until 1980, the sydney road/hume highway ran through violet town, and much early history is centred on this road, now called high street. major thomas mitchell and his party stopped on the banks of violet creek, now called honeysuckle creek on his way back to sydney. in this australia felix exploration of 1836 he noted that the swamps and marshes in the area had a profusion of wild violets and named the district violet ponds. the explorers hume and hovell also camped near this spot (6.4 km away) in 1824. some existing houses and cottages in high street, previously used as tea rooms or coaching inns, date from the 1880s.