard, hotel and picnic ground. Highton was named after an abbreviation of his name. Reserves and reservoirs in this beautiful suburb still bear the Montpellier name. The district had been extensively subdivided by the mid-1860s and boasted a hotel, a post office and a population of about 300 people. Vineyards, orchards and farmland were the major commercial activities for some decades. Between 1927 and 1933, two major orphanages and the Glastonbury children's home were opened in the suburb. Geelong's residential expansion reached Highton in the mid-1950s.