town, Victoria, Australia. It is situated in the Dandenong Ranges and on the Maroondah Highway northeast of Melbourne. Founded (1860) on the fertile flats of the Acheron River, a tributary of the Yarra, it was named after Sir Richard Heales, then premier of Victoria. A rail terminus, it is the centre of a district of fruit cultivation, poultry raising, and dairying that also has some of the state's finest stands of timber. Healesville is a summer and winter resort and has easy access to ski slopes on Mount Donna Buang. The Sir Colin MacKenzie Wildlife Sanctuary (with its platypus research station) and the Maroondah Reservoir are located nearby. Pop. (2001) urban centre, 7,132.