Streatham is one of the earliest settlements established in the area covered by the current-day Rural City of Ararat Council. In the 1840s the site was known as Fiery Creek, after the waterway by which it is located, but was named after Streatham, London, England, in 1852. The Post Office opened on 1 September 1844 as Fiery Creek (Streatham from 1 January 1854).[2]
Fiery Creek was the region's first Post Office and was also a meeting place for settlers.[3]
On 12 February 1977, Streatham was partially destroyed by a bushfire which was one of many that spread rapidly across the plains of Western Victoria that day. The fire left five men dead and a further seven people suffering heart attacks while defending their properties and the town. The Church, post office, community hall, shops and eighty-one homes were all destroyed in the blaze. Other fires were reported at Lismore, Tatyoon, Pura Pura, Penshurst and at Cressy.[5]