THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY ABORIGINAL HISTORY
Prepared for City of Greater Bendigo
FINAL REPORT June 2013
Adopted by City of Greater Bendigo Council July 31, 2013
GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Table of Contents
Table of Contents 1
Introduction 4
Greater Bendigo 4 Thematic framework 5 Related places 5 Aboriginal history 5 Note on sources 6 Statement of significance 6
1.0 Theme 1: Shaping Greater Bendigo’s Environment 8
1.1 Tracing climate and topographical change 8 1.2 Tracing the emergence of Greater Bendigo’s plants and animals 10 1.3 Appreciating and protecting Greater Bendigo’s natural wonders 12
2.0 Theme 2: Peopling Greater Bendigo’s places and landscapes 16
2.1 Living as Greater Bendigo’s original inhabitants 16 2.2 Exploring, surveying and mapping 21 2.3 Migrating and making a home 22 2.4 Maintaining distinctive cultures 22 2.5 Promoting settlement 28
3.0 Theme 3: Connecting Greater Bendigo by transport and communications 35
3.1 Establishing pathways 35 3.2 Linking Greater Bendigo by rail 39 3.3 Linking Greater Bendigo by road 42 3.4 Travelling by tram 43 3.5 Linking Victorians by air 44
4.0 Theme 4: Transforming and managing Greater Bendigo’s land and natural resources 48
4.1 Grazing and raising livestock 48 4.2 Farming 49 4.3 Gold mining 50 4.4 Exploiting other mineral, forest and water resources 57 4.5 Transforming the land and waterways 62
5.0 Theme 5: Building Greater Bendigo’s industries and workforce 74
5.1 Processing raw materials 74 5.2 Developing a manufacturing capacity 83 5.3 Marketing and retailing 86 5.4 Exhibiting Greater Bendigo’s innovation and products 89 5.5 Banking and finance 90 5.6 Entertaining and socialising 92
6.0 Theme 6: Building towns, cities and the Greater Bendigo area 102
6.1 Establishing settlement in the Greater Bendigo Municipality 102 6.2 Creating Bendigo 104 6.3 Shaping the suburbs 108 6.4 Living in country towns 110 6.5 Marking significant phases in development of settlements, towns and cities 112
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7.0 Theme 7: Governing Greater Bendigo area 133
7.1 Developing institutions of self-government and democracy 133 7.2 Struggling for political rights 135 7.3 Maintaining law and order 137 7.4 Defending Victoria and Australia 139 7.5 Protecting Greater Bendigo’s heritage 140
8.0 Theme 8: Building Greater Bendigo’s community life 144
8.1 Maintaining spiritual life 144 8.2 Educating people 147 8.3 Providing health and welfare 152 8.4 Preserving traditions and commemorating 155 8.5 Marking the phases of life 157
9.0 Theme 9: Shaping Greater Bendigo’s cultural and creative life 164
9.1 Participating in sport and recreation 164 9.2 Nurturing a vibrant arts scene 168
Bibliography 173
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Authors/contributors
The authors of this history are:
Lovell Chen: Emma Hewitt, Dr Conrad Hamann, Anita Brady
Dr Robyn Ballinger
Dr Colin Pardoe
In addition, Dr Dannielle Orr, Heritage Planner, City of Greater Bendigo, has provided considerable input and assistance into the revised structure and content of the history, including editorial assistance.
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Introduction
This Thematic Environmental History has been prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo. It is a component of a larger project which also involves preparation of a study Overview Report; community consultation including community workshops held across the municipal area; compilation of a list of known and potential heritage places associated with the themes identified in the history; preparation of a statement of significance for the municipality; and the identification of priorities for future heritage study work.
In undertaking this work, the authors acknowledge that the history is written about country of which the members and elders of the Jaara people of the Dja Dja Wurrung language community, the Barapa Barapa people, the Taungurung people, and the Ngurai-illam Wurrung people and their forebears, are the traditional owners.
Greater Bendigo
The Greater Bendigo municipality includes Victoria's third largest city by population, Bendigo, as well as a significant rural hinterland. Smaller townships are located at Axedale, Elmore, Goornong, Heathcote, Huntly, Lockwood and district, Marong, Mia Mia, Neilborough, Raywood, Redesdale, Sebastian and Woodvale. The municipality encompasses a total land area of approximately 3,000 square kilometres, of which a significant proportion is set aside as national, or regional parks; various crown land reserves; and public forests. Much of the private rural land is used for agricultural purposes, including poultry and pig farming, sheep and cattle grazing, and as vineyards.
In the Thematic Environmental History, the historical names have been used: Bendigo Creek or goldfields for the early years, Sandhurst (1853–1891) and Bendigo (1891-to date). The city was also known briefly as Castleton, but it was not a popularly used name. The municipality is referred to by its current name as ‘Greater Bendigo’.
Figure 1 Map of Greater Bendigo. Source: City of Greater Bendigo
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Thematic framework
This Thematic Environmental History documents the principal historical themes in the development of Greater Bendigo, examining and analysing the land use and settlement patterns of the municipality within an overriding thematic framework.
The report has been structured, at the request of the City of Greater Bendigo, to directly reflect and respond to the main themes and sub-themes of Victoria’s Framework of Historical Themes.1 Accordingly, the history is not structured chronologically.
The Thematic Environmental History is also not a complete history of the municipality, or an overview of events. Rather, it covers the physical evolution and development of Greater Bendigo, within the thematic framework, and identifies the important distinguishing characteristics of the municipality.
The history also draws connections between people, events and places, and sheds light on the role of people, industry and other activities in shaping the landscape and built form of the municipality. The ongoing influence of the cultural and ethnic diversity which emerged on the goldfields 150 years ago is a rich theme of the municipality, as is the long thread of Aboriginal history and continuity, from the pre-contact period to the present. This ‘larger story’ of the persistence of historical themes into the twenty first century shows how historical patterns have endured, and reveals the way in which the municipality remains dynamic and evolving.
The greater weight given to particular themes also reflects the importance of these themes in terms of the evolution and development of the municipal area – gold mining being an obvious example. Without due recognition given to the more important themes, the value of the heritage places associated with these themes may not be fully understood. Lesser- known themes, however, are also explored, helping to reveal the complex layering of culture, society, economy and industry over the landscape of Greater Bendigo. Restrictions on the word limit of a Thematic Environmental History, as recommended by Heritage Victoria,2 also constrain the extent to which particular themes can be examined.
Intangible heritage, which amongst other things relates to practices, traditions, knowledge and skills, including those passed from generation to generation, is not addressed in the Thematic Environmental History.
Related places
The history makes reference to places associated with the themes, either in the body of the text or listed at the end of each section, as ‘Related places’. These include known extant places; potential but unconfirmed places; places of documented or potential heritage value or significance; and places which are not necessarily of heritage significance. The purpose of identifying these places is to illustrate how tangible the themes are, and how they are physically represented in the municipality.
Heritage places in Greater Bendigo encompass buildings, structures, gardens and vegetation, landscapes and spaces. Some are Aboriginal places, or ruins such as historical archaeological sites. Sites of natural significance, including those of geological value, are also within the study area.
Aboriginal history
An account of the daily lives of the area’s Aboriginal peoples prior to European contact was written during the research for this Thematic Environmental History. It was drawn from historical documentary records such as the written observations and sketches of the first Europeans in the area, as well as extracts from the archaeological record and contemporary scholarly research. While the significant limitations of this approach are recognised, the
LOVELL CHEN 2013 5 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 research was undertaken to achieve some understanding of life before European settlement, and to assist with tracing later patterns and changes. However, the repercussions of colonialism impacted beyond the Greater Bendigo area and it was necessary to extend the account of this area’s Aboriginal peoples to a Victorian context, to trace movement and resettlement beyond this region.
The Greater Bendigo Thematic Environmental History is a post-contact history that focuses on this municipality after Europeans arrived in the area. How the Aboriginal peoples of this country were affected by, and survived, this contact is detailed in Theme 2 ‘Peopling Greater Bendigo’s places and landscapes’. This is a condensed version of the ‘Aboriginal history’ report, which is in a separate volume, bounded by the geographical area of the Greater Bendigo municipality and the post-colonial contact timeframe.
Note on sources
This Thematic Environmental History has relied on, and refers to, numerous published histories, local histories, reports and pamphlets, archival and primary sources, and other sources of historical information. The sources are identified in endnote references. A full bibliography of sources used in the history is also included at the end of this report.
Statement of significance
The following statement of significance has been prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, drawing on this Thematic Environmental History.
What is significant?
Greater Bendigo is a major municipality of northern Victoria. It includes the State’s third largest city, Bendigo, rural areas, and hinterland towns of Axedale, Elmore, Heathcote, Marong and Redesdale. Extensive natural areas, including Box-Ironbark forests, are set aside in national and regional parks, crown land reserves, and public forests, as well as occurring on private land.
Aboriginal clans occupied the forests and plains of the area, before the arrival of pastoralists in the later 1830s and 1840s and still maintain a connection to this country. The discovery of gold in the municipal area in the early 1850s generated an extraordinary period of development; it brought diggers and settlers to Greater Bendigo, who established a rich and culturally diverse society. The expansion and influence of gold mining also impacted on the development of industry, manufacturing and commerce. The municipal landscape of today reflects all these layers of history and culture, in the spatial layout of urban areas, agricultural land, and natural environments.
How is it significant?
Greater Bendigo is of outstanding historical, social, aesthetic, architectural, and scientific significance.
Why is it significant?
Greater Bendigo is of historical and social significance. It was the location of one of Victoria’s earliest alluvial gold rushes, followed by the establishment and expansion of quartz mining. The Bendigo-Eaglehawk field was one of the world’s great nineteenth century quartz mining centres (the largest in eastern Australia and the second largest in Australia after Kalgoorlie). The colossal output helped sustain global financial systems and trade, and was a significant contributor to the development of Melbourne. The mining activity initiated significant innovations and developments in commerce, manufacturing and technology. Examples include the
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first mining stock exchange in Australia (in the Beehive Building on Pall Mall), one of the largest railway workshops in Australia, and the foundation of Bendigo Bank and the Myer retail empire. Construction of a reliable water supply in the Coliban Water reservoir system also influenced historical development, including the location and viability of settlements and horticulture. Trans-national immigration associated with gold mining brought a diversity of traditions and cultural practice. In particular the Cornish, German and Chinese miners have made significant and ongoing contributions to the culture and development of Greater Bendigo.
German immigrant architects designed buildings which are now regarded as some of the most significant in regional Victoria, helping to make the municipality of aesthetic/architectural significance. Bendigo city has one of the highest concentrations of Victorian Heritage Registered properties in the State, and two of regional Australia’s most architecturally distinguished boulevards in Pall Mall and View Street. Bendigo has an outstanding collection of historic civic buildings, complemented by more modest collections of civic buildings in other towns. Significant structures in Greater Bendigo include those associated with industry, public utilities, mining, transport, agriculture, engineering and manufacturing. Boom style homes and gardens built by mining speculators contrast with an extensive collection of modest German and Cornish miners’ cottages. Many small settlements also retain buildings associated with gold rushes. In addition, there are significant buildings that represent a diverse vernacular tradition. There are also fine examples of 19th century town planning layouts and botanic gardens, public parks and avenues of trees. Extensive natural areas, including Box-Ironbark forests, rivers, hills and valleys of cultural and aesthetic significance provide a contrast to the urban centres and agricultural landscapes.
The municipality is of scientific significance. Numerous historical and archaeological sites associated with different phases and types of gold mining and processing survive, and demonstrate aspects of mining technology. There are also outstanding examples of manufacturing industry associated with restructuring of the mining industry, in particular foundries and engineering works for defence and agriculture, where advances in technology were also made. There are in addition natural sites of significance throughout the municipality, including geological and geomorphological sites. These include the Big Hill ridge which marks the southern gateway to Bendigo.
1 Heritage Council of Victoria, Victoria’s Framework of Historic Themes, Heritage Council of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic, February 2010.
2 The Heritage Victoria ‘Model Consultants Brief for Heritage Studies’ prefers a word limit of 20,000 words, see http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0010/36694/1-1446397- Heritage_Victoria_Local_Government_Heritage_Study_Standard_Brief_4_January_2010.doc. Accessed 19 February 2012.
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1.0 Theme 1: Shaping Greater Bendigo’s Environment
Figure 2 Box-Ironbark forest. Source: Anthony Webster, Imagine Pictures, Thematic Environmental History Photography Project 2011.
Greater Bendigo’s diverse environment has profoundly shaped the historical development of the municipality. The quartz of the West Victorian Uplands bore gold for one of the richest rushes in the world, and the red duplex soils gave the nineteenth century architecture its distinctively coloured brickwork. The extensive periods of climatic dryness has, from the earliest gold rush days, fuelled the search for permanent industrial and residential water supplies. The development of the gold industry extensively impacted upon the Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands but there was increasing awareness of the need for better forest management due to dwindling timber supplies. Through the introduction of forest activity infrastructure, 36 per cent of the pre-European vegetation remains. The treescapes of the Goldfields bioregion today are characterised by extensive coppiced regrowth; in this way they are a living reminder of the area’s gold history. Greater Bendigo’s geology defines a sense of place; landmarks such as Mount Camel Range and Big Hill ridge continue to be significant to indigenous and non-indigenous residents alike.
1.1 Tracing climate and topographical change
The climate of the Greater Bendigo municipality is semi-arid to temperate, being dry and warm to hot in summer and cooler and wetter in winter. Most rain falls in winter and spring, with May to October being the wettest months. Dry periods are extended by El Niño events. Rainfall is primarily a function of topography, where rain-bearing weather systems rise as
8 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 they cross the Dividing Range and release rain. The more elevated and southerly parts generally experience cooler weather with higher rainfall, whereas the north-western districts, which are closer to inland Australia, are more prone to north-west winds and other drying influences from the arid zone.3 In the south-east, median annual rainfall at Redesdale is 573mm and at Heathcote 570mm, whereas in the central and north-west parts, Bendigo receives 550mm, Elmore 450mm and Raywood 431mm.
Dry and wet periods have been part of the climate cycle of Greater Bendigo for millennia. More recent recorded major dry periods include 1865, 1876-81, 1888, 1895-1902, 1914-15, 1937-45, 1965-68, 1982, 1991-95 and 2002-10. High rainfall periods have led to flooding in some districts in 1863, 1870, 1889, 1894, 1916-17, 1939, 1942, 1955-56, 1973-74, 1978, 1992 and 2010.4
The natural environment of the Greater Bendigo municipality comprises the geomorphic divisions of the Central Victorian Uplands, East and West, and the Murray Basin Plains, the Riverine Plain, as well as the related vegetation bioregions of the Box-Ironbark and Plains Woodlands and Grasslands.
The Central Victorian Uplands have been lifted by slow, periodic, tectonic movements.5 About 100 million years ago, a bedrock spine was formed that runs east-west through Victoria, with the Great Dividing Range running along the crest. This crest divides the rivers that run north to the Murray River and south to the ocean.
The Central Victorian Uplands comprise the East Victorian Uplands and West Victorian Uplands, separated by a major fault line that passes from Lancefield through Heathcote to east of Rochester. The fault, caused by volcanic activity and marked by belts of exposed greenstone, separates Cambrian and Ordovician rocks (about 425-550 million years old) to the west from younger Silurian and Devonian rocks (about 370-425 million years old) to the east. Deep clay beds have been formed by lengthy periods of weathering and erosion of the uplands.
The Midlands region of the West Victorian Uplands includes Victoria's gold-bearing rocks; sandstones, siltstones and mudstones that were deposited in deep marine beds some 400 million years ago. Over millions of years, geological processes produced large and productive saddle reefs. Thirteen parallel anticlines and synclines are in an area of about 18 kilometres north-south by five kilometres east-west. It is these reefs that particularly distinguished the Bendigo goldfield from other goldmining areas, as the saddle reefs contain gold-bearing reef quartz, where the creeks and gullies contain alluvial deposits.
The dominant landforms in the East Victorian Uplands are gentle hills and ridges with small areas of plateaus. While some major landforms are due to faulting, most landforms have been shaped by long periods of weathering interspersed with episodes of tectonic uplift. Mount Camel Range is an upthrust ridge of Cambrian volcanic rocks, which comprise some of the oldest rocks in the state, located to the north of Heathcote. The region also features alluvial flats along river and creek valleys, with stony gradational soils on the ridges, and duplex soils elsewhere. Exposures of Permian glacial sediments can also be found in several localities in the Heathcote district.
There are a number of geological and geomorphological sites of local, regional, state and international significance in the municipality, including the internationally significant glacial pavement sites located on the eastern shore of Lake Eppalock and at the Derrinal cutting.6
Greater Bendigo takes in the Loddon and Campaspe River basins, which flow to the Murray River. The Campaspe River forms part of the eastern boundary of the municipality. Major streams are the Bendigo Creek, which is also known as Picaninny Creek north of Bendigo, and Bullock Creek, both part of the Loddon River basin. Other major streams include Axe
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Creek, McIvor Creek, Mount Pleasant Creek and Wild Duck Creek, all part of the Campaspe River basin. Two groundwater basins underlie Greater Bendigo: the Murray Basin under the Riverine Plain and the Highlands Basin under the West and East Victorian Uplands.
The Riverine Plain division of the Murray Basin Plains has been created from alluvium deposited by rivers over thousands of years, and is essentially an extensive flood plain. It is characterised by flat to gently undulating land on recent unconsolidated sediments, with evidence of former stream channels. Low winding ridges mark the meandering courses of older streams.
Red-brown duplex soils with a loamy surface and clay subsoil also characterise the older flood plain, the Shepparton Formation. Soils in the ancestral valleys and on the plain, flooded by present-day rivers and streams, are grey with high sodium contents.
Related places
Sites of natural/cultural significance, e.g. Mount Carmel Range, Big Hill, Dunn’s Rock at Lake Eppalock, Stranger’s Rock near Knowsley Sites of geological significance Viewing sites Interpretation sites
1.2 Tracing the emergence of Greater Bendigo’s plants and animals
There are two main biogeographic regions (bioregions), defined as areas with common biological and geographical features, in the Greater Bendigo municipality: the Goldfields and Victorian Riverina.7 Ecological Vegetation Classes (EVCs) classify native vegetation communities within the bioregions.
The Goldfields bioregion includes the core of the Box-Ironbark ecosystem, where Box- Ironbark Forest and Grassy Woodland EVCs dominate. Canopy trees in the Box-Ironbark Forest are divided into three main forest associations:
Figure 3 Map indicating the extent of Box-Ironbark Forest in Victoria. Source: http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/forests/regional-information/bendigo/places-to-visit
10 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 red ironbark (E. tricarpa), red stringybark (E. macrorhynca) and red box (E. polyanthermos) that grow on steeper slopes and ridges; red ironbark, yellow gum (E. leucoxylon) and grey box (E. microcarpa) that grow on the better drained lower slopes; and grey box and yellow gum that grow on the alluvial plains.
Other vegetation includes areas of Heathy Dry Forest, Low Rises Grassy Woodland/Alluvial Terraces Herb-rich Woodland Mosaic and Gravelly Sediment Broombrush Mallee.
The vegetation of the Victorian Riverina bioregion is one of the most depleted in the state, with only around 9 per cent of the area retaining native vegetation cover, restricted to small but significant areas of public and private land. Before European use of the land, Plains Woodland and Plains Grassland EVCs were the predominant vegetation communities.
The Woodlands were characterised by low-density tree cover with an understorey of scattered shrubs and a well-developed grassy layer. Plains Woodland canopy trees in the Greater Bendigo area are mainly grey box and white-cypress pine (Callitris glaucophylla). Remnant Plains Grassland EVCs are dominated by wallaby and spear grasses, with a rich mixture of herbs from the daisy, saltbush and pea families. River red gums (E. camaldulensis) and black box (E. largiflorens) grow along rivers, creeks and in swamp areas.
Large red gums in Rosalind Park and White Hills Botanical Gardens evidence the original course of the Bendigo Creek. At least nine red ironbarks, between 500 to 700 years old, grow in the Wellsford forest. Other significant trees that once provided shelter to families involved in eucalyptus distilling in the Whipstick include a large ironbark at Shadbolts distillery, and a large blue mallee (E. polybractea) and green mallee (E. viridis) at Campbells distillery. Roger's Tree, a significant ironbark growing in the Whipstick is reputed to have been deliberately left by Roy Rogers, a government forest foreman, to evidence how large these trees grew.8
Figure 4 Roy Roger’s tree. Source: Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, 2010
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Significant remnant vegetation sites exist throughout the Greater Bendigo National Park, particularly in the Kamarooka, Whipstick and One Tree Hill forests, and in the forests of Pilchers Bridge Nature Conservation Reserve, Mount Sugarloaf Nature Conservation Reserve, and Jackass Flat Nature Conservation Reserve.
Apart from reptiles and amphibians, approximately ten Box-Ironbark stronghold species occur across the West and East Victorian Uplands and the Riverine Plain, including the brush- tailed phascogale, squirrel glider, swift parrot, barking owl, white-bellied cuckoo shrike, painted honeyeater, black-chinned honeyeater and diamond fire-tail. Due to the high degree of seasonal variation in eucalyptus nectar, a large number of species, mainly birds, move through the municipality on a regular, sporadic or even daily basis.9 The loss of habitat through vegetation clearance, introduction of carnivores such as foxes and cats and destruction of native species considered pests by farmers, has caused marked changes in the distribution of hundreds of species and the extinction of many others. A number of significant vertebrate fauna are found in Greater Bendigo.10
Related places
Important remnant EVC sites Significant trees like the red ironbarks in Wellsford State Forest
1.3 Appreciating and protecting Greater Bendigo’s natural wonders
Before Europeans, the Goldfields bioregion was covered with a mixture of dry forest and woodland types, characterised by tall, broad-crowned treescapes, mostly on relatively poor soils. In their original state, the forests and woodlands consisted of fairly open stands of large trees, some of which had diameters of up to 1.5 metres.
About 85 per cent of the Box-Ironbark forests in Victoria at the time of European settlement have been cleared. Nearly all that remains is significantly modified, including changed composition in understorey plants, thinner, coppiced and more densely spaced overstorey trees and fragmented remnants of vegetation.11 Many of the tree species, including red stringy bark, red box and yellow box were also considered inferior for timber production and were deliberately removed or selected against in order to promote more desirable species such as ironbark, grey box and yellow gum.
Clearing the land of trees and scrub for farming was extensive on the more fertile soils of the Box-Ironbark forests and Riverine Plains. This was achieved through ring-barking, grubbing and burning. Cattle grazing trampled and compacted the soil and sheep grazing removed the corms and tubers of native herbs. Pasture grasses and other introduced species have also impacted on native vegetation. Broad-scale clearing, overgrazing and rabbit and invasion by hares released in the early 1860s led to gully, rill and sheet erosion problems.
Depletion of vegetation caused dryland salinity in low-lying areas. The quality of groundwater in Greater Bendigo has been affected, with salinity increasing from east to west. Generally, water quality of streams decreases as streams flow north; the exception is the Bendigo Creek where there is some improvement downstream from urban areas.12 Major discharge sites, where saline groundwater comes close to the soil surface, are located at Kamarooka, Ravenswood, Knowsley and the Mount Camel range.
The regulation of water for human use has caused major changes in stream flows. This is particularly so for the Campaspe River over summer when the pre-regulation flow downstream of Lake Eppalock is increased by as much as 1,200 per cent through letting water out of the weir. Water use for agricultural and industrial purposes has also significantly impacted river and stream environments. The use of fertilisers and manures has increased soil nutrients, which are dispersed into waterways. Dredging machines used in alluvial gold mining have damaged the waterbeds and disturbed the riverine flora and fauna.
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The need to protect resources for community benefit, or future manufacturing or industrial uses, was recognised early. After a series of public inquiries and Royal Commissions, the government began to regulate the conservation of forests to ensure timber supply. By 1853 in Victoria, there were nine timber reserves and 185 water reserves and by 1859 there were nearly 3,000 acres of public purposes reserves.13 These reservations were the direct result of goldmining and the extraordinary increase in the population of the goldfields areas.
Forest areas were also reserved under the 1865 Land Act, including in the goldfields, and local boards were appointed to oversee their management. In November 1875, the Woods and Forest Board inspected the Bendigo State Forests, including the Wellsford Forest reserved in 1874. In Kamarooka Forest, the board noted that the ranger had stopped the destructive process of stripping the trees of bark.14
The first Conservator of Forests, G S Perrin, was appointed in 1888, and oversaw the establishment of more systematic forest management, including plantations, nurseries, thinning operations and a royalty system.15 In 1890, State forests around Sandhurst were identified for improvement, with the forests thinned by removing stunted and diseased trees, under-storey debris was burnt and firebreaks were constructed. Similar works were carried out in the Kamarooka State Forest in the 1900s. By 1898 some forests in the Heathcote district had been stripped of trees suitable for railway sleeper production.16
The 1907 Forests Act created the Department of State Forests, which in 1918 became the Forests Commission. In the late 1920s, state forests in the Bendigo district covered more than 100,000 acres.17 In the 1930s Depression, unemployed men on relief work or sustenance ‘susso’ schemes were involved in forestry operations. They cleared fire-damaged timber, cut access tracks, established plantations and undertook thinning operations. A ‘susso’ men's camp was established at Heathcote at this time. There were also teen boys’ camps in the 1930s working on silvicultural operations at Eaglehawk and Kangaroo Flat.18
In 1939, Bendigo forest officers reported that the management practice of forest thinning, carried out from the early 1900s, would ensure an inexhaustible supply of good timber. Bendigo industries still used about 30,000 tons of wood annually from the forests and heavy demands were made for telephone poles and domestic firewood.19
The forests of Greater Bendigo had attracted the interest of naturalists from the 1880s. From the early 1900s, the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria organised excursions to the Whipstick. The Bendigo Field Naturalists Club formed in 1945 and lobbied to reserve areas of the Mandurang-Diamond Hill and Whipstick forests as national parks. A flora reserve was put aside at Diamond Hill in 1962.20 The Bendigo Whipstick Forest Park was reserved under the Forests Act in 1972, but did not include some significant Mallee areas. In 1980, the Jackass Flat Flora and Fauna Reserve and Jobs Gully Bushland Reserve were gazetted.21
The Greater Bendigo National Park of 17,007 hectares and the Heathcote-Graytown National Park of 12,833 hectares were established in 2002, following an investigation of Victoria's Box-Ironbark forests. The Greater Bendigo National Park incorporates the former Whipstick and Kamarooka State Parks, One Tree Hill Regional Park, Mandurang State Forest, Sandhurst State Forest and other parcels of public land. These once separate parks were linked to form a unified park to conserve and protect the remaining Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands.22 The Heathcote-Graytown National Park encompasses much of the southern section of the extensive Rushworth-Heathcote State Forest, from the McIvor Range and Mt Ida near Heathcote to Mt Black, Spring Creek and Graytown.
These protected land areas are now an important distinguishing feature of the municipality. The forests provide a unique setting for Bendigo as ‘a City within a Park’.23
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Related places
Sites of environmental impacts Sites associated with early forest management activities, including thinning and silviculture Camps associated with forest workers’ activities, including ‘susso’ and youth camps Sites associated with early conservation and remediation activities, including erosion mitigation, soil conservation and pasture improvement Parks infrastructure National and regional parks, and conservation reserves like Greater Bendigo Regional Park, Heathcote National Park, Pink Cliffs Reserve
3 Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation Resources and Issues Report, Environment Conservation Council, Fitzroy, Vic, 1997, pp. 42-48.
4 'Climate data online' and 'Climate education', Bureau of Meteorology, n.d. Available http://www.bom.gov.au. Accessed 8 May 2012.
5 Information from Joyce, B, ‘Geology and Environment: Overview’, eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00004b.htm. Accessed 2 June 2011; Cochrane, G W, Quick, G W and Spencer-Jones, D, Introducing Victorian Geology, Geological Society of Australia (Victorian Division), Melbourne, Vic, 1995, pp. 66-77 & 207; and Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation Resources and Issues Report, Environment Conservation Council, Fitzroy, Vic, 1997, pp. 30-42.
6 See the Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation Resources and Issues Report, Environment Conservation Council, Fitzroy, Vic, 1997, pp. 234-5 for a full listing.
7 Information from North Central Native Vegetation Plan, North Central Catchment Management Authority, Huntly, Vic, 2005.
8 Orr, Rod, Bendigo Field Naturalists Club Inc. member, personal communication, 27 March 2012; and Fraser, Stuart, convenor, Bendigo and District Environment Council, personal communication, 18 January 2012.
9 Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation Resources and Issues Report, Environment Conservation Council, Fitzroy, Vic, 1997, pp. 64-5 & 90.
10 See Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation Resources and Issues Report, Environment Conservation Council, Fitzroy, Vic, 1997, pp. 246-7.
11 Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation Resources and Issues Report, Environment Conservation Council, Fitzroy, Vic, 1997, pp. 90 & 109.
12 Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation Resources and Issues Report, Environment Conservation Council, Fitzroy, Vic, 1997, p. 49.
13 J Lennon, Our Inheritance: Historic Places on Public Land in Victoria, Department of Conservation and Environment, 1992, p.9.
14 'Sandhurst, from our own correspondent', The Argus, 26 November 1875, p. 7.
15 Bannear, D, 'Study Of Historic Forest Activity Sites in the Box-Ironbark and Midland Areas of Victoria', Commonwealth Environment Forest Taskforce, Department of Environment, Sports and Territories, and the Victorian Department of Natural Resources & Environment, February 1997, p. 6.
14 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
16 Cited in Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation Resources and Issues Report, Environment Conservation Council, Fitzroy, 1997, p. 25.
17 'Land News and Notes. Bendigo State Forest', Argus, 30 January 1930, p. 14.
18 Bannear, D, 'Study Of Historic Forest Activity Sites in the Box-Ironbark and Midland Areas of Victoria', Commonwealth Environment Forest Taskforce, Department of Environment, Sports and Territories, and the Victorian Department of Natural Resources & Environment, February 1997, pp. 9 & 17. See also 'Bendigo and District Forestry Camps', The Argus, 21 July 1937, p. 7.
19 'Forests at Bendigo, Timber Supply', The Argus, 10 July 1939, p. 4.
20 Whipstick Public Lands Proposed Management Plan, Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands, April 1989, pp. 22-3; and Wallace, Ray, The Naturalist in Bendigo 1945-1985, Bendigo Field Naturalists Club, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, pp. 14 & 19.
21 Wallace, Ray, The Naturalist in Bendigo 1945-1985, Bendigo Field Naturalists Club, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, p. 36
22 Department of Sustainability and Environment, Greater Bendigo National Park park note, Melbourne, Vic, December 2010, p. 4. Available http://parkweb.vic.gov.au. Accessed 18 February 2013.
23 Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation Final Report, June 2001, Environment Conservation Council, Fitzroy, Vic., p. 120. Available: http://www.veac.vic.gov.au/reports/385- BI-Complete-Report.pdf. Accessed 31 May 2013.
LOVELL CHEN 2013 15 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
2.0 Theme 2: Peopling Greater Bendigo’s places and landscapes
Figure 5 Golden Mountain Gate, Bendigo Source: Anthony Webster, Imagine Pictures, Thematic Environmental History Photography Project 2011.
The history of Greater Bendigo’s original inhabitants is ultimately one of resilience; the Aboriginal peoples of this country continue to live in the municipality, having survived displacement and decimation. The traditional owners’ connection to country is strong and has recently been recognised by a historic settlement under the Traditional Owner Settlement Act 2010. Exploration was crucial to European discovery of this country, relaying information to the pastoralists and squatters who followed and settled in the explorers’ wake. The gold rushes transformed the nation from a country dependent on convict labour and pastoralism to a booming economy with international connections. From 1852, two thirds of the immigrants coming to Australia were heading for Victoria, the majority of who were destined for the goldfields. The influx of people included Chinese, Cornish, Irish and Germans, who settled here becoming communities with a presence in Greater Bendigo today. Settlement was promoted through the establishment of small allotments with the 1860s Land Acts, and later with closer and soldier settlement schemes, often on land once used for pastoral runs.
2.1 Living as Greater Bendigo’s original inhabitants
The Aboriginal clans who occupied the country at the time of contact of what is today Greater Bendigo were the Jaara Jaara people of the Dja Dja Wurrung language community, the Taungurung peoples, and the Barapa Barapa peoples.24 The Jaara Jaara people of the Dja Dja Wurrung language community and Taungurung people were part of the Kulin Nation whose moieties were bunjil the wedge tail eagle, and waa the crow. Taungurung country extended from the Dividing Range to the rivers east of the Campaspe River as they enter the plains to the north.
16 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Figure 6 Aboriginal Languages of Victoria. Source: Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages.
Dja Dja Wurrung country was the forest country that extended from the lower foothills of the Dividing Range northwards towards the Riverine Plain. Barapa Barapa country extended to the lower Loddon River districts.
Before the arrival of Europeans in the 1830s, the landscape stretching north from the peaks of the Great Dividing Range, down through the foothills around Bendigo, and on to the Riverine Plain was very different to the landscape of today. The region did not lend itself to large village gatherings, mass exploitation of resources nor dense populations as happened on the rivers to the north.
To the north and west, the Riverine Plain provided particularly rich resources of fish and waterfowl for nine months of the year, which enabled groups such as the Barapa Barapa to live in large village communities. In the winter months, people often dispersed in smaller family groups to eke out a living along the creeks, away from the rivers, or to visit kin and neighbours.
Stone was extremely scarce along the Murray River and its tributaries, but products like string formed a central part of the plains economy along with bone, shell and reeds. People worked in teams to process bulrushes in earth ovens, rolling and weaving the fibre into huge nets as wide as the rivers, to catch fish and water fowl. Reed spears were made in large quantities by Riverine tribes like the Barapa Barapa and were traded into the Bendigo area.
The peoples of Greater Bendigo municipality were mainly forest dwellers. The Jaara Jaara people of the Dja Dja Wurrung community, for example, referred to themselves as the Kalkagoondeet or ‘the men of the forest’.25 The people of the forest moved within country according to seasons, basing their economy on a variety of small, distinct and carefully managed micro-environments.
LOVELL CHEN 2013 17 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Wooded and hilly environments, intersected by streams, valleys and chains of ponds, provided a wide variety of plant and animal foods, birds and reptiles, which could supply a family group with most of their needs throughout the year. There was some division of labour in the food quest, with men generally hunting the larger mammals and women gathering the vegetable foods and small game, but there was considerable overlap.
The effect of squatting on Aboriginal peoples was devastating. Traditional food and water sources were interfered with and contaminated by pastoralism. In 1839, Edward Stone Parker of the Loddon Aboriginal Protectorate noted that the country taken up for sheep and cattle runs, including creeks, water courses and rivers, was valued by the Aborigines. In January 1840, Chief Protector of Aborigines George Augustus Robinson also noted changes on Henry Munro's Spring Plains run in the east of Greater Bendigo. This included a dramatic decline in kangaroos and emu, which deprived the indigenous people of ‘a large portion of their support and subsistence’.26
Aboriginal people were killed in conflicts with squatters. There was a notable increase in Aboriginal-European violence between the years 1838 and 1842, including killings on both sides, most likely exacerbated by diminished food and water supplies caused by dry years.27 Charles Hutton and Henry Munro were associated with what became known as the 'Campaspe Plains Massacre'. Later in 1853, Hutton argued there was blame on both sides, describing the ‘Campaspe blacks’ as ‘mischievous’, and also blaming the deaths on influenza.28
Despite this violence, Aboriginal labour was integral to the economies of pastoral stations, and strong working relationships were forged between squatters and Aboriginal peoples. Aboriginal men were employed as shearers, woodcutters, shepherds, water carters and fencers and women as needle workers and midwives. In other work prior to 1845, Aboriginal people stoked fires under large coppers and boilers, providing hot water for sheep washing.29 Aboriginal people also continued their practice of bark cutting, to supply bark sheets for construction. Many of the scarred trees in the region date to this period. Charles Davis of the Mount Camel run showed his respect for local Aboriginal people as the first owners of the country by refusing to remove a scar tree from near his homestead.30
The halting of Aboriginal burning impacted on the growth of woodlands and grasslands, the source of pastureland for grazing and farming. Some squatters on the plains realised that the grasslands on which their stock depended had been managed by Aboriginal fire-stick burning. Travelling to the other side of the ranges on his Wolfscrag run, Edward Curr discovered the 'greenest and freshest of kangaroo grass, interspersed with yams, murnong, and other herbs', and noted that the growth was due to the country recently being burnt.31
The gold rushes in central Victoria decimated Aboriginal populations.32 In the early 1850s gold rushes led to worker shortages on pastoral runs and this gave employment to Aboriginal people. Those living on the edges of gold towns fared less well, with many turning to begging and prostitution. In 1858, Parker noted that many of the remaining Jaara Jaara people lived a scanty subsistence on the goldfields.33 Anecdotal accounts tell stories of Aboriginal communities moving north, away from the diggings to avoid the problems of alcoholism, prostitution and begging.34 A large Aboriginal camp, for instance, existed at Elmore in 1865.35
Local Aboriginal people also mined for gold and acted as guides to mining parties. In 1852 at Bullock Creek, James Bonwick met a group of Aboriginal miners, including one who told him 'Me plenty rich blackfellow’.36 F McKenzie Clark recalled in Early Days on Bendigo, another Aboriginal group at Myers Flat who picked up gold after rain, selling it to pay for provisions.37 J A Patterson also wrote in The Goldfields of Victoria in 1862 of Aboriginal miners extracting gold from a reef at Fentiman's.38
18 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Traditional practices continued to be a source of income for Aboriginal people, who performed corroborees to raise money. In 1868 at Essendon, clans from Ballarat and Sandhurst, presumably Watha Wurrung and Jaara Jaara people of the Dja Dja Wurrung community, staged a two-hour corroboree for a large audience.39 Aboriginal people also sold and traded possum skin cloaks, fish and game.
Dja Dja Wurrung clans at contact are estimated to have been between 900 and 1,800 people.40 Irrevocable spiritual and physical disruption to connection to country was caused by the arrival and settlement of Europeans in Greater Bendigo. In the resultant collapse of traditional socio-political structures, other factors like disease also played a role in the rapid decline of Aboriginal populations. Aboriginal people associated the great rainbow serpent, Mindye, of the north-west of the Port Phillip District, later the Colony of Victoria, with the devastation caused by small pox. Syphilis introduced by Europeans also impacted dramatically on Aboriginal women, causing sterility and an increase in infant mortality.
Aboriginal populations were also affected by inter-tribal conflict when people were forced into country in which they had no connection. James Dredge, Assistant Protector at the Goulburn River Aboriginal Station, claimed that by 1839 the clans on the middle reaches of the Goulburn River, although from the same linguistic groups, had become implacable enemies and could barely communicate with each other.41 In the early 1840s, western and southern Dja Dja Wurrung peoples were in conflict with Taungurung, Ngurai-illam and Djab Wurrung clans.42 This warfare was different to traditional disputes where excessive violence over women, trade or ritual transgressions was more controlled.43
Humanitarian concerns about the declining state of Aboriginal people led to the establishment of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate in 1838. Its goal was to protect and re-socialise people through teaching agriculture, house construction, reading, writing and religious instruction.
Aboriginal peoples of this area were affected by the measures taken to protect and later re- settle them, although protectorate stations, reserves and missions were established outside the subject municipal area. The Loddon Aboriginal Protectorate headquarters were at Franklinford near Daylesford, now Hepburn Shire; with the Goulburn Aboriginal Protectorate at Mitchellstown near Nagambie, now Strathbogie Shire.
The Protectorate stations were used by the Jaara Jaara people of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung and Barapa Barapa peoples. Franklinford and Mitchellstown may have afforded some protection from conflict and violence with European settlers, but both protectorate stations were beset by death, disease, poisoning, alcoholism and supply shortages as well as funding cuts, reducing their effectiveness.44 Following the recommendations of the 1849 New South Wales Legislative Council's enquiry into the state of Aborigines, which largely represented squatting interests, the Port Phillip District Protectorate was abolished.
The protectorate system was replaced by a system of reserves and rationing which was established in 1860 and by 1863, a number of specified camping places, ration depots and reserves were in place. Under the 1869 Aboriginal Protection Act, the Governor prescribed where and how Aborigines lived and took charge of orphaned and neglected children. John Green, Superintendent of Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve, near Healesville, was responsible for relocating Aboriginal people, arguing that all children should be removed from their ‘old haunts’.45 In 1877, Green reported that he had brought people to Coranderrk from, amongst other localities, Sandhurst.46
Surviving Jaara Jaara people of the Dja Dja Wurrung community, Barapa Barapa and Taungurung peoples were also resettled at the Maloga Mission Reserve. The Maloga Mission was established in Bangerang and Yorta Yorta country on the New South Wales side of the Murray River in 1874. In 1889, the Aboriginal people were relocated to the newly reserved
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Cummeragunga Mission, just a few miles away. Cummeragunga residents retained their links to Greater Bendigo: a Huntly resident remembers her father-in-law playing football in the 1890s in the Bagshot district with young men from Cummeragunga.47
From 1886 Victorian assimilation policy sought to remove Aboriginal people of mixed descent from Aboriginal stations or reserves, to merge into white society. The Aborigines Act of 1890 further extended state powers to separate Aboriginal children from their families. In 1901, the Victorian census recorded just 652 Aboriginal people, a sharp decline from the 1877 total of 1,067 people.48 The Aborigines Act 1910 lessened, but did not remove, the legal distinction between the rights of the white population and Aboriginal people in Victoria.
Many Aboriginal people responded to the call to enlist during World War One.49 Aboriginal people from Greater Bendigo, as elsewhere, signed up to serve their country, including drover Leslie Moyle who was born in Bendigo in 1898.50
The 1927 census revealed there were only 514 Aboriginal people living in Victoria, with 293 living in 'supervised camps' or reserves.51 In 1939, Cummeragunga residents went on strike to highlight their poor living conditions and crossed the Murray River. Some returned to Greater Bendigo to reside and rekindle relationships with their families and ancestral homeland. The Firebrace family, for example, lived at Campaspe Park when Jack Neale owned the property in the 1940s.52
In 1967, Aboriginal people were officially included in the census and in 1970 the first act to recognise Aboriginal people’s entitlement to land in Victoria was passed. In 1972, there were 6,371 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in Victoria, 16,570 in 1991 and 25,900 in 2001. In 2006, an estimated 1.2% of Greater Bendigo's population of 83,325 – approximately 1,000 people - were Aboriginal.53 This strong population growth was due to a continued high birth rate, lower infant mortality, a preference for large families, better health and a greater willingness for some people to identify as Aboriginal.54
Traditional owners have remained resilient and maintained a strong cultural connection to their country in the Greater Bendigo municipality. Today, support to the community is provided through the Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-Operative, Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation, Barapa Barapa Nation Aboriginal Corporation and the Taungurung Clans Aboriginal Corporation.
Native title claims for their country have been the subject of an eighteen month negotiation between the Dja Dja Wurrung people and the Victorian Government under the Victorian Traditional Owner Settlement Act 2010.55 Settled on 28 March 2013, the agreement represents resolution of native title claims to approximately 266,532 hectares of Crown land, or around three per cent of Crown land in Victoria.56 The settlement recognises the Dja Dja Wurrung as the traditional owners of the area that covers north of the Great Dividing Range from Franklinford, including the catchment areas of the Richardson, Avon, Avoca, Loddon and Campaspe rivers and Crown land in the City of Greater Bendigo, Lake Boort and part of Lake Buloke.
Related places
Maps of the municipality available through Aboriginal Affairs Victoria show that Aboriginal cultural sensitivity areas exist along all waterways, swamps and forested regions, including the Greater Bendigo National Park, Heathcote Graytown National Park, Mount Sugarloaf Nature Conservation Reserve, Pilchers Bridge Nature Conservation Reserve, Whipstick Nature Conservation Reserve, Shelbourne Nature Conservation Reserve, Crosbie Nature Conservation Area, Lockwood State Forest, One Eye State Forest, Argyle State Forest and Spring Plains Nature Conservation Reserve.57
20 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Sites of conflict and violence between European and Aboriginal peoples Places of Aboriginal influence, activity and employment Aboriginal camps on pastoral runs and the goldfields Camping sites of dislocated peoples Protectorate stations, reserves, ration depots and missions associated with Aboriginal peoples of this country
2.2 Exploring, surveying and mapping
It is likely that European travellers began looking for grazing country from the early 1830s.58 But it was the well-documented expedition undertaken by New South Wales Surveyor- General, Thomas Mitchell, which had the most impact on Greater Bendigo. Mitchell's observations provided some of the first written descriptions of the future municipality.
Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, instructed Mitchell to finish tracing the course of the Darling River to the Murray River, to survey the Murray to its junction with the Murrumbidgee and then to follow the southern bank of the Murray back to the settled parts of New South Wales. He was searching for agricultural land on which to settle a permanent farming population. Mitchell, with 25 men and provisions for a five-month journey, set off from central western New South Wales on his third expedition, and his second attempt at tracing Charles Sturt’s earlier 1828 journey along the River Darling, in March 1836.59 After crossing the Murray River near present-day Boundary Bend, Mitchell ignored his official instructions and explored instead the northern and western areas of the Port Phillip District, a region he titled 'Australia Felix'.
On his trip returning to Sydney, Mitchell travelled through the current municipal area on 5, 6 and 7 October 1836. The mark left by his journey, the famous 'Major's Line', became the boundary between the former McIvor and Mitchell shires. The expedition travelled through present-day Redesdale and crossed a river, which Mitchell named the Campaspe, then set up camp to the south-west of present day Heathcote, near Pohlman Creek. Mitchell and his party reached the top of a range of hills, the McIvor Range, near a point he named Mount Campbell, later Mount Ida, and camped beside ponds in what became known as the Wappentake Creek valley.60
On 7 October, seven Aboriginal men, most likely members of the Taungurung clan, followed the expedition party. Mitchell hastened out to meet them to ensure they might not 'sit down' too close to the camp, and exchanged ‘two tomahawks’ for two of the baskets carried by the men.61 The Aboriginal group continued to follow the expedition.
Even before Mitchell arrived back in Sydney in October 1836, many squatters had come to settle because of his favorable reports, taking up country along the Campaspe River. More came again after Mitchell published his expedition journal in London in 1839.
George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector of Aborigines, travelled through the current municipal area in January 1840. Other exploratory parties included William Blandowski and Gerard Krefft on their 1856 expedition to collect specimens for the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, later the Royal Society of Victoria. In 1860, the ill-fated Victorian Exploring Expedition led by Robert O’Hara Burke came through the municipality en route to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Related places
Documented Major Mitchell sites Major Mitchell commemoration sites Documented Robert O’Hara Burke sites Robert O’Hara Burke commemoration sites Victorian Exploring Expedition monument in the Back Creek cemetery, Bendigo
LOVELL CHEN 2013 21 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
2.3 Migrating and making a home
The importance of immigration to Greater Bendigo, in economic, social and cultural terms, cannot be understated. Prior to the gold rushes, immigrants came from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland to take up sheep and cattle runs. In 1852 alone, the first year of the Bendigo Creek gold rush, the number of immigrants arriving in Australia outnumbered the previous 70 years of convict arrivals.
During the rushes, people moved quickly, creating 'instant' settlements and shifting from one gold discovery to another. Diggers on the Victorian and New South Wales goldfields in the 1850s included South Australians who had been copper miners in the 1830s and 1840s. From there, transient diggers moved in a general anti-clockwise direction to Queensland (1860s), Northern Territory (1880s) and Western Australia (1890s).62
Gold rush immigration swelled the population of Victoria from 77,000 people in 1851 to 411,000 in 1857. During 1852, the peak year of the rushes, 90,000 people arrived in Melbourne.63
The majority of gold seekers came from Britain, but international arrivals also came from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, North America and Canada, New Zealand and other South Pacific nations, with tens of thousands coming from China. Lesser-known groups seeking gold included a number of Croatians who settled in the townships of Redcastle and Costerfield.64 By 1861, after a decade of gold rushes, only 37 per cent of Australia's population was Australian born.65
Related places
Place names associated with particular migrant groups, including the names of churches, towns, mining settlements, creeks and roads
2.4 Maintaining distinctive cultures
Chinese community
The Chinese came to Australia from 1852, in part driven out by conflict in southern China. Sandhurst was one of six Victorian gold mining centres that attracted the Chinese, who were mostly from Guangdong Province. Upon arrival at Sandhurst, they took up residence in one of several camps connected to a home district in China. By 1855, 5,325 Chinese lived in nine camps in Sandhurst. The Chinese population decreased to 1,000 in 1859, but by 1868 had increased again to 3,500.66
The Ironbark Chinese camp was the largest residential area and the focus of business activity for Chinese people in the Sandhurst district. Camps were also located at Golden Gully, Spring Gully, Back Creek, White Hills, Long Gully, Myers Flat, Peg Leg and Eaglehawk.67 In 1866, 1,853 Chinese were recorded as alluvial gold miners, along with 4,870 European alluvial miners and 4,318 European quartz miners.68
The Chinese treated mine tailings and reworked gold sites abandoned by Europeans. Most Chinese people in Sandhurst also came from farming backgrounds, bringing their expertise in market gardening with them.69 Other skills translated to the goldfields included brick- making. In 2005, an archaeological dig at Thunder Street, North Bendigo, unearthed the only known Chinese industrial brick-making kiln outside China.70 Bricks made in the kiln, owned by A’Fok, Fok Sing and Co., can be seen in the brick garden walls in Forest Street, Bendigo.71
Chinese people were the target of discriminatory legislation. In 1855, the Commission Appointed to Inquire into the Conditions of the Goldfields reported, amongst other matters, on the question of Chinese immigration to the goldfields.
22 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Figure 7 Chinese wall, Forest Street, Bendigo, believed to date from the 1860s. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 2197)
As a result, the Act to make provision for certain Immigrants was passed that not only controlled the amount of immigrants allowed on each ship arriving in Victoria, but it also imposed a £10 entrance tax on the shipmaster.72
To avoid this tax, most Chinese migrants landed near Robe in South Australia and walked to Dai Gum San, or New Gold Mountain, as the goldfields of central Victoria were known.73 Chinese diggers rallied in protest against the tax by forming the 'United Confederacy of Chinese' throughout the goldfields of Victoria, including Sandhurst.74 Over the five years from 1856-61, local Chinese ‘framed their arguments in a more sophisticated manner’ in a series of petitions against these discriminatory measures.75
Restrictions remained in force and in 1857 South Australia also imposed a £10 poll tax on Chinese people entering that colony. There were serious anti-Chinese riots at the Buckland River diggings in north-east Victoria in 1857 and a number of Chinese relocated at this time to Heathcote.76 In addition, in 1859 the Victorian government introduced a residence tax. Over these years, sustained resistance and tax evasion by Victorian Chinese, as well as problems with enforcing the legislation, contributed to the removal of the taxes on Chinese immigrants and residents in 1862 and 1863.77 Despite their removal, these measures had an impact: from 1861 to 1881, Victoria’s Chinese population decreased from 24,724 to 11,869.78 The Shop and Factories Act of 1896 made it difficult for Chinese manufacturers to compete with Europeans and the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, known as the White Australia Policy, effectively halted Chinese immigration.
A strong Chinese presence nonetheless remained in Bendigo. A contributing factor to this ongoing presence was the willingness of Bendigo's Chinese immigrants to actively participate in work including gold mining, market gardening and storekeeping, as well as local community life beyond their own camps. In particular, over the period 1862 to 1882, when immigration and taxation restrictions were relaxed or removed, the Chinese, through their
LOVELL CHEN 2013 23 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 significant contribution to the city's economic and cultural life, challenged cultural perceptions and came to be valued as an important part of the local community.79
The Chinese also participated in the annual Easter Fair procession to support the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum. In 1892 Loong, the famous Chinese dragon, first appeared in the procession. The Argus described the ‘magnificent display’ put on by the Chinese community, with ‘nearly a thousand’ people marching in brilliant costumes, with ‘queer musical instruments, and quaint battle weapons’.80 The dragon was 200 feet long and swayed about amidst fireworks with the support of 80 men, with rolling eyes, lolling tongue and a ‘generally ferocious appearance’.81
It has been suggested that the popularity of this annual spectacle and the charity fundraising efforts, which were praised by prominent local businessmen and newspapers of the day, was part of the reason that the Chinese community found acceptance in Bendigo.82
The importance of Chinese history on the goldfields is evidenced by the collections held in the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo. The museum was established by the Bendigo Chinese Association and opened in 1991. In 2008, Loong, the dragon used in the Bendigo Easter parades from 1892 to 1970 was placed on the Victorian Heritage Register, in recognition of its significance. The collection of nineteenth century processional regalia held by the museum is believed to be of international significance.
Related places
Chinese camps Chinese Joss House Chinese mining sites Properties associated with Chinese activities Chinese market gardens Kilns for Chinese brick production and walls made of Chinese bricks, like Forest Street, Bendigo Sites and documents associated with Chinese protests Chinese gravesites Bendigo Chinese Association headquarters, Bridge Street Golden Dragon Museum collection
Cornish community
The Cornish were another significant ethnic group in Greater Bendigo. They brought with them expert mining knowledge and practices and a deep commitment to Methodism.83 Cornish migration in the nineteenth century changed mining practices on an international scale and it is the significance of this global impact that led to the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, in the United Kingdom, being granted World Heritage status in 2006.84
The first Cornish arrivals on the Victorian goldfields travelled overland from the copper mines of South Australia, to where they had originally migrated in the late 1830s and 1840s. Between 1846 and 1850, 6,700 assisted Cornish immigrants came to Australia.85 With the collapse of the Cornish copper mining industry in 1866, a further mass migration of miners took place. In 1881 in Sandhurst perhaps one in four households were occupied by Cornish people. Over half the households in Long Gully were Cornish and other communties were found in Ironbark, Golden Square, Sutton, California Gully and at Huntly.86
Remnants of Cornish settlement can be seen at Harvey Town, a heritage precinct in Eaglehawk. Harvey Town was named for the Harvey family members who were the crown grantees of these allotments from the 1870s.87 The houses were built of rubblestone and the fences were dry stone walled, showing the specific building practices that Cornish settlers brought with them to the goldfields.
24 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Figure 8 Cottage, Clarke Street, Eaglehawk, in Harvey Town. Source: National Trust Citation, File No B3600, Victorian Heritage Database
Located near the Prince of Wales mine shaft and Pennyweight Gully, the Harvey Town settlement shows how a community formed and clustered around their centre of livelihood.
Some of the distinctive Cornish mining practices seen on the central Victorian goldfields included the tribute system. Cornish tools and techniques also included the use of single- pointed picks, bucket pumps, the ‘hammer and tap’ method of drilling holes in a rock face, the ‘Cousin Jack’ wheelbarrow and Cornish-designed whims.88
Cornish skills of shaft sinking, ‘stoping’, which was the practice of removing ore from underground and leaving behind an open space, and pumping water were also in demand in Sandhurst's quartz mines.89
The Ninnes grave in Maiden Gully shows the difficulty of early goldfields life on migrants, particularly women and children. Cornish immigrant Maria Ninnes and her two children are buried at this lone grave, having died of illness in 1852.90 Thomas, his wife Maria and their children had travelled overland by wagon from Burra in South Australia, having arrived in Australia in 1848. Thomas’ account of the journey is held in the State Library of Australia. The grave is now cared for by Ninnes’ descendants and the Cornish Association of Victoria.91
The Bendigo Cornish Association was founded in 1913 by Sir John Quick. The Cornish Association of Bendigo and District was formed in 1986. It ceased operations in 2011.
Related places
Mining sites which demonstrate distinctive Cornish mining techniques and technologies Methodist churches associated with the Cornish community Buildings constructed by Cornish stonemasons Harvey Town, Eaglehawk Miners' cottages, graves and sites associated with the Cornish
German community
German immigrants made significant contributions to Greater Bendigo, in areas including engineering, geology, religion, mining, the arts, viticulture, architecture and building.
LOVELL CHEN 2013 25 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Figure 9 Millewa Hall, Kangaroo Flat, 1872. The residence was designed by noted German architects, Vahland and Getzschmann. Source: Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, 2010
Figure 10 Former Grieffenhagen Winery building, wine making established 1860. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 681)
26 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Germans emigrated to the diggings at Sandhurst and McIvor and settled mainly in the areas of Diamond Hill, New Chum Gully, Victoria Hill, Ironbark and the Whipstick.92 In 1857, 1,266 Germans were recorded as being present on the Bendigo goldfields, or 4 per cent of the population at that time.
They were the third largest ethnic group on the goldfields, surpassed only by the Chinese and British and by 1861 they numbered some 10,000.93 A German Club was formed in Sandhurst in April 1858.94
German architects and builders established prestigious practices in Sandhurst, the most prominent being architect and engineer William, or Wilhelm, Vahland, and architect Robert Getzschmann (Millewa Hall was designed by Vahland and Getzschmann, see Figure 9); others included Robert Nicolai, Emil Mauermann, Frederich Lehmann and H D Bosselmann. Between them, these men built many of Bendigo's finest buildings and structures, including the Goldfields Hospital (1858-64), Benevolent Asylum (1860), Mechanics' Institute (1864- 78), Masonic Temple and Capitol Theatre (1873-90), Princess Theatre (1873), Alexandra Fountain (1881), Town Hall (1885) and School of Mines (est. 1870s).95
German migrants were also influential in the development of the viticulture industry. William Grieffenhagen and the Heine brothers were all leading figures in the wine industry in Greater Bendigo in the 1860s and 1870s. German geologist, Gustave Thureau, developed the first geology and mining course at the School of Mines.96 German priest, Rev Henry Backhaus, was the only priest on the Sandhurst goldfield until 1855.97
The German Heritage Society was established in 1988 to promote research into and recognition of the German presence in Bendigo.
Related places
Gold mines associated with Germans Buildings and structures designed or constructed by Germans Other businesses established by Germans, including vineyards and wineries Internment camps associated with Germans and other ‘alien’ peoples in World War One and Two
• Refugee camps associated with displaced persons from World War One and Two
Irish community
Poverty and famine in their homeland was an important factor in the emigration from Ireland of thousands of people in the mid-nineteenth century. The Irish had been arriving in Australia before the gold rushes, but many more came after the discovery of gold. As well as a desire to improve their lot, many Irish also became politically active on the goldfields.
Sectarianism followed the Irish to their new communities and the historical antipathy between Catholics and Protestants was always present. Schools and churches most obviously divided along these lines, as did distinctions in cemeteries. Axedale, for instance, provided separate cemeteries and hotels for Catholics and Protestants. The division between faiths also played out in the development of staunchly Catholic Redesdale and the nearby principally Protestant township of Mia Mia.98
The Irish diggers populated the areas of Tipperary Gully, Sheepshead Gully and the junction of the Bendigo and Back Creeks, known as Irishtown.99 The Irish also took up other occupations on the goldfields, including running hotels and working farms.
The Bendigo Irish Association was formed in 1991.
Related places
LOVELL CHEN 2013 27 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Gold mines associated with Irish immigrants Businesses associated with Irish immigrants Sites associated with political unrest and action with an Irish connection
2.5 Promoting settlement
The selection of Crown land under the Land Acts of the 1860s was critical in promoting settlement in Greater Bendigo. Settlers, through trial and error, utilised the land legislation to establish farms and agricultural operations suited to local environmental conditions.
The Sale of Crowns Land Act, the Nicholson Act, of September 1860 provided land for sale and lease near towns. Land was taken up near goldfields townships at this time. The Duffy Land Act of 1862 introduced goldfields commons on which small landholders could graze stock. Residence and cultivation licences could be issued to people, including miners occupying land on the goldfields, and 'novel industries', including vineyards, olive yards, mulberry or hop plantations could be established on land up to 30 acres in size and leased for up to 30 years.100
Section 42 of the 1865 Act also allowed people to reside on and cultivate up to 20 acres of Crown land in and around the goldfields under annual licenses. This impacted significantly on the municipality, with allotments selected on most of the fertile land around the Sandhurst, Huntly, Marong and Heathcote goldfields, including part of Burnewang station.
Under the 1869 Land Act, Chinese residents wishing to establish market gardens took up 20 acre lots including in the Parishes of Ellesmere, Kimbolton, Neilborough and Redcastle. The act opened up all unalienated land in the colony and by the end of 1878, the majority of land within Greater Bendigo had been selected.
Selectors in family groups established a wheat and sheep industry in the Parishes of Diggora, Egerton, Ellesmere, Elmore, Goornong, Kamarooka, Leichardt, Lockwood, Marong, Neilborough, Nerring, Nolan, Shelbourne and Warragamba. Selectors engaged in grazing in the Parishes of Costerfield, Dargile, Eppalock, Kimbolton, Knowsley, Knowsley East, Langworner, Lyell, Ravenswood, Spring Plains and Weston.
The Land Acts of 1884, 1898 and 1901 provided again for leasing land for grazing or agriculture. Land was leased under these Acts in the Parishes of Dargile, Huntly, Shelbourne, Bagshot, Egerton, Neilborough and Whirakee.
In Australia in the 1890s, employing people on unused or under-used rural land was seen as a way of ameliorating the economic depression and addressing overcrowding in urban areas. Villages that were intended to become self-sufficient, and based on co-operative enterprise, were established under the Village Settlement Act of 1892 in rural forest and irrigated areas. Under the Settlement of Land Act 1893, families were given cash advances by the Government to take up cultivation of dryland and irrigated allotments of up to 50 acres. The Act established village communities, labour colonies and homestead associations in areas where seasonal work was available to supplement farm work.
The Endeavour Homestead Association was established under the 1893 Act in the Pembroke district at the north end of the Kamarooka State Forest. Settlers constructed houses of bush slabs or mud bricks with earthen floors, shingle roofs and a mud brick chimney.101 Another Homestead Association was established at Round Creek, Kamarooka, and in 1901 an extension to the Endeavour settlement was planned.
These homestead settlements were ultimately unsuccessful because of the small size of the blocks and the unsuitability of the land for cultivation. Instead of attracting settlers into the area, the land was largely taken up by local residents to supplement income through grazing
28 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 and wood cutting. Under another scheme in 1894, the Bendigo Miners Association applied for 1,000 acres at Kamarooka for a settlement for 'old and worn-out miners'.102
In 1898 and 1904, legislation was introduced to further subdivide large freehold estates into smaller holdings for settlement.
In the buoyant economic climate following World War One, another wave of closer settlement was instigated, to settle returned servicemen at places like Mount Camel. Discharged Soldier Settlement Acts passed in the period 1917-24, in conjunction with the Closer Settlement Acts of 1915, 1918 and 1922, provided the legislative basis for Victorian soldier settlement on the land. A number of large estates in Greater Bendigo were also sold for closer and soldier settlement purposes in these years, although the blocks were often too small to be viable and few of the settlers survived the 1930s Depression.
In 1915, Hunter was a railway station on the Elmore-Cohuna railway line. In the 1920s, the Hunter farming community was established through the subdivision of some existing estates into soldier settlement blocks of 200-300 acres. The Elmore Estate was established in 1920 and the Burnewang Park Estate in 1923.103
There was also post-World War Two soldier settlement activity. Parts of the former Burnewang, Ravenswood, Yarraberb and Picaninny runs were taken over for soldier settlement at this time, as was land in the Marong, Goornong and Elmore districts.
Related places
Sites associated with early settlement leases and licenses of Crown land, such as Chinese market gardens Sites and properties associated with closer settlements, homestead associations, irrigation colonies and soldier settlement schemes
24 This history makes use of the Aboriginal language boundaries defined by the Victorian Aboriginal Council of Languages (VACL). Where possible, the history adopts the spellings of tribal and clan designations as used by present-day Aboriginal groups. Other names are taken from Ian D. Clark's Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria 1800-1900, Monash Publications in Geography Number 37, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, 1990.
25 Parker, E S, ‘The aborigines of Australia: a lecture delivered ... Before the John Knox Young Men's Association, on Wednesday May 10th, 1854’, manuscript available at State Library of Victoria.
26 Clark, I D (ed), The Journals of George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate Volume One: 1 January 1839 - 30 September 1840, Heritage Matters, Melbourne, 1998, p. 135.
27 Clark, I D., Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Sites in Western Victoria 1803 - 1859, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, ACT, 1995, pp. 95 - 96.
28 Letter from Charles Hutton 19 August 1853 in Bride, T F, Letters from Victorian Pioneers, Trustees of the Public Library, Museums, and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1898, reprint, Currey O'Neil, South Yarra, 1983, p. 248.
29 Shaw, M, Our Goodly Heritage: History of Huntly Shire, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1966, p. 13.
30 Randell, J O, Pastoral Settlement in Northern Victoria, Volume Two: the Campaspe District, Chandos Publishing Company, Burwood, Vic, 1982, p. 501.
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31 Curr, E M, Recollections of Squatting in Victoria, George Robertson, Melbourne, 1883; reprint, Rich River Printers, Echuca, Vic, 2001, p. 49 and pp. 183 - 5.
32 See Smith, L R, Janet McCalman, Ian Anderson and Sandra Smith, 'Fractional Identities: The Political Arithmetic of Aboriginal Victorians, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 38, No. 4, Spring 2008, p. 551; and Janet McCalman, Personal Communication, 29 June 2011.
33 Clark, I D, Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria 1800-1900, Monash Publications in Geography Number 37, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, 1990, pp. 145-6.
34 Atwood, B, My Country: A history of the Djadja Wurrung 1837-1864. Monash Publications in History No. 25, Monash University, Clayton, Vic, 1999, pp. 37-45.
35 Shaw, M, Our Goodly Heritage: History of Huntly Shire, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1966, p. 82.
36 James Bonwick cited in Clark, I D, Tanderrum 'Freedom of the Bush': the DjadjaWurrung presence on the goldfields of Central Victoria, Friends of Mount Alexander Diggings, Castlemaine, Vic, 2004, p. 13.
37 Cited in Clark, I D, Tanderrum 'Freedom of the Bush': the DjadjaWurrung presence on the goldfields of Central Victoria, Friends of Mount Alexander Diggings, Castlemaine, Vic, 2004, p. 20.
38 Cited in Clark, I D, Tanderrum 'Freedom of the Bush': the DjadjaWurrung presence on the goldfields of Central Victoria, Friends of Mount Alexander Diggings, Castlemaine, Vic, 2004, p. 26.
39 Cahir, D A and Clark, I D, '"An edifying spectacle"’: A history of "tourist corroborees" in Victoria, Australia, 1835–1870', Tourism Management, Vol. 31, 2010, p. 417.
40 Clark, I D, Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria 1800-1900, Monash Publications in Geography Number 37, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, 1990, p. 150.
41 Dredge cited in Taylor, M, Schmitt, D and Roy, P, 'Undermining the social foundations: the impact of colonisation on the traditional family structure of the Goulburn tribes' in Aboriginal History, Vol. 27, 2003, Australian Centre for Indigenous History, ANU, Canberra, p. 4.
42 Clark, I D, Tanderrum 'Freedom of the Bush': the DjadjaWurrung Presence on the Goldfields of Central Victoria, Friends of Mount Alexander Diggings, Castlemaine, Vic, 2004, p. 2.
43 Broome, R, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2005, p. xxi.
44 Edward Parker's reports and returns cited in Clark, I D, Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria 1800-1900, Monash Publications in Geography Number 37, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, 1990, p. 142; Dredge, J, First Assistant Protector of the North Eastern District Protectorate Region, Diary, MS 5244 Box 16/4, La Trobe Australian Manuscripts Collection, State Library of Victoria..
45 Seventh Report of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines of the Colony of Victoria, 1877, p. 19.
46 Broome, R, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2005, p. 131.
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47 Information provided at the City of Greater Bendigo Thematic Environmental History workshop, Huntly, 7 July 2011.
48 Broome, R, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2005, p. 194.
49 Broome, R, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2005, p. 201.
50 'Australian Indigenous Servicemen WWI', Bringing Them Home Project, National Archives of Australia, April 2005.
51 Broome, R, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2005, p. 194.
52 Information provided at the City of Greater Bendigo Thematic Environmental History workshop, Elmore, 7 July 2011.
53 Estimated Resident Population, National Regional Profile: Greater Bendigo City Part A (Statistical Subdivision) 2006, Australian Bureau of Statistics. Available http://www.abs.gov.au. Accessed 18 April 2011.
54 Broome, R, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2005, p. 373.
55 Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation, ‘Fact Sheet: Settlement of the Dja Dja Wurrung native title applications under the Traditional Owner Settlement Act 2010’, 28 March 2013. Available: http://www.djadjawurrung.com.au/index_copy.htm. Accessed 11 April 2013.
56 Premier of Victoria Denis Napthine, ‘Media Release: Historic settlement of Dja Dja Wurrung native title claim’, 28 March 2013. Available: http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/media- centre/media-releases/6379-historic-settlement-of-dja-dja-wurrung-native-title-claim.html. Accessed 11 April 2013.
57 See 'Areas of Cultural Sensitivity in Victoria' Grid Maps: Heathcote 7824, Bendigo 7724, Echuca 7825, Mitiamo 7725 and Woodend 7823, Department of Planning and Community Development, Victoria, July 2011. Available, www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/indigenous/heritage¬tools/areas-of-cultural-sensitivity, accessed 16 March 2012.
58 See for example Mitchell's entry for 23 September 1836 in Mitchell, T L, Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, with Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales, 2nd Edition, Carefully Revised. Volume Two, T. & W. Boone, London, 1839; reprint: Library Board of Australia, Adelaide, SA, 1965.
59 Baker, D. W. A. ‘Mitchell, Sir Thomas Livingstone (1792-1855), in Australian Dictionary of Biography, at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mitchell-sir-thomas-livingstone-2463. Accessed 31 May 2013.
60 Mitchell, T L, Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, with Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales, 2nd Edition, Carefully Revised. Volume Two, T & W Boone, London, 1839; reprint: Library Board of Australia, Adelaide, SA, 1965, pp. 287-9. The names of present day locations that Mitchell passed through are taken from The Major Mitchell Trail: Exploring Australia Felix, Department Conservation and Environment, Melbourne, Vic, 1990.
61 Mitchell, T L, Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, with Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales,
LOVELL CHEN 2013 31 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
2nd Edition, Carefully Revised. Volume Two, T. & W. Boone, London, 1839; reprint: Library Board of Australia, Adelaide, 1965, p. 289.
62 Lennon, J, 'Victorian Gold – World Heritage Status?' in Bendigo: Nothing But Gold 150 Years of Gold Mining, Conference Papers 27-28 October 2001, p. 43.
63 Elkner, C, 'Immigration and Ethnicity', eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00004b.htm. Accessed 10 August 2011. Bendigo History, Bendigo Historical Society. Available http://www.bendigohistory.com/review.shtml.
64 'Redcastle Suspected Croatian Community in Victoria Australia - 1850's', Australian Croatian Genealogical and Historical Society, Ballarat, Vic, 2000. Available http://www.reocities.com/Heartland/Hollow/6442/redcastle/. Accessed 1 December 2011; and Šutalo, Ilija, Croatians in Australia: pioneers, settlers and their descendants, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, SA, 2004, p. 49; and Bradley, Ann, Pioneers of Costerfield, Anne Bradley, n.p., 2009, pp. 80-2.
65 Elkner, C, ‘Immigration and Ethnicity: Overview’, eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia, Cultural Heritage Unit, The University of Melbourne, 25 February 2010. Available http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00006b.htm. Accessed 20 July 2011. Note: it is not known if this statistic includes Aboriginal people.
66 The Walk From Robe, The Golden Dragon Museum, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 24.
67 The Walk From Robe, The Golden Dragon Museum, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 24.
68 Lovejoy, V, 'Depending Upon Diligence: Chinese at Work in Bendigo 1861-1881' in Journal of Historical and European Studies, Vol. 1, December 2007, pp. 27.
69 Lovejoy, V, 'Depending Upon Diligence: Chinese at Work in Bendigo 1861-1881' in Journal of Historical and European Studies, Vol. 1, December 2007, pp. 25-6.
70 Chinese Kiln and Market Garden, North Bendigo, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;14222. Accessed 16 September 2011.
71 Chinese Brick Walls, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;34761. Accessed 9 April 2013.
72 Parliament of Victoria, ‘An Act to make provision for certain Immigrants’, 12 June 1855. Available: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/hist_act/aatmpfci433.pdf. Accessed 9 April 2013.
73 Reeves, K, The Chinese in Central Victoria, eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00193b.htm. Accessed 7 June, 2011.
74 Jones, P, 'Chinese sojourners, immigrants and settlers in Victoria: an overview', MMA project, 2008. Available www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/doc/Jones_ChinOverview.pdf. Accessed 20 March 2012.
75 Kyi, Anna, ‘”The most determined, sustained diggers’ resistance campaign”: Chinese protests against the Victorian Government’s anti-Chinese legislation 1855-1862’, Provenance: The Journal of Public Records Office Victoria, September 2009, no.8, p. 37. Available: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/provenance/no8/DiggersProtestPrint.asp. Accessed 9 April 2013.
76 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, Vic, 1985, p. 32.
32 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
77 Kyi, Anna, ‘”The most determined, sustained diggers’ resistance campaign”: Chinese protests against the Victorian Government’s anti-Chinese legislation 1855-1862’, Provenance: The Journal of Public Records Office Victoria, September 2009, no.8, pp. 36 & 45. Available: http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/provenance/no8/DiggersProtestPrint.asp. Accessed 9 April 2013.
78 Lovejoy, V, 'Depending Upon Diligence: Chinese at Work in Bendigo 1861-1881' in Journal of Historical and European Studies, Vol. 1, December 2007, p. 23.
79 Lovejoy, V, 'The Fortune Seekers of Dai Gum San: First Generation Chinese on the Bendigo Goldfield 1854-1882', PhD Thesis, School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University, 2009, passim.
80 The Argus, 20 April 1892, p. 6.
81 The Argus, 20 April 1892, p. 6.
82 Jack, Anita, Personal Communication, 20 January 2012.
83 Elkner, K, 'Cornish', eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00089b.htm. Accessed 7 July 2011.
84 Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site Management Plan 2013 – 2018. Available http://www.cornish- mining.org.uk/sites/default/files/Cornwall_and_West_Devon_Mining_Landscape_World_Heritage_ Site_Management_Plan_2013-2018.pdf. Accessed 30 May 2013.
85 Elkner, K, 'Cornish', eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00089b.htm. Accessed 7 July 2011.
86 Fahey, C, 'Miners' cottages in Bendigo' in Regional History Conference Papers, Bendigo, Bendigo Bank, 2004, p. 26.
87 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Three Significant Areas, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, pp. 1-3.
88 Elkner, C, 'Cornish', eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00089b.htm. Accessed 7 July 2011
89 Fahey, C, 'Miners' cottages in Bendigo' in Regional History Conference Papers, Bendigo, Bendigo Bank, 2004, p. 24.
90 Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, Volume 2, Citations, ‘Ninnes Lone Grave and Reserve’ Allotment 36, Parish of Marong, Maiden Gully, prepared for City of Greater Bendigo, 2010.
91 Cornish Association of Victoria, http://www.cornishvic.org.au/. Accessed 9 April 2013.
92 Lawler, G, 'Bendigo's Heritage, More than Grand Buildings', in Bendigo: Nothing But Gold 150 Years of Gold mining Conference Papers 27-28 October 2001, pp. 33.
93 Cusack, F, ed., Bendigo, the German Chapter, The German Heritage Society, Bendigo, Vic, 1998, p. 191.
94 Cusack, F, ed., Bendigo the German Chapter, The German Heritage Society, Bendigo, Vic, 1998, p. 15.
95 Lawler, G, 'Bendigo's Heritage, More than Grand Buildings', in Bendigo: Nothing But Gold 150 Years of Gold mining Conference Papers 27-28 October 2001, pp. 33-35.
96 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 60.
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97 Nolan, M J, The Enterprising Life of Dr Henry Backhaus Bendigo Pioneer, The Author, Bendigo, Vic, 2008, p. 61.
98 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002.
99 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002, p. 58.
100 Nelson, Phillipa, and Lesley Alves, Lands Guide: A guide to finding records of Crown land at Public Record Office Victoria, Public Record Office of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic, 2009, p. 329.
101 Pedersen, G., A brief history of the Kamarooka District, Back to Kamarooka Committee, Kamarooka, Vic, 1987, p. 46.
102 'From the Melbourne Papers, Victoria', The Mercury, 27 August 1894, p. 3.
103 Lovelace, N, Hunter: a history of the district to mark the 75th anniversary of the Hunter Hall, Hunter Hall Historical Society, Elmore, Vic, c.2002, pp. 76-7.
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3.0 Theme 3: Connecting Greater Bendigo by transport and communications
Figure 11 Bendigo Railway Station Source: Anthony Webster, Imagine Pictures, Thematic Environmental History Photography Project 2011.
The first pathways in the Greater Bendigo municipality were made by Aboriginal peoples and it is likely that Europeans utilised these existing tracks and access ways. In the early phase of European settlement, there was limited need for transport infrastructure as pastoral runs were largely managed from Melbourne. The rush to the goldfields in the 1850s preceded colonial organisation but the wealth of the Greater Bendigo goldfields drove the construction of rail, and later road, infrastructure; and the development of commercial and governmental transport services to bring people to the goldfields, supply goods and equipment for the gold industry, and to freight the gold to the international market. As the population grew, tram infrastructure was also constructed to service residents and workers of Bendigo, and is now a major attraction for visitors. A notable transport first for Australia was the first powered flight made by an Australian in the Greater Bendigo area.
3.1 Establishing pathways
The earliest road to the future Sandhurst, that squatters would have used, was most likely based on tracks made by Aboriginal people. Squatters had established huge runs in the Greater Bendigo municipality, but they were largely self-sustaining, with the landholders conducting most of the business from Melbourne. Prior to the gold rushes, the road north from Kyneton ran through Saw Pit Gully, now Elphinstone, curved around Mount Alexander to the south-west and then skirted west around the hills at the confluence of Bendigo Creek and the Loddon River. Other tracks used by squatters led to the Bendigo valley from east and west, but the more direct route from Ravenswood over Big Hill to Bendigo Creek later became the established route for diggers.104
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The early rushes to the goldfields did not allow time for the development of adequate transport routes, and prospectors largely travelled by foot, horse or bullock along rudimentary tracks. William Howitt described appalling track conditions, including ‘sticking fast’ in ‘terrible quagmires’.105 Lord Robert Cecil, visiting the diggings, also reported on the deep dust, holes, tree stumps and narrowness of tracks which made for hazardous travelling.106
Crude tracks sprang up with each new rush, gave off thick dust in the heat of summer and turned to mud in winter. Bridges were regularly swept away in floods. Accommodation along roads was also of the most basic nature, and enterprising hoteliers charged exorbitant rates. Caroline Chisholm, following her tour of the area in October 1854, fought for the construction of shelter huts en route to the goldfields, to provide safe and inexpensive accommodation; by the end of 1855 ten huts had been built with government aid.107 Between towns, not only was there a lack of shelter, there was also little feed for animals, and forested areas provided hiding places for bushrangers, although robberies on the way to the diggings were infrequent.
By early 1852, ‘…the road to Mount Alexander and the new diggings on Bendigo Creek was the busiest thoroughfare in the colonies’.108 The heavy use of the road, teeming with people, horses and conveyances, compounded the road’s problems.109 After the opening of the Eaglehawk Gully rush in June 1852, there were between 5,000 and 6,000 diggers arriving in Sandhurst each week, by the extremely busy road from Mount Alexander.110
While there was some government expenditure on roads, most gold revenue went into administration of the licence system and policing the goldfields. Despite the poor conditions, by 1853 a coach service carrying passengers, gold and mail had been established between Melbourne and Sandhurst.111 In 1854, the Cobb and Co coach company, which had been operating in Melbourne from the previous year, also commenced a service to the goldfields.112
Figure 12 ‘Off to the Diggings!’ at Flemington, near Melbourne, 1853. Source: How to farm and settle in Australia, Ward and Lock, London, 1853, State Library of Victoria, Picture Collection.
36 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Figure 13 Camping on the road, lithograph published by Cryus Mason, 1855. Source: National Library of Australia.
Figure 14 Edward Gilks, The diggers road guide to the gold mines of Victoria and the country extending 200 miles round Melbourne, 1853. Source: National Library of Australia.
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One of the government’s early efforts to improve transport routes began in 1852, with macadamising part of the road from Melbourne.113 By August 1853, about £250,000 had been spent on the improvement of 62 miles of the Mount Alexander Road, including eighty bridges and culverts.114
The Making and Improving Roads Act of 1853 established a Central Roads Board, charged with the construction of main roads and supervision of local Roads Board Districts, before the establishment of local government.115 Tenders for construction of remaining portions of the road to Sandhurst and Mount Alexander were let in 1854.116
Formalisation of townships amongst the chaos of the diggings also prompted the establishment of bitumenised roads, to and between settlements. In 1854, Government surveyors began the task of straightening out crooked tracks.117 Consolidation of streets within townships was perhaps not as daunting a task as those between towns, although the expensive process was still slow. By 1888, the streets of Sandhurst were ‘well formed, are kerbed and channelled, and the footpaths asphalted’.118
District Roads Boards were a precursor to local government, using public funds to undertake local improvements, and after 1862 establishing tolls to raise their own funds for road works. Reportedly the only tollgate in the district was established at Big Hill, in a cutting of the main road to the diggings. As local government authorities were established, with boroughs and municipalities coming on line, they took over the responsibilities of District Roads Boards.
In Heathcote, the District Road Board was established in 1861 and started building drains, kerbing, guttering and road works; some of this early stone kerbing and channelling remains. New roads, however, generally did not keep pace with demand for roads to the latest gold rush. As late as 1868, the Mining Surveyors Report for the Sandhurst District noted that, besides the scarcity of water, ‘the want of roads was also most seriously felt’.119
Figure 15 Stone culverts, High Street, Axedale, c.1860s. Source: Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, 2010
38 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Figure 16 Mia Mia Bridge, over Campaspe River, built 1868. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1419)
Construction of bridges was also a priority. The Campaspe and Loddon rivers, for example, were challenging crossings en route to the goldfields. The Campaspe River and the McIvor Creek were also susceptible to flash flooding, resulting in damage to bridges and roads.
Related places
Early tracks, routes and access ways Early roads to the goldfields, including stopping places, camps, inns, stables, cuttings, water crossings and bridges Coach routes - Cobb & Co route through Wellsford Forest on Campaspe Track Main roads and associated infrastructure, including toll gates Early roads between settlements Town streets and historic infrastructure including drains, kerbing and guttering
3.2 Linking Greater Bendigo by rail
In January 1854, the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company began construction in Williamstown of Victoria's first inland railway to run from Melbourne to Sandhurst, and Echuca.120 Progress was slow and the company was purchased by the state government in 1856. The government was acutely aware of the benefit of the railway in addressing the exorbitant costs associated with inland transport, and significantly reducing the time to transport people, goods and mail to and from the goldfields.121
The newly formed Victorian Railways Department supervised the recommencement of construction in June 1858, but was hampered by industrial disputes, construction problems and bad weather for two years.122 The one hundred mile section of railway to Sandhurst was finally opened in October 1862.123 Geological obstructions like the Big Hill range were overcome by extensive tunnelling – the Big Hill tunnel is 390 metres long. British railway workers who had been at the diggings were among the thousands of men employed in building the line.124 The railway played a crucial role in providing services to the goldfields,
LOVELL CHEN 2013 39 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 taking over the postal service to Sandhurst and other stations on the line, as well as the gold escort role to Melbourne.125 By the early 1860s, the radiating network of railways from Melbourne had taken precedence over coach transport. In response, coach companies provided cross-link connections, such as between Sandhurst and Castlemaine.126
In 1864, the Melbourne to Sandhurst railway line was extended to Echuca. Additional lines were also constructed from Sandhurst. These included the line to Bridgewater in 1876; and the Sandhurst to Wandong and Heathcote line in 1888. The Heathcote to North Bendigo line was used to transport passengers, sleepers, firewood and mining timbers until 1958 and has been redeveloped as a historic trail, named after the engineer, O’Keefe Rail Trail. Work subsequently commenced on the Heathcote-Kilmore Line. Stations were also opened at Ingham’s Siding, Knowsley, Derrinal, Argyle, Tooborac, Axedale, Longlea, Willowmarvin, Moranding, High Camp and Pyalong.127 Freight lines were also established, like the rail line to the Bendigo cattle yards which opened in May 1894.128 By 1900, a system of rail lines extended north to Swan Hill, Quambatook, Wycheproof and Wedderburn, and south to Heathcote Junction.129
Goods yards were established at Kangaroo Flat (1862), Golden Square (1885-86), California Gully (c. 1888), Eaglehawk (1876), Myers Flat (1887) and Epsom (1882), providing facilities for the consignment and receipt of freight.130 In 1913, building started on a substantial new railway maintenance and construction workshop at North Bendigo, to supplement the existing facility at Williamstown.131 The facility was completed by 1917, delayed by World War One, and construction of locomotives commenced in 1919.132 The railway workshops eventually closed in 1992.
Many sidings and branch lines suffered with the closure of mines in the 1920s and 1930s, and the economic slowdown of the Great Depression. Only Bendigo continued to turn a profit and a rise in freight of tomatoes and eggs increased rail returns for Eaglehawk.133 Passenger rail services also generally wound down due to competition from road and later air transport. The passenger service to Heathcote ceased in 1958, followed soon after by the goods train service.134
Figure 17 Railway tunnel, Big Hill, 1860s. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1787)
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Figure 18 Bendigo Station, c. 1890. Source: State Library of Victoria.
Figure 19 Bendigo Goods Shed, 1873. Source: VPRS 12800, P1, Unit 49, Public Record Office Victoria.
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Figure 20 Railway station and water tower (foreground), Elmore, 1870. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1672).
More recently, sections of the rail line from Melbourne to Echuca via Bendigo have been added to the Victorian Heritage Register, reflecting its significance. Electronic signalling was introduced in 1990, prompting the closure of many signal boxes throughout the municipality.135 A number of these former signal boxes have since been restored and converted to alternative uses.
Related places
Railway structures, including historic railway stations at Ravenswood, Kangaroo Flat, Golden Square and Bendigo, buildings, workshops, and bridges Railway infrastructure, including crossings, cuttings, formations, and corridors Railway communications, including signalling and signal boxes, like Bendigo signal boxes A, B, C and D Construction camps for railway builders Railway workers’ housing Houses and plant associated with railway engineers, like Andrew O’Keefe’s house and plant in situ near Bagshot Station site
3.3 Linking Greater Bendigo by road
The 1903 Local Government Act placed all roads and bridges under the management of local government, but this ate into municipal resources and maintenance and the condition of roads declined.136 In 1913 the Country Roads Board was formed.137 Car ownership also steadily increased from the 1920s, putting further pressure on road improvement, although relatively few Victorians owned cars until the 1950s.138
From the mid-1920s, the Country Roads Board could nominate certain roads as state highways, to be funded by State and Federal government.139 The Melbourne to Bendigo road was proclaimed the North Western Highway in 1925 and renamed the Calder Highway in 1928, after William Calder, the first chairman of the Country Roads Board.140 Since 1989, major roads including the Calder Freeway have been managed by VicRoads.
42 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
Related places
Early highway & freeway sections Structures associated with roadways, like Monier arch bridges Motor garages
3.4 Travelling by tram
Bendigo’s first tramway opened in June 1890, operated by the Sandhurst and Eaglehawk Tramway Company; they ran battery driven trams from Bendigo Railway Station through the city and onto Eaglehawk.141 However, the battery trams had insufficient power for Bendigo’s undulating landscape, and the company’s assets were soon sold to the newly formed Bendigo Tramway Company Limited. New steam-powered trams were purchased from the United States, and operations on the line recommenced in February 1892.142
The Bendigo Tramway Company was itself purchased by the British Insulated Wire Company in 1899, incorporated as the Electric Supply Company of Victoria. The company planned a more extensive tramway network, linking the centre of Bendigo with Golden Square, Kangaroo Flat, Quarry Hill, White Hills and Eaglehawk.143 While the lines to Kangaroo Flat and White Hills were ultimately not constructed, the remaining lines were officially opened in April 1903. At the end of World War One, the tramways were taken over by the State Electricity Commission (SEC), as part of their acquisition of the Electric Supply Company, who continued to operate the system until 1934. When the Government Ordnance Factory was constructed at North Bendigo, tracks to the factory were extended from Lake Weeroona to provide transport for factory workers.144
By the end of World War Two, Bendigo’s tramways were severely dilapidated and the SEC sought to divest the network. In July 1970, the Victorian government approved the SEC’s application to close the Bendigo tramways. The Golden Square to North Bendigo line closed in March 1972, followed by the Eaglehawk to Quarry Hill line in April 1972.145
Figure 21 Tram sheds, Bendigo, early twentieth century. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1349)
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The following year, the Bendigo Trust established part of the former tram route as a tourist tramway, with an associated tramways museum. Trials of commuter tram services in Bendigo conducted in 2008 and 2009 were largely unsuccessful, although the tourist tramway continues to operate.
Related places
Tramway structures, including historic stations, buildings, and workshops Tramway infrastructure, including tracks and road facings Tramway communications
3.5 Linking Victorians by air
In 2010 Australia Post put out a stamp series to celebrate the Centenary of Powered Flight in Australia. The third stamp recognised John Robertson Duigan’s flight at Mia Mia in late 1910, which occurred after Englishman’s Colin Defries’ 1909 flight in Sydney and American Harry Houdini’s early 1910 flight at Digger’s Rest, near Melbourne.146 The flight was made on the Duigan family property, Spring Plains, in Mia Mia around October 1910. 147 John Duigan had made several short flights previously, but this particular flight was the most successful, going about 250 yards and reaching an altitude of 100 feet.148 After changes and modifications, Duigan managed to go further than 1000 yards at an altitude of nearly 100 feet. Having demonstrated the flight of his plane to newspaper reporters in January 1911, Duigan also made a number of flights at Bendigo Racecourse in front of crowds in April of the same year.149
The plane was built by John and his brother Reginald Charles Duigan, who played an equal, though generally unacknowledged role, in the development of the first aeroplane to be flown in Australia by an Australian.150 A qualified engineer, the plane was John’s own design and almost entirely built by John and Reginald, except for the engine and propeller.151 A replica of the Duigan biplane is on display at the Melbourne Museum.152 On the 50th anniversary a monument of a DC-3 propeller on a basalt column, designed by Reginald’s son Terence, was erected on the Mia Mia – Lancefield Road.
Figure 22 John Duigan in his biplane, Mia Mia, c.1910, photographed by Reginald Duigan. Source: Museum Victoria
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104 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 5, unpaginated.
105 Howitt, Land, Labour and Gold, as cited in Serle, G, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victorian 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 1963, p. 70.
106 Gold Fields Diary, as cited in Serle, G, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victorian 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 1963, p. 70.
107 These were located at Essendon, Keilor, Robertsons, The Gap, Gisborne, the Black Forest, Woodend, Carlsruhe, Malmsbury and Elphinstone. See also Australian Dictionary of Biography, Caroline Chisholm. Available http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chisholm-caroline- 1894. Accessed 25 July 2011.
108 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002, p. 30.
109 A vivid description is provided in Adcok, W E, The Gold Rushes of the Fifties, pp. 69-70, as cited in Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002, p. 30.
110 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002, pp. 43-4.
111 Transport and Development, Bendigo Historical Society. Available www.bendigohistory.com/transport.shtml. Accessed 25 July 2011.
112 Garden, D, Victoria: A History, Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne, Vic, 1984, p. 88.
113 ‘Macadamising’ is named after John Loudon McAdam, who invented a method of road surfacing and construction in the early nineteenth century, which involved the use of binding aggregate layers of stone with a cementing agent.
114 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002, p. 49.
115 Garden, D, Victoria: A History, Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne, Vic, 1984, p. 87.
116 Tenders for construction of portions of the roads were published in The Argus on 24 May 1854, p. 9 and 29 September 1854, p. 6.
117 Building the City, Bendigo Historical Society. Available http://www.bendigohistory.com/building_the_city.shtml. Accessed 25 July 2011.
118 Sutherland, A, Victoria and its metropolis: Past and Present, Vol. 3, McCarron and Co, Melbourne, Vic, p. 266.
119 Mining Surveyors’ Reports, September 1868, as cited in Bendigo General History. Available http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/_data/assets/pdf_file/0017/44621/Bendigi1.pdf. Accessed 1 June 2011.
120 An Act to Incorporate a Company to be called ‘The Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company’, 1853.
121 Harper, B, ‘The true history of the design of the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway’ in Australian Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 83-84. See also Garden, D, Victoria: A History, Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne, Vic, 1984, p. 89.
122 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002, pp. 150 – 155.
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123 Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway, Victorian Railways, Museum Victoria. Available: http://museumvictoria.com.au/railways/theme.aspx?lvl=3&IRN=450&gall=456. Accessed 25 July 2011.
124 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 5, unpaginated.
125 Ward, A C, ‘The Role of the Railways in Bendigo’s Development’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 149.
126 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 5, unpaginated.
127 Context Pty Ltd, City of Greater Bendigo Heritage Study Stage 2 Former Shires of McIvor and Strathfieldsaye, Volume 1: Key Findings and Recommendations, October 2009, p. 11.
128 VR History. Available: http://www.victorianrailways.net/vr%20history/history.html. Accessed 27 October 2011.
129 Ward, A C, ‘The Role of the Railways in Bendigo’s Development’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 150.
130 Ward, A C, ‘The Role of the Railways in Bendigo’s Development’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 154.
131 Ward, A C, ‘The Role of the Railways in Bendigo’s Development’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 159.
132 Ward, A C, ‘North Bendigo Railway Workshops’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 159.
133 Ward, A C, ‘The Role of the Railways in Bendigo’s Development’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 154.
134 Context Pty Ltd, City of Greater Bendigo Heritage Study Stage 2 Former Shires of McIvor and Strathfieldsaye, Volume 1: Key Findings and Recommendations, October 2009, p. 11.
135 Ward, A C, ‘The Role of the Railways in Bendigo’s Development’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 158.
136 Lay, M, Melbourne Miles: The Story of Melbourne’s Roads, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Vic, 2003, p. 46.
137 Agency description, Country Roads Board, VA 722, Public Record Office Victoria. Available: http://access.prov.vic.gov.au. Accessed 25 July 2011.
138 Davison, G, Car Wars: How the Car Won our Hearts and Conquered our Cities, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, NSW, 2004.
139 Lay, M, Melbourne Miles: The Story of Melbourne’s Roads, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Vic, 2003, p. 48.
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140 Lay, M, Melbourne Miles: The Story of Melbourne’s Roads, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Vic, 2003, p. 99.
141 The Bendigo Tramways Story, Bendigo Tramways. Available: http://www.bendigotramways.com/images/stories/pdf/thebendigotramwaystory.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2011.
142 The Bendigo Tramways Story, Bendigo Tramways. Available: http://www.bendigotramways.com/images/stories/pdf/thebendigotramwaystory.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2011.
143 The Bendigo Tramways Story, Bendigo Tramways. Available: http://www.bendigotramways.com/images/stories/pdf/thebendigotramwaystory.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2011.
144 The Bendigo Tramways Story, Bendigo Tramways. Available: http://www.bendigotramways.com/images/stories/pdf/thebendigotramwaystory.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2011.
145 The Bendigo Tramways Story, Bendigo Tramways. Available: http://www.bendigotramways.com/images/stories/pdf/thebendigotramwaystory.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2011.
146 Australia Post, ‘Stamp Bulletin’, no. 303, March – April 2010.
147 Kendall, F J, ‘Duigan, John Robertson’, in Australian Dictionary of Biography, at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/duigan-john-robertson-6036. Accessed 7 April 2013.
148 North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times, ‘Australian Aeroplaning: Victorian’s Successful Flight’, 11 October 1910, p. 3. Available: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64524133. Accessed 7 April 2013.
149 Museum Victoria, ‘Treasures: Museum Victoria celebrates 150 years. Duigan biplane’. Available at http://museumvictoria.com.au/treasures/details.aspx?img+3&path=3&PID=15. Accessed 7 April 2013.
150 The Argus, ‘The Editor’s Postbag: Duigan’s Plane’, 12 July 1941, p. 6; The Weekly Times, ‘Duigan flight centenary’, 16 July 2010. Available: http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2010/07/16/208991. Accessed 7 April 2013.
151 McIvor Times, ‘An Australia-Made Aeroplane’, 6 October 1910, p. 2.
152 Museum Victoria, ‘Treasures: Museum Victoria celebrates 150 years. Duigan biplane’. Available at http://museumvictoria.com.au/treasures/details.aspx?img+3&path=3&PID=15. Accessed 7 April 2013.
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4.0 Theme 4: Transforming and managing Greater Bendigo’s land and natural resources
Figure 23 Victoria Hill poppet head, Bendigo Source: Anthony Webster, Imagine Pictures, Thematic Environmental History Photography Project 2011.
Grazing and farming changed the face of Greater Bendigo in myriad ways, including through the introduction of different land uses, but it was alluvial and quartz reef mining that generated the extraordinary wealth that most influenced what is now Greater Bendigo. The central Victorian gold rushes were amongst the most significant of a series of rushes around the periphery of the Pacific Ocean in the mid to late nineteenth century. Mining created an appetite for timber and the Box-Ironbark forests supported these significant industries, providing sawmill logs, sleepers, fence posts, piles, firewood, building materials and mining timbers, eucalyptus oil, charcoal and wattle bark. Due to a lack of permanent water courses, generation and management of a reliable water supply has been a persistent theme in the development of the municipality. Access to water has influenced the location and viability of settlements and towns, harnessing water has impacted on waterways and supplying water has generated major infrastructure and engineering works.
4.1 Grazing and raising livestock
Greater Bendigo’s soils, low rainfall and recurrent droughts were suited to large-scale grazing and this was the first industry taken up in the area by Europeans squatters in 1838. The drier and more unpredictable climate meant that the business of pastoralism was
48 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 characterised by mobility. In drier seasons, squatters moved their herds and flocks to higher rainfall areas of the colony, to the New South Wales Riverina where many also held runs, or made use of the ‘long paddock’ stock routes.
Sheep were then selling for high prices, and a major expansion into the Port Phillip District occurred in 1838-40. Claims on grazing land slowed in 1842, due to drought, and an economic depression associated with a declining wool price in England. Impressions of the municipality at this time were pessimistic, with an 1842 account noting ‘the whole surface of the country [was] brown and as dry as tinder…crops were destroyed entirely by the hot wind which passed over them…’.153 In late 1843, the process of boiling down sheep carcasses to produce tallow was introduced, and increased sheep farming profits.
With plentiful rainfall years in 1843 and 1846, the northern country of the Port Phillip District provided opportunities for grazing sheep free of foot rot on ‘open, level, or undulating plains and downs’.154 By 1845 there were in the order of 850 pastoral licence holders in the Port Phillip District and less than five years later, the colony’s most valuable export to the English market was wool from sheep grazing.155
In the 1830s and 1840s the pastoral industry focused on breeding sheep for their wool but in the 1850s sheep and cattle were increasingly grazed for the growing meat market of the goldfields. William Tyson owned large landholdings at Goornong, where he slaughtered cattle for the Sandhurst diggings. Some licensees took advantage of increased values in stock and stations to sell up their interests in this goldrush period, but others benefited by staying put. The McIvor diggings were located on John Hunter Patterson's Campaspe Plains run and Patterson made a fortune selling cattle to markets at Sandhurst and Heathcote.
Grazing was of particular importance in the development of the former Shire of McIvor. C P Davis at Mount Camel in the 1860s won awards in Paris and Buenos Ares for his fine merino wool.156 In 1889 fleeces from the station also won the Grand Prize at the Grand Exhibition in Argentina in 1910. The enterprise continued until the land was resumed for soldier settlement in 1921.157
The economic value of wool in 2005-6 was 6.6 per cent of the total value of agricultural production in Greater Bendigo municipality in that year.158
Related places
Properties of importance to the grazing industry Places and structures associated with grazing, such as machinery, shearing sheds, stockyards, loading ramps, sheep dips, outstations and workers’ huts
4.2 Farming
Squatters cultivated oat and wheat crops on a small scale from the late 1830s, although local conditions were challenging. Some squatters were successful cultivators: in 1857, James Maiden advertised 600 bushels of wheat for sale at his farm at Wild Duck Creek and McIvor Creeks.159 Some farms on the plains country in the north and west of the municipality cultivated crops but supplemented income by grazing sheep on a smaller scale. Providing for the goldfields was also a productive market. Thomas Robertson on his Campaspe River station in 1854 grew hay which he sold to the Government Camp in Sandhurst.160
Crops were also cultivated on land taken up under the Land Acts from the 1860s. A sample of Sandhurst wheat took first prize at the Great Exhibition in London in 1861.161 Prizes awarded in the 1865 Bendigo Agricultural Exhibition provide details of crops grown locally, which included wheat, oats, barley and rye.162
Agriculture was established on a large scale on the plains in the north and west of the municipality from 1870. In 1871 in the County of Bendigo, 1,302 farms were cultivated to
LOVELL CHEN 2013 49 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 wheat and by 1877 wheat was grown on 2,749 holdings.163 The 1881 census reported that the Sandhurst district produced 1,200,000 bushels of grain, 20,000 tons of hay and 60,000 gallons of wine in that year.164
Farmers used agricultural machinery such as stripper-harvesters and reaper-binders to crop larger holdings. Oil or steam traction engines were also used from the early twentieth century, to pull disc ploughs and drive transportable chaffcutters and threshing machines.
By the turn of the twentieth century, farmers incorporated bare fallowing, breaking up the soil, in a three-year rotation. Paddocks were sown to crop in the first year, grazed by livestock the second year and kept under fallow and prepared for cultivation by ploughing and harrowing after rain the following year. Improved varieties of seed, including drought and rust-resistant varieties, were also developed in the early twentieth century.
The Victorian Grain Elevators Board was established in 1935 to introduce bulk-handling facilities for wheat and in the 1939-40 season commenced as the sole bulk handler of wheat. Concrete silos and weighbridges were erected at railway stations, followed by steel silos for the bumper crops of the 1950s. Vicgrain took over the Grain Elevators Board in 1995 and in 1996 purchased the former Shire of Marong council offices.165
The economic value of broadacre farming, including cereal, other crops and crops for hay, in 2005-6 was 20.5 per cent of the total value of agricultural production in Greater Bendigo.166
Related places
Early sites of agriculture, including grain and wheat cropping Places and structures associated with agriculture, such as machinery, sheds and silos Properties of importance to agriculture, including those associated with experimentation and invention Sites associated with changing technologies in grain growing and delivery, including bulk wheat handling
4.3 Gold mining
Alluvial gold mining
Alluvial gold discoveries generated many of the frenetic rushes that characterised early gold- mining activity and settlement in Greater Bendigo. The first gold found in the mining divisions of Sandhurst, Eaglehawk and Raywood was located in stream sediments, or alluviums. From the early 1850s prospectors worked this alluvial gold in the streams and valleys of central Victoria, by panning, cradling, puddling and shaft-sinking.
The Port Phillip District separated from New South Wales in July 1851. In this period, gold was also discovered in the new colony at Clunes, subsequently at Buninyong, and in the following months at Daylesford, Creswick, Maryborough, Bendigo, Heathcote, St Arnaud, etc.167 In December 1851, a letter to the Argus described ‘gold miners assembled on Bendigo Creek’.168 In less than a year, 15,000 people had arrived in the district to try their hand.169
In late 1851, the first rush to Bendigo Creek attracted miners from the nearby goldfield at Forest Creek, now Mount Alexander. The rush soon faltered, however, due to a lack of water. The main rush began in January 1852, to the Spring, Tipperary and Kangaroo gullies on the east side of the Bendigo Creek valley.170
Drought in early 1852 slowed activity and Bullock Creek, later Marong, became a popular gold-washing place when the water gave out on the Bendigo goldfield. After the drought broke, diggers rushed to American Flat to open the famous Eaglehawk Gully.171 By June 1852, around 5,000 diggers were arriving in the Sandhurst locale each week.172 There were
50 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 alluvial rushes to Myers Flat, the Whipstick, Kangaroo Gully and Crusoe Gully at Kangaroo Flat and to Raywood. A Government Camp was set up in Kangaroo Gully in June 1852.
Alluvial gold was also found beneath the cemented Pliocene gravels that formed many of the small hills on the goldfields. These hills, often referred to as ‘hard hills’, were the eroded remains of ancient river beds where pebbles cemented together to form a conglomerate of extraordinary hardness.173 In the early 1850s cemented Pliocene gravels at White Hills were mined by a group of Cornish miners who combined their labour and resources to break through the hard crust with picks to tunnel into the pipe clay below.174 The First White Hill near Epsom was mined in mid-1852; by 1854, miners were working the gold as far as the Seventh White Hill.175
By mid-1854, approximately 1,500 horse or windmill operated puddling machines were on the Sandhurst field. The high cost of the machines encouraged miners to form partnerships and small companies.176 By May 1860, a growing number of companies were installing steam-powered machinery to treat the richest of the worked-out ground around Eaglehawk and Sandhurst, including steam puddling machines and revolving cylinders that washed earth of a more gravelly nature.177
Bullock Creek in Marong was a gold washing place in early 1852, but it experienced a rush in early 1853 and later in the 1850s. In May 1858 there were 1,000 diggers at Marong, although alluvial mining declined after that year.178 Sydney Flat at Woodvale was rushed in July 1853 and gold was discovered at Elysian Flat, later Neilborough, in October 1857.
Gold was discovered at McIvor Creek, Heathcote, in December 1852, with a rush in February 1853. By April, between 16,000 and 40,000 people were reported to be digging at McIvor, although by January 1855, only 800 men remained. In 1862, Chinese diggers rediscovered the McIvor Creek lead at the rear of Heathcote’s Criterion Hotel; this resulted in a rush larger than any seen in the Division for some years.179
A rush to Wild Duck Creek commenced in 1857. A small goldfield opened at Horseshoe Bend, Lyall, in 1858 and near Redcastle in 1859. Alluvial gold was mined at Huntly in 1859 with 1,600 puddling machines at work there by 1860.180 In the early 1860s, the Sebastian goldfield on the edge of the Whipstick was opened up and a rush to Raywood occurred.
Some of the last rushes in Greater Bendigo happened at Spring Gully near Heathcote in the late 1860s and at Marong in the late 1870s. Shallow alluvial mining decreased from this period, due to a lack of new discoveries. Despite the decline, alluvial mining continued to contribute to Victoria’s gold production, partly through the efforts of Chinese miners.181.
Different technologies like sluicing and dredging were methods used to maximise gold output, particularly on old diggings that had already proved productive. Sluicing used a jet of water to break up soil, with the slurry passed over riffles to separate the gold. In 1865, the McIvor Hydraulic Sluicing Company constructed the first large water race system in central Victoria.182 It included a dam at Emu Flat holding water which was then used to sluice the flats of McIvor Creek.183
In the late 1860s Duke and Company constructed a large earthen bank across the upper reaches of the Meadow Valley Creek near the Heathcote-Redesdale Road. The dam provided a head of water for sluicing old diggings. Carried by a channel and timber flume, the water was fed into a canvas hose to increase the pressure, controlled by a galvanised iron nozzle.
Another large sluicing venture was established near Heathcote in 1871. The Meadow Valley Sluicing Company cut a race from Wild Duck Creek to feed a reservoir covering an area of 50 acres at Meadow Valley.184 Sluicing continued in the Red Hill and Dead Horse Gully areas until the early 1880s, producing the dramatic landscape known today as the Pink Cliffs.185
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Figure 24 Pink Cliffs, Heathcote, 1880s. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1352)
With the establishment of a water supply to Sandhurst from the Coliban River in 1877, sluicing began at White Hills, Golden Square, Diamond Hill and north of Eaglehawk. Between 1878 and 1882, 23 Chinese sluicing claims were registered in Sandhurst with Chinese and Europeans working in partnership.186
Due to damage to farmland, hydraulic sluicing operations on McIvor Creek were banned in the 1890s. Hydraulic sluicing operations continued in some locations: sluicing was conducted in Long Gully from 1934 to 1944 by the Lethlean family.187
Another method of reworking alluvial mining sites was dredging. Dredging used machines, some floating in self-made pools, to extract gold from the beds of watercourses. In 1900 George Lansell dredged an acre of ground opposite the White Hills Cemetery.188 Bucket dredges operated on McIvor Creek, Possum Gully and Wattle Flat at Heathcote from 1906- 13. There was a resurgence of dredging in central Victoria during the 1930s Depression.
Related places
Sites associated with the earliest gold finds and rushes Sites of early alluvial gold mining, such as the puddling operations at Redcastle and in the Whipstick, and the Chinese gold mining shafts at White Hills Sites which demonstrate various alluvial mining techniques Camps and settlements associated with alluvial mining Dams, channels and water races Notable geological features and mining formations, such as Pink Cliffs, Heathcote Sites associated with sluicing and dredging
Quartz reef mining
Older alluvial deposits containing gold were deposited in valley bottoms which, over time were left high along valley sides, sometimes as hilltop and plateau cappings. Once alluvial deposits were quarried or open-cut to expose and exhaust the surface gold, then tunnels and deep shafts were sunk to extract gold ore from the quartz reef and this in turn was crushed and treated to free the gold.189
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By 1903 Australia was the largest single producer of gold in the world, with the Bendigo goldfield producing 22 million ounces in the period 1851-1951. This makes Bendigo the second largest gold production field in Australia behind Kalgoorlie's Golden Mile.190 This gold output was largely due to quartz reef mining.
The Bendigo-Eaglehawk field constituted the world’s greatest nineteenth century quartz mining centre.191 The first quartz reef mines opened at Specimen and Victoria Hills in 1853. Other early Sandhurst reefs included Hustler’s, New Chum, Sheepshead, Nelson and Johnson’s Reefs.192 Quartz reef mining required financial backing, specialist skills and equipment. The Sandhurst field accordingly became a focus for quartz reef mining technology. Foundries were also established locally to manufacture the necessary equipment and machinery.
Gold was initially extracted from quartz using hammers, before crushing mills and stamping batteries, powered by hand and horse, were introduced. The first steam-powered mill was used in 1855, followed quickly by the first steam winding engine.193 Also in 1855, there were 400 small quartz leases and 5,000 men employed on the reefs.194 The Chinese treated the mine tailings, the sands produced after gold was extracted from quartz. In 1868, William Young estimated that 900 Chinese were washing quartz tailings for companies.195
A mining revolution occurred from the late 1850s. The theory that gold yields declined the further they were from the surface was proved wrong when quartz mines began to reach reefs at greater depths. The introduction of the 1855 Act for Better Regulation of Mining Companies and the related 1858 Act paved the way for limited liability companies on the goldfields. Quartz-mining expertise improved on the Sandhurst field, particularly through the deep mining skills brought by Cornish miners. There was a general increase in systematic, larger-scale mining and improved mining and crushing technology, including steam-powered pumping machinery.196
Company mining in Sandhurst began on a large scale in 1859 and stock exchanges opened to manage share sales. By the end of the 1860s, shares held in Sandhurst mining companies far exceeded the combined shareholdings of the Ballarat and Beechworth mines.197 Historian Frank Cusack argues that the formation in August 1859 of the Bendigo Waterworks Company, which was involved in mining as well as selling water, sparked the first local boom of public companies.198 By the end of that year, roughly 100 mining companies had been floated, doubling in number by the end of 1860, although by January 1861 only about 100 companies survived and of those no more than 14 were paying their way.199
Elsewhere, quartz mines were in operation at Heathcote in 1856, Redcastle in 1860, Costerfield in 1860, Raywood in 1863 and Marong in 1871.200
From June to October 1870, 235 new mining companies were registered at Sandhurst.201 In that year, 3,916 quartz miners were at work compared with 3,064 alluvial miners - the first time the number of Sandhurst quartz miners exceeded alluvial miners.202 By November 1871, approximately 1,310 registered companies were operating and the collective value of Sandhurst's mining stocks was nearing £10,000,000.203 In the year 1871-72 in the Sandhurst Mining District, 1,549 stamp heads produced over 116,200 ounces of gold.204
This extraordinary boom was triggered by a rich strike of gold on the Hustler's Line, although the origins of the boom were diverse, including a significant injection of overseas capital. With a curtailment of British investment in American and European railways, capital was directed to the colonies, including the Bendigo goldfield.205 The Cornish system of working mines, known as tributing, also helped sustain quartz mining. A party of miners, tributers, was contracted by a mining company to work a particular section of its mine. In return, the tributers paid the company a percentage of gold obtained, usually about 25 per cent.
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Figure 25 New Moon quartz mine engine beds, Sailor’s Gully. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1366)
Figure 26 Spargos Pyrites Gold Works, Maiden Gully. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1360)
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The development of capital intensive quartz mining also created elite mine owners. As a new class developed with increasing control over diminishing resources the livelihood of individual alluvial miners was threatened and resulted in the formation of workers' unions.206 Such was the strength of unionism, often led and supported by the Cornish, that the Amalgamated Miners Association was formed in Sandhurst in 1874.207
Quartz roasting, which made the gold easier to separate from quartz, was carried out on most goldfields from the 1850s, but by the 1860s in Sandhurst the practice was largely redundant. In the 1870s, Sandhurst became renowned for treating pyritic concentrates by amalgamation with mercury or chlorination. Small mines from all over Australia sent concentrates to local companies such as Spargos Pyrites Gold Works for treatment.208
By the mid-1870s, the mining boom was declining, although the levels of deep sinking in the 1870s were extraordinary. By the end of the decade some local shafts had struck gold- bearing quartz well beyond the 1,000-feet mark, at least 800 feet more than the previous decade. These mines included Koch’s Pioneer at 1,250 feet and Great Extended Hustler’s at 1,350 feet.209
Quartz reef mining was given a boost in 1881 through introduction of the rock drill and the rock-borer which cut holes for blasting rock. 210 The latter had a profound influence on the local field.211 Also, by 1881 a 'new and economical' Tangy pump was in use in the mines.212 Along with these new technologies came the discovery of promising new reefs at Bendigo: the Great Extended Hustler’s Reef Company and Koch’s Pioneer Company.213 The Frederick the Great Company also opened a high yielding reef at Sebastian and another major quartz mine, the Nil Desperandum, was in operation at Raywood.214
Despite increased tonnages of rock being crushed in the late 1880s and early 1890s, the average gold yield per ton on the Sandhurst field decreased over this period, making it more difficult for mining companies to attract investor capital. In 1889, both the Sandhurst and Eaglehawk mining surveyors reported their subdivisions to be in a depressed state.215
There was a mining revival from the mid 1890s with new companies striking rich gold. In 1895, a quartz reef field opened at Fosterville, where the ore body was mined using open- cuts.216 By 1897, the Fosterville field supported at least eleven batteries, ranging up to twenty head of stamps. The Redcastle quartz reefs were also revived from 1895 with the introduction of capital and technology from South Australia.217
Cyaniding was established overseas in the early 1890s, particularly in South Africa, but its introduction to Victoria was delayed by patent restrictions until early 1896. The thoroughness of the gold separation processes on the Bendigo field also meant that generally tailings were too low in gold content to make cyanide processing a paying proposition.218 Some cyaniding did occur; in the late 1890s, cyanide works were part of a major expansion by the Redcastle Company. Several large-scale cyanide works also operated at Fosterville and Costerfield.219 In 1911, the Duncan brothers established the process in Epsom.220
The 1900s marked the start of a decline in quartz mining on the Bendigo field, though it was at this time that the greatest depths were reached in a gold mine in the world at Victoria Quartz when it tested at 4,525 feet.221 There were minor revivals in the early 1920s and 1930s, but there were falling yields, inadequate pumping machinery, a growing militancy amongst the miners who won wage increases by 1912, the advent of World War One, the severe drought of 1914, and significantly diminishing investment in mining.222 The Bendigo Amalgamated Goldfields Company, which was formed in 1917 to reduce costs by combining facilities and equipment and subsequently controlled most mines in Bendigo and Eaglehawk, went into liquidation in 1924.223 By 1927, most mines in Bendigo had closed.224
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With devaluation of Australia's currency during the early 1930s Depression, the price of gold rose and the Bendigo goldfield revived. Unemployed men were issued with a pan, rail ticket, and prospecting guide by the Victorian Government's Sustenance Department and joined local miners on the goldfields.225 At this time, the Sydney Flat Creek banks in the Woodvale district supported a semi-permanent community.226
In 1934 a large section of the southern portion of the Bendigo goldfield was taken over by Bendigo Mines Ltd (BML). Of the state's annual gold production of 80,723 ounces in 1934, 31,969 ounces came from the Bendigo field.227 The improved gold yield was partly attributed to an increase in crushing facilities.
The increase in gold prices in the 1930s made cyaniding old battery tailings a more profitable business, providing work for many unemployed men. In this period, some 30 cyaniding plants operated in Bendigo employing 300 men.228 Cyaniding continued until the 1990s.
New mining ventures continued to be floated until 1941, but the advent of World War Two and shortages of manpower, explosives and timber for shafts saw another mining decline. Throughout World War Two, Bendigo’s gold production was limited to five mines: North Deborah, Deborah, Central Deborah, South Deborah and Ironbark.229
After the war the mining industry experienced a shortage of skilled labour and materials with increased production costs. In late 1954 it was reported that gold mining in Bendigo had ceased altogether when the North and Central Deborah companies suspended operations.230
The rising gold prices in the 1970s triggered a renewed interest. In 1973, Lone Star Exploration applied for an open cut mine on the Carshalton Reef at Diamond Hill.231 In 1974, metallurgist David Wright began treating tailings from Huntly using the carbon in pulp method of gold extraction.232 In 1981, Bendigo Gold Associates established full size automated plants to carry out the process.233
Figure 27 North Deborah quartz mine, Eve Street, Golden Square. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1353).
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Western Mining Corporation (WMC) also commenced exploration of the Bendigo goldfield in 1978. Locals protested at the proposal to open the North Bendigo Mine, part of which took in the fenced area of Spring Gully Reservoir.234 Community concerns, coupled with a lack of success in locating any significant quantities of gold, resulted in WMC withdrawing in 1989. Bendigo Mining took over the company's assets in 1992 and commenced construction of the Deborah Reef Swan decline in 1998, with the first gold pour occurring in 2006. With the closure of the Deborah Reef in 2010, Bendigo Mining changed its name to Unity Mining and took over the Kangaroo Flat mine. The latter then closed for production in 2011 and was taken over by Catalyst Metals in 2012 to process gold found at Mitiamo and Raywood.235
The Perseverance Corporation began mining oxide ore at an open cut at Fosterville in 1992 and in the next decade produced 385,000 ounces of gold. Mining recommenced in April 2004 and underground mining started in mid 2006.236 In October 2011, AuRico Gold took over the Fosterville mine from the Northgate Minerals Corporation.
Related places
Sites associated with early quartz reef mining Sites which demonstrate different quartz mining technologies Engine sites, quartz crushers, stampers, engines, furnaces Mullock heaps Pyrites burning and treatment sites Tailings dumps and tailings treatment sites, like at Golden Square & White Hills Sites associated with cyaniding Sites and properties associated with quartz mining magnates, like Fortuna Villa Sites which memorialize or commemorate gold mining, such as the Golden Square monument, Discovery of Gold Jubilee Monument, George Lansell statue and the Cornish Miner statue Contemporary reef mining sites
4.4 Exploiting other mineral, forest and water resources
Other mineral resources
Antimony-gold ore was mined near Heathcote by Coster, Field and Co from 1861. By 1865, when the company changed its name to Costerfield Gold and Antimony Company, a shaft had been sunk to 190 feet and smelting works erected at upper and lower Costerfield to separate the gold from the antimony. Costerfield was mined for gold and antimony in 1860 to 1883, 1904-25 and 1934-52; antimony continues to be mined at Costerfield.237 During World War One, Costerfield was Britain’s only supplier of antimony, a metal vital for the production of munitions.238
Deep lead mining was a minor activity on the Sandhurst field. In the 1860s, battery crushing was the main technology employed on the deep lead at Huntly, Bagshot and to a lesser extent on the conglomerate gutter at Epsom.239 In 1870, the Bagshot Company held a lease of 200 acres and was working the deep lead with two engines and a battery of twenty stamp heads. In summer, Huntly’s deep lead mines were the major users of water from Spring Gully Reservoir. Deep lead mining ended at Huntly in 1876, but the Britt Freehold Company mined at Bagshot throughout the 1880s.240
In 1897, prospecting for deep alluvial lead at Marong commenced north of Wilson’s Hill. In 1905, two large companies - the Marong Alluvial and the Deep Lead - were operating on the lead, but with limited yields. By February 1910, as reported in the Bendigo Advertiser, Marong's accessible alluvial ground was worked out.241
Quarries were an important local industry. Nathaniel Ingham quarried bluestone at Ingham’s Hill, Axedale, from the 1860s onwards. Much of the bluestone curbing and pitchers in
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Bendigo’s main streets came from this quarry, as did the stone used in the Axedale Catholic Church. Riley, Brazier and Nelson's bluestone quarry on O'Neill’s property at Axedale also operated a crushing plant to provide stone for road making.242
Granite was quarried at a number of locations including the Big Hill district. Bissill’s quarry supplied the stone for the gates of Bendigo Gaol, the Big Hill tunnel entrance and the Bissill family home at Belvoir Park.243 Marble from Mount Carmel was reported to be suitable for mantelpieces.244 Slate was quarried at Spring Gully. Gravel was excavated from Kangaroo Gully at Kangaroo Flat for use on roads in the Mallee in the 1930s. Sand was extracted from a number of places including the Wellsford Forest, Axedale and Bullock Creek at Ravenswood. Ravenswood sand was used in 1925 by the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission in concreting channels.245
Fine white kaolin clay, used by the Bendigo Pottery at Epsom, was extracted from Axedale, Epsom and Huntly. Production of kaolin clay from the Ballclay and Osterfield pits at Axedale continues at 60,000 to 80,000 tonnes per annum.246
Related places
Sites associated with other mineral extraction Quarry sites associated with local buildings, structures and industries Buildings and structures which used quarried materials from within the municipality
Timber felling and saw milling
The natural resources of Greater Bendigo were historically regarded as available for the taking. In 1852, a visitor to the goldfields observed 'The English often cut trees without actual need…here they can indulge their liking for fuel which is as rare as saffron in their own land.'247 William Howitt described diggers on the Bendigo goldfield as having a propensity for ‘firing guns and felling trees’. He observed that in little more than a year, Bendigo Creek had been transformed from an ‘an unbroken wood’ to a place which was ‘perfectly bare of trees, and the whole of it riddled with holes of from eight to ten feet deep’.248
Extensive areas of Box-Ironbark forests were cut down in the mid-nineteenth century for the steam engines on the goldfields. Sleepers were also cut from forests, including in the former Shire of Huntly, for the Melbourne to Echuca railway line and firewood was cut and transported by dray to be shipped out from railway sidings on the new line.
Cox, Mackney and Co conducted an extensive saw milling and quartz crushing enterprise south of Heathcote during the late 1850s, including processing timber for building. This was later known as the McIvor Steam Sawmills. Over the period 1853-67, Henry Jeffreys sold trees from his Burnewang run to Sandhurst mines and to the Victorian railways for use as sleepers.249 The Parker brothers combined flour milling and saw milling at their mill in Jennings Street, Heathcote, in the 1870s.250
By the mid-1870s, mining timbers had to be obtained from greater distances at a time when demand for timber surged as the depth of shafts increased. Local forests like the Kamarooka Forest were denuded of suitable timber or had been cleared for agricultural purposes. In the late 1880s, mining timber was being brought from up to 160 kilometres away. Red gum, the preferred timber for permanent shafts, was mainly brought from Echuca. Messmate and Victorian blue gum were obtained from the Bullarook Forest. Prop timber, mainly box, came from Bealiba and the main source of ironbark were the forests between Rushworth and Heathcote. A mining company’s weekly supply of timber could cost as much as £620.251
The construction in the late 1880s of the Heathcote to North Bendigo railway line, connecting with Kilmore, generated significant demand for sleepers. To build the railway, firewood and mining timbers were cut from forests in the vicinity and transported to the railhead at
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Heathcote via a tramway. The tramway branched from the line at Tooborac and eventually extended north to Charrington and east to Puckapunyal. The line ceased operating in 1927.
Firewood saw mills operated at Knowsley and Derrinal railway stations from the early 1890s. Outward freight at Knowsley in 1920 was 12,186 tons of timber, which was mainly firewood.252 From the 1940s to the 1980s the majority of timber production from the box ironbark forests was for sleepers, with fence posts and firewood produced as a by-product. Forests were silvicultured with the express purpose of producing sleepers and sawlogs.
Related places
Sites associated with early timber getting Firewood mills and sawmills Railway, sidings and tramways associated with transporting timbers Sleeper cutting sites and camps
Charcoal burning
Demand for charcoal was high in Greater Bendigo, for use by blacksmiths, mines and foundries in the mining industry. Charcoal burning was typically undertaken by small gangs of men who worked in conjunction with firewood cutters. Charcoal was made by covering fallen tree trunks with turf, leaving a small opening at one end for a fire, then closing this up with turf when the wood was well alight.253 In the 1860s, an Italian group worked the Mandurang and Strathfieldsaye forests.254 Dominico Comini established a business at Ravenswood and the Strathfieldsaye Shire rate books also record that Amanti Codiga and Frank Lanfranchi were coalburners in the 1870s.255
In the early twentieth century mining companies began to use gas-producer plants to power their batteries and these were fuelled by charcoal. The demand created a substantial industry in the local forests. Gold mining also used large quantities of charcoal as a filter in the cyaniding process. One of the largest charcoal-producing works was established at Ravenswood in 1913, where a two-storey brick furnace was constructed. The Ravenswood works employed ten men and was capable of producing 30 tons of charcoal a week.256
During World War Two, charcoal was an alternative to liquid fuel and used to power gas- producing units fitted to trucks and cars. Charcoal was also required for the production of gas masks and other filtering equipment. The Forests Commission in this period co- ordinated all production of charcoal from private sources, as well as constructing and operating its own kilns. Charcoal production statistics from 1942 indicate a variety of kilns were used, including pits, earthen, metal and brick kilns. Operations ranged from small units, such as farmers with one or two kilns, to large facilities with 20 to 40 kilns.257 Charcoal industry activities were carried out in the Kamarooka State Forest at Bagshot North during this period, where six charcoal burning kilns remain. Charcoal kilns at Humphrey’s property at Redesdale are also a reminder of the industry in that area.
Related places
Sites and works associated with charcoal burning and production, including kilns and workers’ camps
Eucalyptus distilling
Eucalyptus distilling was a significant industry in Greater Bendigo. The Whipstick was a major eucalyptus distilling area due to the high grade eucalyptus oil produced by the Whipstick green mallee (E. viridis) and blue mallee (E. polybractea) varieties. By the outbreak of World War One, it was the premier eucalyptus oil-producing region in Victoria.
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Figure 28 Flett’s eucalyptus distillery, Woodvale, 1920s and later. Source: Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, 2010
German chemist Richard Sandner was the first local eucalyptus oil producer. In 1876, he operated a thriving plant and refinery in Bridge Street, Sandhurst, and later opened a branch in Chicago, run by his son Carl.258 Other early producers included Albert Hartland and Matthew Hodgson at Huntly North in 1890 and Jack Shadbolt, who operated a distillery in the Whipstick from the 1890s.259 In this period Sherrin and Chalky used a steam traction engine with a ten-metre roller to remove hundreds of acres of forest in the Whipstick. The area was then burnt and the re-growth cut at ground level.260
The 1899 Land Act provided for licenses to cut leaf in state forests and the local industry boomed from 1900 through to the 1940s. In 1913, some eighteen distillers operated in the Whipstick employing about 200 men, with distilling also carried out near Eaglehawk.261 The Forest Commission established a eucalyptus distillery in the Wellsford forest in 1926 and a dam survives from this operation.262 The industry attracted itinerant or short-term workers and in the 1930s Depression unemployed men looked to ‘eucy’ as a source of income. Some farm families, like the Flett’s in Woodvale, relied in part on income from eucalyptus. At this time there were an estimated 50 distilleries in Greater Bendigo centered around the Whipstick.263 Eucalyptus oil prices crashed in the 1930s and many small operators closed.
Forests were reserved for eucalyptus oil production in 1936-46 in the Parishes of Huntly, Marong, Neilborough and Whirrakee. By 1967, only eleven stills operated in the Bendigo area.264 Hooper’s distillery was established prior to World War One to the south of Neilborough. It was the last operational distillery in the Whipstick, closing in 2009. It used traditional in-ground brick vats and at least one of these survives. The Hartland plant at Huntly also operated for a time as a tourist destination.
Related places
Eucalyptus distilleries, including the immediate Mallee forest settings Infrastructure associated with eucalyptus oil bottling, distribution and sales
Wattle bark harvesting
Wattle bark contains high levels of tannin and in the nineteenth century was one of the world’s best barks for use in leather tanning. Cutting wattle bark was a supplementary income for farmers in the former Shire of McIvor and in Kamarooka. By the 1870s, wattle
60 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 bark harvesting was an industry that supplied local and export markets. This continued until the 1950s when chromium salts replaced the need for bark in the tanning process.265
Related places
Sites associated with wattle bark harvesting
Other water resources
Squatters secured stock and domestic water supply by constructing tanks and dams, often at the sites of Aboriginal soaks and by accessing watercourses. On the Kimbolton run, there was an underground water tank, as well as several iron ships’ tanks for capture and storage.
Farmers built dams with windmills and channelled water from watercourses. In the 1850s James Rogers flood irrigated his apple orchard at Goornong from the Gunyah Creek.266 By 1868 on his Adelaide Vale run, John Harney had a 24 horsepower pumping engine connected to pumping hydrants and pipes from the Campaspe River, watering his extensive vegetable garden and vineyard.267 Others tapped into groundwater supplies through bores and wells.
The Shire of Marong excavated public tanks and dams in its northern districts. The country between Picaninny Creek and the Campaspe River north of Goornong in the Huntly Shire was also supplied from a weir on the Campaspe River.268 Water for townships was also obtained by sinking public wells and pumping water from rivers into towers. In Heathcote, Clelland’s dam in Peels Gully was cleaned out and used for water and a new reservoir was constructed in Caledonia Gully at Heathcote in 1893.269 Today, the township of Goornong pumps water from the Campaspe River and Elmore is supplied from underground sources.
The 1881 Water Conservation Act enabled the formation of Irrigation Trusts, waterworks trusts that supplied water for stock and domestic use. With the formation of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission in 1906, the control of irrigation water was removed from the Irrigation Trusts and extensive irrigated closer settlement programs were introduced.
Figure 29 Flagstaff Hill Service Basin, constructed 1927 to supplement Eaglehawk’s water supply. Source: Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, 2010
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In 1908 the Bendigo Irrigation Settlement was established north of McIvor Road. Allotments of approximately twenty acres were irrigated from the extended Axe Creek channel, with further extensions made to the channel in 1909 and 1910, eventually bringing irrigation water to Longlea. The Axe Creek Waterworks District was created in 1911.270
Irrigated closer settlement schemes established from 1910 on the northern plains stimulated rail activity and the food processing industry. By 1935, 5,000 tons of butter, 350,000 cases of citrus fruit, 250,000 cases of tomatoes, 250,000 cases of dried fruit, 40,000 cases of eggs and 3,500 tons of tomato pulp were despatched yearly through Bendigo.271
In later years, some private water schemes secured a water supply. The Kamarooka Water Supply Scheme was established by local landholders in 1983 to deliver water to concrete storage tanks from the Waranga Channel, operated by Goulburn-Murray Water.272
Related places
Structures on early stations associated with harvesting and supplying water Infrastructure associated with stock and domestic water supplies Land and estates associated with Irrigation Trusts and irrigated closer settlements
4.5 Transforming the land and waterways
Coliban River and the Coliban Water Scheme
Water was a precious commodity on the Bendigo goldfields and issues of supply to the growing population came to the fore soon after gold was discovered. Goldfield Commissioners attempted to protect crucial local watercourses, both for miners and public use, but discontent over water supply soon manifested. On one hand a reliable water supply was needed to support gold mining activities and on the other gold mining activities were responsible for fouling local watercourses.
The Bendigo Water Works Company was formed in 1858 to supply water to Sandhurst, Mandurang, Lockwood and Marong.273 The company appointed Irish civil engineer Joseph Brady, who had worked on the Yan Yean reservoir, to survey and plan Sandhurst’s first water supply system. No 7, or Big Hill, reservoir was built in 1861 to supply Sandhurst's residents, but water for the mining industry remained in short supply.274
In May 1862, Brady, still working for the Bendigo Waterworks Company, envisaged a large reservoir at Malmsbury on the Coliban River, together with reservoirs and channels to gravity feed mining and town water to Sandhurst and Castlemaine. The scheme also proposed to irrigate 30,000 acres of farming land. This was one of the most ambitious water supply schemes in the goldfields and the 1865 drought added to the urgency of its completion.275
Funding came via the Waterworks Act of 1865 and two reservoirs were built in 1866 at Grassy Flat, now Kennington, intended to supply public tanks for the southern districts of Huntly Shire.276 By 1868, the Coliban Water Scheme was experiencing major delays and mounting expenditure. There was concern about delivery of the estimated supply of water. Some construction work was substandard and though more scientific examination of rainfall and river flows was recommended, the scheme was pushed to completion largely because of 277 the funds already expended. After massive delays and spiralling costs, the scheme finally opened in 1877.
Water from the Coliban Water Scheme was supplied and managed by water trusts, like the Emu Valley Irrigation Water Supply Trust. It was gazetted on 2 April 1889, with an area of 8,700 acres to supply. Another irrigation trust was established in White Hills in 1890. The Coliban Water Scheme was taken over by the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission in 1906 and in 1992 by the Urban Regional Water Authority, Coliban Water.
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Figure 30 Channel, Coliban Water Supply System Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1021)
Reservoirs were constructed at Spring Gully in 1869 and Crusoe Gully in 1873.278 In 1896, Coliban water supplied Fosterville and a channel later took water to Goornong. By 1898, the Coliban Water Scheme also supplied Lockwood, Marong, Eaglehawk, Raywood and 279 Sebastian. Water storage constructed at Lockwood in 1928 was the first storage unit in the Bendigo district to supply irrigation water through pipes.280 During the 1982-83 drought the Sandhurst Reservoir at Big Hill was constructed to increase Bendigo’s water supply.
By 1984, the Coliban system supplied domestic and industrial water in the municipality to Bendigo, Eaglehawk, Marong, Raywood, Sebastian and Strathfieldsaye. Today, recycled water from the Coliban Water Reclamation Plant in Epsom is available for parks, public gardens, sporting grounds and school ovals in Bendigo and for new housing developments. Coliban Water also supplies irrigation water, including to market gardens in Maiden Gully, vineyards at Marong, Eppalock and Maiden Gully and a walnut orchard in Strathfieldsaye.
The Coliban Water Scheme has supplied water in drought years. When the Lake Eppalock storage facility was finally completed in 1964 a pipeline was extended from Eppalock to Bendigo to supplement water to the Coliban system. In 2007 after five years of low rainfall Coliban Water completed a 46.5 kilometre pipeline, the Bendigo link of the Goldfields Superpipe. It transferred water to Bendigo from the Waranga Western Channel near Colbinabbin and intersected with the existing Eppalock pipeline, providing options to supply Bendigo or Lake Eppalock.281 Parts of the Eppalock pipeline were duplicated in 2009–10 to support the Goldfields Superpipe project and increase water security in the Greater Bendigo municipality.
Related places
Early water supply schemes and infrastructure Sites associated with the Coliban water supply system, including reservoirs like no. 7 and Crusoe, weirs, channels, pipelines and creek management
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Campaspe River and Lake Eppalock
A weir on the Campaspe River to provide water to the north plains was first mooted in 1865. A 1908 survey identified a site near the junction of the Campaspe River and Wild Duck Creek. The Eppalock Water League lobbied for the weir on behalf of soldier settlers at Hunter, amongst others. By 1929, there were plans for 240,000 acre-feet of storage, but local landowners and the McIvor Shire objected to submerging valuable farm land. There were also concerns about soil drift and artesian water affecting the weir foundations.282
Construction of a concrete wall began in 1930, utilising men on unemployment relief schemes. In 1932, funds were allocated to complete the weir to a capacity of 120,000 acre- feet. Construction stopped in 1936 following an adverse report by the Parliamentary Public Works Committee. In 1948, resumption of construction was mooted, but the Eppalock Landholders' Association protested that land in the catchment had already been eroded and the weir was heavily silted.
Extensive gully, tunnel and sheeting erosion were in evidence from the 1920s. In 1959, with Eppalock Weir planned, authorities worked with landowners across the Eppalock catchment to reduce siltation of the reservoir from tunnel erosion. The project's objective of group conservation was unique in Australia at the time. By 1975, works had been completed on 829 square kilometres of farming land, including gully works, fencing, diversion banks, tunnel ripping, tree planting, mulching, pasture improvement, aerial topdressing, land clearing and construction of dams.283
The scheme’s intent to augment Bendigo's water supply was strongly supported by Elmore and Rochester irrigators and the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission in the 1959 enquiry. In 1960, at an estimated cost of £5,000,000, work began on an earth dam to hold an additional 250,000 acre-feet; Lake Eppalock was finally completed in April 1964.284 Lake Eppalock has been a popular recreation site for power-boating, sailing, camping and picnicking since, apart from periods of severe drought like the years from 2003 -10.
Related places
Sites and infrastructure associated with the construction, expansion and completion of Lake Eppalock and weir
Bendigo Creek
One of the first irrigation projects in Greater Bendigo was the use of Bendigo Creek by Chinese market gardeners. Small-scale irrigation was essential for the local fruit and vegetable industry that supplied the miners on the goldfields. Chinese market gardeners also established irrigation on Back Creek at Spring Gully and Myers Creek in the Eaglehawk district, using horse powered pumps.
The alluvial gold mining on Bendigo Creek caused erosion. At the peak of puddling activity in the Sandhurst district in 1858, some 10,000 men and 5,000 horses worked 2,000 machines.285 Valleys were stripped to bedrock, their soils washed in puddlers and the unwanted residue flushed into watercourses. Complaints were received about the 'stream of mud' pouring from the machines into the gullies and creeks and onto the roads.286
Locals began agitating to improve conditions and laws were passed to prevent sludge from impacting on waterways and public property. In 1856, the first Council of the Sandhurst municipality funded works on the Bendigo Creek; in 1857 a storm water channel was constructed from Golden Square to White Hills.
Sludge from Bendigo Creek had been found as far as 100 miles from its source. A Royal Commission to examine the problem of sludge was established in 1858. In 1859, the Commission recommended that a ten-mile timber box drain be constructed along the
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Bendigo Creek valley to drain the sludge into Tysons Swamp below Huntly.287 The government imposed a tax on puddlers to pay for the construction of sludge channels, with the operators also required to employ men to keep their section of the channel clear. When the tax was introduced to Sandhurst in August 1861 puddlers abandoned the field to join the gold rush to New Zealand.288
The sludge problem was still widely debated in the 1880s. In 1902, Huntly Shire requested £1,200 from the Minister of Public Works to complete the Huntly sludge channel. In 1905, a Sludge Abatement Board was constituted to regulate the disposal of sludge, sand and debris from the goldfield, which by then covered vast areas. A 1906 report by the Mines Department found that 49,945,465 cubic yards of material from the Bendigo Creek was treated between 1900 and 1906 under the heading of Dredge Mining and Hydraulic Sluicing by Gravitation.289 Approximately 735 square kilometers of agricultural and grazing lands downstream of Bendigo Creek as far north as Kow Swamp are covered by a hard-setting clay sludge layer that has severely disrupted natural drainage patterns and buried soils.290
Modifying the alignment of watercourses was another means of controlling supply. From 1915 the Bendigo Creek Improvement Trust systematically worked to straighten and maintain the creek. Significant grading occurred and levee banks were constructed between Epsom and Huntly to protect property and market gardens on the flood plain.
Related Places
• Bendigo Creek • Early irrigation projects and schemes • Major sludge deposits • Channels and structures associated with irrigation, sludge and improvement of Bendigo Creek
153 Munro, D, Manuscripts Collection, Mitchell Library, State Library New South Wales, A6936-2.
154 Randell, J O (ed), Adventures of a Pioneer by William Lockhart Morton, Queensbury Press, Carlton, Vic, 1978, p. 31.
155 'The wool industry - looking back and forward', 1301.0 - Year Book Australia 2003, Australian Bureau of Statistics, August 2007. Available http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/featurearticlesbyCatalogue. Accessed 20 January 2012.
156 Hall, T R, ‘History of the Town and District: Heathcote’, 1985, p. 8.
157 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, Vic, 1985, pp. 195 & 199.
158 'City of Greater Bendigo. How is our economy structured? Agriculture Census', economy id., 2011. Available: http://economy.id.com.au/Default.aspx?id=134&pg=12350. Accessed 5 December 2011.
159 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, Vic, 1985, p. 195.
160 Letter from William Howitt, 23 April 1854, cited in Randell, J O, Pastoral Settlement in Northern Victoria: Volume Two the Campaspe District, Chandos Publishing Company, Burwood, Vic, 1982, p. 518.
LOVELL CHEN 2013 65 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
161 Macartney, J N, The Bendigo Goldfield Registry, Charles F Maxwell, Melbourne, Vic, 1871, p. 6.
162 'Bendigo Agricultural and Horticultural Society Autumn Exhibition', The Argus, 23 March 1865, p. 5.
163 Victorian Year Books, 1871 & 1877.
164 'In and around Sandhurst', Illustrated Australian News, 26 May 1888, p. 107.
165 Thomas, J, The Century of Change: History of Marong and District, D. G. Walker, Kangaroo Flat, Vic, 1999, pp. 38 - 9.
166 'City of Greater Bendigo. How is our economy structured? Agriculture Census', economy id., 2011. Available: http://economy.id.com.au/Default.aspx?id=134&pg=12350. Accessed 5 December 2011.
167 D Hill, The Gold Rush: the Fever that Forever Changed Australia, 2010, p. 64.
168 Argus, 13 December 1851, p. 2.
169 Cusack, F, Bendigo: a History. Revised Edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, pp. 22-5; see also Flett, James, The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria, Poppet Head Press, Melbourne, Vic, 1979, p. 204.
170 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 2, unpaginated.
171 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, pp. 42-3.
172 Serle, G, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victoria 1851-1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, p. 388; Redmond, J, 'Bendigo', eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00247b.htm. Accessed 2 June 2011.
173 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 14.
174 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 14.
175 Birrell, R A and Lerk, J A, Bendigo's Gold Story, J A & E R S Lerk, Golden Square, Vic, 2001, p. 4.
176 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 123.
177 Mining surveyors reports, January 1860, cited in Bannear, David, North Central Goldfields Project, Historic Mining Sites in the Sandhurst, Eaglehawk and Raywood Mining Divisions, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, p. 5.
178 Bannear, D, Bendigo Historic Gold mining Plots, Department Planning and Community Development. Available http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/heritage/archaeology/gold-mining-history- and-mining-plots-in-victoria/historic-gold-mining-plots. Accessed 25 July 2011.
179 McIvor News, 21 February 1862.
66 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
180 Back to Huntly Committee, Huntly 126 years: 1854-1980. A Chronicle of Events, Express Offset and Letterpress Printers, Huntly, Vic, 1980, p. 5.
181 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 7.
182 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 10.
183 McIvor News, 17 March 1865, cited in Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, pp. 7-8.
184 McIvor News, 31 March 1871, cited in Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, pp. 9-10.
185 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, Vic, 1985, p. 24.
186 Lovejoy, V, 'Depending Upon Diligence: Chinese at Work in Bendigo 1861-1881' in Journal of Historical and European Studies, Vol. 1, December 2007, p. 29.
187 Ellis, G A, Stories & History of Long Gully, George Ellis, Bendigo, Vic, 2007, pp. 67-8.
188 Bannear, David and Neale Watson, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 12.
189 Joyce, B, 'Geology and Environment Overview', eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available: http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00004b.htm. Accessed 25 July 2011.
190 Buerger, D, 'Gold mining in Bendigo: the future of the Bendigo goldfields' in Bendigo: Nothing But Gold 150 Years of Gold mining Conference Papers 27-28 October 2001, p. 57.
191 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 24.
192 Flett, James, The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria, Poppet Head Press, Melbourne, Vic, 1979, pp. 243-44.
193 Flett, James, The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria, Poppet Head Press, Melbourne, Vic, 1979, pp. 244-45; Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, pp. 25-6.
194 Flett, James, The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria, Poppet Head Press, Melbourne, Vic, 1979, pp. 244-45.
195 Lovejoy, V, 'Depending Upon Diligence: Chinese at Work in Bendigo 1861-1881' in Journal of Historical and European Studies, Vol. 1, December 2007, p. 30.
196 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 28.
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197 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 145.
198 Cusack, F, Bendigo: a History. Revised Edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, pp. 139-41.
199 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 29.
200 Bannear, David, 'Historic Mining Sites in the Sandhurst, Eaglehawk and Raywood Mining Divisions', Department of Conservation & Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, pp. 5 & 8; and David, Bannear, David, 'Historic Goldmining Plots: Bendigo and Heathcote', Department of Planning and Community Development, 2010. Available http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/heritage/archaeology. Accessed 22 February 2012.
201 Macartney, J N, The Bendigo Goldfield Registry, Charles F Maxwell, Melbourne, Vic, 1871, p. 10.
202 Birrell, R A and Lerk, J A, Bendigo's Gold Story, J A & E R S Lerk, Golden Square, Vic, 2001, p. 32.
203 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 158.
204 Statistical Register of the Colony of Victoria for the year 1872, Robert S. Brain Government Printer, Melbourne, Vic, p. 42.
205 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 163.
206 See Fahey, C, '"Foreign to their feelings as freemen": Liberal politics in the goldfields community, Bendigo 1853-1883' in Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 1, Issue 1, 2008, pp. 161-81.
207 Lovejoy, V, 'The Fortune Seekers of Dai Gum San: First Generation Chinese on the Bendigo Goldfield 1854-1882', PhD Thesis, School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University, 2009, p. 161.
208 Birrell, R A and Lerk, J A, Bendigo's Gold Story, J A & E R S Lerk, Golden Square, Vic, 2001, pp. 40 & 41.
209 Mining Surveyors’ Reports, December 1879, cited in Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 33.
210 Bannear, D, 'Gold: Then and Now', n.d.
211 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 35.
212 Kirkwood, H, History of the Bendigo Goldfield From its Commencement in 1851, to June, 1881, W Welch, Sandhurst, Vic, 1881?, p. 5.
213 Mining Surveyors’ Reports, March 1880, cited in cited in Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 36.
68 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
214 Bannear, David, 'Historic Mining Sites in the Sandhurst, Eaglehawk and Raywood Mining Divisions', Department of Conservation & Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, p. 9.
215 Mining Surveyors’ Reports, March 1886 and Mining Surveyors Reports, June 1889, cited in Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 38.
216 Shaw, M, Our Goodly Heritage: History of Huntly Shire, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1966, p. 107.
217 Bannear, D, North Central Goldfields Project: Historic Mining Sites in the Heathcote (Waranga South) Mining Division, Department of Conservation & Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, p. 27.
218 Bannear, David and Neale Watson, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 40.
219 Bannear, David, 'Gold: Then and Now', n.d.
220 Back to Huntly Committee, Huntly 126 years: 1854-1980. A Chronicle of Events, Express Offset and Letterpress Printers, Huntly, Vic, 1980, p. 11.
221 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 228; ‘The Deepest Gold Mine in the World. The Victoria Quartz, Victoria’, Kalgoorlie Miner, 9 March 1909, p. 3.
222 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 43.
223 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 242.
224 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 242.
225 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 46. Dr Michele Matthews advises that the Bendigo Council also supervised this work, May 2012.
226 Wallace, Ray, Sydney Flat Gold to Woodville Green, Woodvale Progress Association, Woodvale, Vic, 1984, p. 15.
227 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 243.
228 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 244.
229 Bannear, D, North Central Goldfields Project, Historic Mining Sites in the Sandhurst, Eaglehawk and Raywood Mining Divisions, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, p. 25.
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230 Department of Mines Annual Report, 1954, cited in Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 49.
231 Birrell, R A and Lerk, J A, Bendigo's Gold Story, J A & E R S Lerk, Golden Square, Vic, 2001, p. 140.
232 Birrell, R A and Lerk, J A, Bendigo's Gold Story, J A & E R S Lerk, Golden Square, Vic, 2001, p. 136.
233 Birrell, R A and Lerk, J A, Bendigo's Gold Story, J A & E R S Lerk, Golden Square, Vic, 2001, p. 136.
234 Birrell, R A and Lerk, J A, Bendigo's Gold Story, J A & E R S Lerk, Golden Square, Vic, 2001, p. 143.
235 'History of Bendigo Goldfield' and 'Company History', Unity Mining Limited, 2011. Available http://www.unitymining.com.au. Accessed 22 February 2012.
236 'Perseverance Corporation Limited (PSV)', Australian Stock Investment Group, 2006?. Available: http://www.theasigroup.com.au/company/share/psv. Accessed 30 October 2011.
237 'The Costerfield gold-antimony mine', Mandalay Resources Ltd. Available http://www.mandalayresources.com/index.cfm?pagepath=&id=20485. Accessed 7 June 2011.
238 Bannear, D, North Central Goldfields Project: Historic Mining Sites in the Heathcote (Waranga South) Mining Division, Department of Conservation & Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, p. 2.
239 Mining Surveyors Reports, May 1860, cited in Bannear, D, North Central Goldfields Project, Historic Mining Sites in the Sandhurst, Eaglehawk and Raywood Mining Divisions, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, p. 5.
240 Bannear, D, North Central Goldfields Project, Historic Mining Sites in the Sandhurst, Eaglehawk and Raywood Mining Divisions, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, p. 14.
241 Bannear, D, North Central Goldfields Project, Historic Mining Sites in the Sandhurst, Eaglehawk and Raywood Mining Divisions, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, p. 20.
242 Accent on Axedale, Axedale Our Town Our Future Committee, Axedale, Vic, 2011, p. 25.
243 A Ravenswood Muster, Back to Ravenswood Committee, Bendigo, Vic, 1972, n.p.
244 Webb, C and Quinlan, J, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District From 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, p. 103.
245 A Ravenswood Muster, Back to Ravenswood Committee, Bendigo, Vic, 1972, n.p.
246 Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation Resources and Issues Report, Environment Conservation Council, Fitzroy, Vic, 1997, p. 178.
247 Cited in Annear, R, 'Note being there: a backward traveller's guide to life on the Diggings', in Bendigo: Nothing But Gold 150 Years of Gold mining Conference Papers 27-28 October 2001, pp. 17-18.
70 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
248 Howitt, W, Land, Labour and Gold: Or Two Years in Victoria: With Visits to Sydney and Van Diemen’s Land cited in Powell, J M, Watering the Garden State: Water, Land and Community in Victoria 1834-1988, Allen and Unwin Australia, North Sydney, NSW, 1989, pp. 48-9.
249 Shaw, M, Our Goodly Heritage: History of Huntly Shire, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1966, p. 61.
250 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, Vic, 1985, p. 212.
251 Bannear, D, 'Study Of Historic Forest Activity Sites in the Box-Ironbark and Midland Areas of Victoria', Commonwealth Environment Forest Taskforce, Department of Environment, Sports and Territories, and the Victorian Department of Natural Resources & Environment, February 1997, p. 4.
252 Webb, C and Quinlan, J, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District from 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, p. 103.
253 Bannear, D, 'Study Of Historic Forest Activity Sites in the Box-Ironbark and Midland Areas of Victoria', Commonwealth Environment Forest Taskforce, Department of Environment, Sports and Territories, and the Victorian Department of Natural Resources & Environment, February 1997, p. 4.
254 Back to Mandurang Souvenir, G W Seymour, Bendigo, Vic, 1938?, n.p.; and Arnold, K, and Arnold, J, Out and About Around Bendigo Volume 2, Crown Castleton Publishers, Bendigo, Vic, 2007, p. 57.
255 Mitchell, B, On the Creeks: Early Life at Strathfieldsaye in the Valley of the Three Creeks, Axe, Emu and Sheepwash, Cambridge Printers, Bendigo, Vic, 2005, p. 22.
256 Bannear, D, 'Study Of Historic Forest Activity Sites in the Box-Ironbark and Midland Areas of Victoria', Commonwealth Environment Forest Taskforce, Department of Environment, Sports and Territories, and the Victorian Department of Natural Resources & Environment, February 1997, p. 7.
257 Bannear, D, 'Study Of Historic Forest Activity Sites in the Box-Ironbark and Midland Areas of Victoria', Commonwealth Environment Forest Taskforce, Department of Environment, Sports and Territories, and the Victorian Department of Natural Resources & Environment, February 1997, pp. 9-10.
258 Wallace, R, As Aussie As a Gum Leaf, A Brief History of the Eucalyptus Industry in Bendigo, Australian Farm Management Society, Bendigo, Vic, n.d., p. 1
259 Neil, J, The Golden Age Retraced, Mullaya, Vic, 1973, p. 58; Wallace, R, Sydney Flat to Woodvale Green, Woodvale Progress Association, Woodvale, Vic, 1984, p. 48.
260 Webb, C and Quinlan, J, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District From 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, p. 243.
261 Shiel, D, ‘Eucalyptus Oil Production Around Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 220.
262 See http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/about-us/publications/library/virtual-exhibition/working- forest/working-in-the-forest-gallery. Accessed 19 February 2012.
263 Wallace, R, As Aussie As a Gum Leaf: A Brief History of the Eucalyptus Industry in Bendigo, Australian Farm Management Society, Bendigo, Vic, n.d., p. 2.
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264 Shiel, D, ‘Eucalyptus Oil Production Around Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 224.
265 Bannear, D, 'Study Of Historic Forest Activity Sites in the Box-Ironbark and Midland Areas of Victoria', Commonwealth Environment Forest Taskforce, Department of Environment, Sports and Territories, and the Victorian Department of Natural Resources & Environment, February 1997, p. 5.
266 Shaw, M, Our Goodly Heritage: History of Huntly Shire, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1966, p. 68.
267 Healy, M N, Railways and Pastures: The Australian O' Keefes, Spectrum Publications, Richmond, Vic, 1988, p. 27.
268 'Supply of water to the Northern Plains: Part 1 - supply for domestic purposes and use of stock', John Ferres, Government Printer, Melbourne, Vic, 1881, passim.
269 Hall, T R, ‘History of the Town and District: Heathcote’, 1985, p. 16.
270 Hewat, T, Bridge Over Troubled Waters: A History of the Shire of Strathfieldsaye, Macmillan, Melbourne, Vic, 1983, pp. 86-7 & 111.
271 Victorian Centenary Issue 1934-35: Bendigo Camera Pictures, Bolton Bros and Cambridge Press, Bendigo, 1935, n.p.
272 Pedersen, G., A brief history of the Kamarooka District, Back to Kamarooka Committee, Kamarooka, Vic, 1987, p. 52.
273 Russell, Dr G, 'A slide show history of Coliban Water' Coliban Water, 2008-10. Available: http://www.coliban.com.au/about/history.asp. Accessed 2 August 2011.
274 Russell, Dr G, 'A slide show history of Coliban Water' Coliban Water, 2008-10. Available: http://www.coliban.com.au/about/history.asp. Accessed 2 August 2011.
275 Russell, G, Water for Gold: The fight to quench central Victoria’s goldfields, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2009, p. 127.
276 'Supply of water to the Northern Plains: Part 1 - supply for domestic purposes and use of stock', John Ferres, Government Printer, Melbourne, Vic, 1881, passim.
277 'Report on the Coliban and Geelong Schemes of Water Supply', Victorian Parliamentary Papers, Vol. 3, No. 97, 1871.
278 Russell, G, Water for Gold: The fight to quench central Victoria’s goldfields, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2009, p. 243.
279 Statistical Register of the Colony of Victoria: Part VII Production, Robert S Brain Government Printer, Melbourne, Vic, 1898, p. 90.
280 'Bendigo and District', The Argus, 23 August 1928, p. 16.
281 Russell, Dr G, 'A slide show history of Coliban Water' Coliban Water, 2008-10. Available: http://www.coliban.com.au/about/history.asp. Accessed 12 July 2011.
282 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, Vic, 1985, pp. 207 - 10.
283 Webb, C and Quinlan, J, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District From 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, pp. 37-8.
72 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
284 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, Vic, 1985, pp. 207 - 10.
285 Lennon, J, 'Victorian Gold – World Heritage Status?' in Bendigo: Nothing But Gold 150 Years of Gold Mining, Conference Papers 27-28 October 2001, p. 48.
286 'Old Bendigo: memories of the sixties', The Argus, 2 April 1931, p. 15.
287 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, pp. 123-6.
288 Bannear, D and Watson, N, 'North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft', Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994, p. 7.
289 Waterways of the North Central Region Catchment and waterway descriptions: Loddon Catchment, North Central Catchment Management Authority, August 2006. Available http://www.nccma.vic.gov.au/Getting_Involved/WaterWays/Map_Select/index.aspx. Accessed 2 January 2012.
290 Peterson, L, Reading the Landscape: Documentation and Analysis of a Relict Feature of Land Degradation in the Bendigo District, Victoria. Monash Publications in Geography Number 48, Monash University, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, 1996, p. 96.
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5.0 Theme 5: Building Greater Bendigo’s industries and workforce
Figure 31 Bendigo Pottery Source: Anthony Webster, Imagine Pictures, Thematic Environmental History Photography Project 2011.
Various stages of the mining process, whether alluvial or quartz mining, supported a growing local and later regional manufacturing industry, including production of tools and equipment, fuses and explosives. The need for manufacturing efficiency and economy to increase mining returns also encouraged innovations in manufacturing, and Greater Bendigo is known for numerous industrial ‘firsts’ and inventions. Manufacturers took advantage of the burgeoning population to produce foodstuffs as well as materials such as bricks for construction and forged metals. Providing goods and services for the growing goldfields communities was another way to make a living. Commerce was often a more reliable source of income than prospecting and mining; and many entrepreneurs used the capital made from mining to establish successful local businesses. An active financial precinct developed in Bendigo with prominent banks and stock exchanges, generating one of Australia’s oldest building societies, the Bendigo Bank. The many hotels and inns of the goldfields remain visible today as a testament to a ubiquitous and successful industry that serviced travellers and miners alike.
5.1 Processing raw materials
Fruit and vegetables
Fruit and vegetables were grown intensively in the Greater Bendigo municipality from the 1850s. In the early years of the goldrushes, horticulture was characterised by the taking up
74 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 of small allotments, by both Chinese and Europeans, on watercourses that provided irrigation water. The involvement of Chinese people in market gardening is well documented; of approximately 3,000 Chinese people in Sandhurst in 1861, around 200 were engaged in this pursuit. By the 1890s this number had increased to over 2,300.291
The development of small-scale horticulture was facilitated by the Lands Acts of the 1860s. Annual licences for market gardening, issued under the Land Acts, enabled the holder to occupy land for the purpose of establishing a garden and residence. The Sandhurst District Rent Rolls of the 1869 Land Act, for instance, listed 27 Chinese licensees, including Hoo Yep who paid £1 rent annually from 1877 to 1892 for his one-acre garden site in Bendigo.292 Because the licence could be revoked at any time without compensation, the Chinese erected temporary shacks that were often lived in for years.293
Chinese market gardens were established along watercourses and old water races throughout the municipality, including at Bagshot, Marong, Elmore, Fosterville, Huntly and Heathcote. Chinese market gardens in the Bendigo district were established at Back Creek, Epsom, Grassy Flat, Kangaroo Flat, Golden Square, Long Gully, Spring Gully, White Hills and Ironbark. Most Chinese market gardening had ceased by the 1960s, but the remains of a Chinese kiln constructed by A’Fok, Fok Sing and Co in 1859 and the associated market garden established in the 1880s are a significant archaeological site in North Bendigo.294
Markets were also established on the goldfields to enable local producers to sell meat and food products, including the market formerly at the corner of Hargreaves and Williamson streets in Bendigo.
Figure 32 Chinese wall, Forest Street, Bendigo, believed to date from the 1860s. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 2106)
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Prizes awarded at the local Agricultural Exhibition in the 1860s provide insight into the variety of horticultural crops grown and sold at the time. These include potatoes, mangold wurtzel and table grape varieties such as black prince, sweet water, Wantage, white muscat, and Frontignac.295
Winemaking was an important industry in the municipality in the nineteenth century, reaching a peak in the 1880s. The climate suited viticulture, including the warm dry summers which favoured the disease-free ripening of grapes.296 The influx of Europeans with the gold rush introduced traditions of viticulture which were paramount in establishing local winemaking.
Jean-Baptiste Loridan at Sheepwash Creek and Joseph Panton at Epsom were some of the first vignerons in Greater Bendigo, with vines planted by about 1855. Viticulture spread to the Strathfieldsaye district where it was taken up by a number of German families.297 William Winzar established a vineyard on Bullock Creek, Marong, in 1856. Six acres of vines had been established at Goornong by 1860 at a property named Waverley. By 1861, 120 acres were under vines in the Sandhurst district, making it the fourth largest vine-growing district in the colony.298 By 1864, vineyards had been established on Emu, Axe, Sheepwash and Bullock Creeks, and at Epsom, Huntly, Lockwood, Adelaide Vale and in the McIvor district. The increase in vine plantings in the early 1860s has also been attributed to Rev Henry Backhaus' advocacy.299
Vines were planted on Axe Creek in 1860 by German immigrants William Greiffenhagen, and his cousins Carl and August Heine. By 1868, when the operation was known as Hercynia Vineyard, it covered some 300 acres. In 1869, noted local architects Vahland and Getzschmann were commissioned to design a substantial three-storey sandstone and red brick building, containing a cellar and winery which is still extant.300 Hercynia wines achieved acclaim and medals at many local and international exhibitions.
At the 1873 Vienna Exhibition, when several wines made from hermitage were discovered to be from Sandhurst, the French jurors withdrew in protest.301 Local growers Carl Pohl, August Heine and Frederick Gosse all received awards for their wines at the exhibition.302
So suited was the region to wine making, the Board of Viticulture reserved 850 acres at Emu Creek for the purpose of a Viticultural College, and also secured 500 acres at Huntly for an experimental station. In 1880, most of the existing vine plantings of 534 acres were located in the Shire of Strathfieldsaye around Emu and Axe Creeks, and in the Shires of Huntly and Marong.303 By 1890, the Bendigo district had 972 acres of vines, with over two-thirds of that area planted in the Strathfieldsaye Shire.304 Other wine making operations were established in the nineteenth century at Lockwood, Huntly and Emu Creek.305
The Phylloxera insect was discovered at an Emu Creek vineyard on 8 December 1893, and while many vineyards were not affected, removal of vines was required within a two-mile radius of the infection. Some vignerons continued their enterprises using grapes from other districts, however the disease was a major factor, along with the economic depression of the 1890s, in the demise of the local wine industry. Phylloxera did not affect vines in the Goornong district until 1920.306
The resurgence of wine growing and making in the municipality is attributed to Stuart Anderson’s establishment in 1969 of Balgownie Vineyard.307 In the Heathcote wine district, small vineyards were established in the late 1960s and 1970s on the outskirts of town by Len French and James Munro, and by Italians Albino Zuber and Bruno Pangrazio. In the Leichardt district, near Marong, Thomas Connor planted shiraz wines in the late 1960s.
Early buildings constructed for wine production are in use at Black Estate, where Greiffenhagen’s winery was located, and Chateau Dore.
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Figure 33 Former tomato seed factory, Marong. Source: Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, 2010
The houses of nineteenth century winemakers De Ravin, Greiffenhaagen, Pohl, Dods, Olgiati, Cook, Mannes, Robbins, Harney and Lowndes also survive.308
It was a group of Spaniards who started the tomato industry in Greater Bendigo in the early 1890s. Settling at White Hills, they grew tomatoes on a small holdingn adjoining the Bendigoo Creek.309 Tomatoes were also grown at Huntly, Marong, Sedgwick, Strathfieldsaye and Kangaroo Flat in the same period. After water was brouught to Longlea in 1910 via the Axe Creek channel, tomatoes were also grown in that district.310 The tomato industry was at its most active in the period 1919-40. Tomatoes worth £200,000 were grown in the Bendigo district in 1929.311 Such was the reputation of the district's tomatoes, street barrow-men in Melbourne labelled their wares 'ripe Bendigoo tomatoes.'312 A government experimental tomato plot was also established in Kangaroo Flat in the early 1930s.313
In 1933, due to strong demand for tomato pulp, tomatoes were planted at Huntly, Epsom, Kangaroo Flat, Myers Flat, Marong, Lockwood, Longlea and Axedale.314 During World War Two, Duncan McKenzie from Marong secured six seeds from the German developed Grosse Lisse variety of tomato, and from this enterprise established a tomato seed extraction factory at Maronng, which stands today.315 Tomato processing sheds also exist at Huntly.
Tomatoes were processed at local plants, including Dansons' factory in Kangaroo Flat; White Crow, Rosella, Kia Ora, Leggos and Bendigoo Preserving Company in Bendigo and Eaglehawk; and William's factory at Epsom. After the 1939 drought and subsequent water restrictions on the Coliban system, some tomato-growinng activity moved to the neighbouringn Loddon and Campaspe shires. With the closure of local factories from the 1960s, tomatoes were sent to other regional centres like Shepparton and Swan Hill, or Melbourne for processing. By 1970, only 93 acres in the Bendigo district remained planted to tomatoes,316 however they were grown in the Huntly district until 2009, and in 2010, tomato growing was taken up in the Elmore district.
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The economic value of fruit and vegetable growing, including nurseries, cut flowers and wine grapes, in 2005-6 was 5.9 per cent of the total value of agricultural production in the Greater Bendigo municipality.317
Related places
Market gardens Infrastructure associated with fruit and vegetable growing, delivery and sales Properties associated with early vineyards and wine production, including surviving early vines Infrastructure of wine growing and production, including historic winery buildings, cellars, pressing and fermenting rooms, and bottling facilities More contemporary vineyards Specialist operations, such as tomato seed extraction and pulp production Jam and sauce factories
Grains
By the mid-1850s a number of breweries had been established in the goldfields but industry was generally poorly regulated until the 1860s. Official licensing of public houses commenced in May 1854, and the increase in licensed premises helped fuel demand for locally brewed ales and porter, although many hotels in this period preferred to stock imported brews.318 By 1866 in Bendigo alone there were 12 breweries, and some 320 hotels.319
Danish brothers Moritz, Julius and Jacob Cohn arrived on the goldfields in 1853, and after establishing a cordial manufactory, vinegar works and horse stables in Bridge Street, Sandhurst, went on to establish Victoria Brewery, which dominated the local market for some years.320 Although many of the smaller breweries began closing in the 1860s, in January 1864 local breweries, such as Sayer’s Norfolk brewery, were reportedly producing about one seventh of Victoria’s ale and porter.321 Production was enhanced by the opening of the railway in the early 1860s, and easier access to Melbourne for local producers. Brewers also began acquiring local public houses and hotels in this period, which were then ‘tied’ to that particular brewery. Brewing remained a stable Bendigo industry until around 1900, when it was impacted by the economic depression of the 1890s, the Temperance movement, and the Licences Reduction Board which, from 1906, began to reduce hotel numbers.322
Tax increases also raised costs, reduced profits for brewers and six o'clock closing was introduced to hotels in 1916.323 Amidst these changes, some local breweries still remained viable, including the City Brewery, which was later Bendigo and Northern District Brewing Cooperative Ltd, and later again Bendigo United Breweries. This remained, until the 1940s, the sole brewery in Bendigo after Cohn’s Brothers ceased production in 1925.324 Some brewers, like Cohn’s Brothers, ceased operating their breweries but continued with other aspects of their businesses like cordial and soft drinks production. A sign advertising Cohns lemonade from the 1950s can still be seen on Bridge Street.325 Growth of Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) also impacted smaller brewers and by the 1920s, CUB had a virtual monopoly of hotels throughout Victoria.326
Investing in flour milling in the nineteenth century was often prohibitively expensive, but the burgeoning population on the goldfields encouraged the development of a local flour milling industry. By the 1850s the Sandhurst Steam Flour Mill had been established in Lyttleton Terrace; another mill, Buckley’s Flour Mill was established on McIvor Street in 1854, and the Adelaide Steam Flour Mill in 1867.327 By 1876, Sandhurst had three flour mills; a further three mills were operating in Heathcote in the 1880s, including the successful milling enterprise owned by Moore, Christie and Spinks which operated from 1869 until at least 1914.328
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Figure 34 Sayer Brothers’ Brewery in Bendigo, 1861. Source: State Library of Victoria.
Figure 35 Buckley’s Flour Mills, 1861. Source: State Library of Victoria.
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By 1876, Sandhurst had three flour mills; a further three mills were operating in Heathcote in the 1880s, including the successful milling enterprise owned by Moore, Christie and Spinks which operated from 1869 until at least 1914.329 The Elmore Flour Mill operated between 1873 and 1957, and was demolished in 1960.330
Railway transport was initially heralded as a boon to flour producers, as it brought the mill and consumer closer together. However, as noted by Fahey, the railway also ultimately contributed to the decline of rural wheat mills.331 Further, wide annual variations in wheat yields made it difficult for country millers to obtain regular supplies, whilst Melbourne millers were able to utilise the rail network to obtain the volume and quality of wheat they needed.332
The economic depression of the 1890s impacted on milling in the Bendigo district. However, against the trend, Tomlins and Simmie Flour Mill in Bendigo was under construction in 1912, with the up-to-date roller mill designed by Bendigo architect John Beebe, who had also designed the smaller Grimsby Flour Mills in Wills Street.333
When mills closed, the buildings were put to other uses or often just abandoned. Today, the distinctive former flour mill buildings, with their vertical proportions and unadorned exteriors are reminders of smaller scale flour production in the municipality.
Related places
Sites and properties associated with the brewing industry Hotels and public houses historically associated local breweries and beer and ale brands Cordial and soft drink factories Former flour mills, buildings and complexes, including chimneys and water wheels
Animal products and by products
European honey bees were introduced to Australia in the early nineteenth century, and commercial bee keepers were well established in Victoria by the turn of the century. The ironbarks of the Bendigo area, which flower from January to September, are prized by honey producers.334
From the 1890s, the Jones family of Bendigo moved their bees around, from the red gum of the Sutton Grange area, to the grey box of the Eppalock area and the ironbark, grey box and yellow gum of the Whipstick and Wellsford forests. In 1891, the Weeroona Apiary at Strathfieldsaye produced 7,500 pounds of honey every year.335
There was a resurgence in beekeeping during the 1930s economic depression. Charles Colston of Heathcote won the 1936 Silver Cup of the Victorian Apiarists Association for the best yellow box honey. Other producers included J Pianta of Heathcote and A Pilcher of Pilchers Bridge.336 Some of the commercial apiarists based in Bendigo from 1945 included Fenselau, Thorpe and Fraser. Today, the industry is still centred on the box ironbark forests surrounding Bendigo.
Dairying was an important addition to farm income in the Greater Bendigo municipality, particularly during the selection era of the second half of the nineteenth century. From the early 1880s, farmers took their milk to local creameries where it was processed using steam driven separators, and the cream sent to factories. A creamery and butter factory was opened in the 1890s at Warragamba. Creameries also operated at Kamarooka, Avonmore and Barnadown.337
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Figure 36 Former Monmore property mud brick dairy building, Woodvale (image 1994). Source: City of Greater Bendigo, in Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, 2010
With the advent of home separators, cooperative butter and cheese factories were established from the late 1880s, including the Bendigo Butter Factory, Sedgwick butter factory, and a cheese factory at Murrowood homestead at Wild Duck Creek near Heathcote.338 The establishment of the factories was also facilitated by refrigerated shipping, the introduction of cool rooms at railway stations, and through government promotion of export trade.
Pittaways at Kangaroo Flat conducted a dairy enterprise of some size from the 1860s through to the 1930s. At Marong, John Carter established a large dairying operation in the 1920s on his farm, Yorkshire, and delivered milk daily to Bendigo.339 Dairying enterprises were also established on the Campaspe River in the Goornong district and along Emu Creek at Mandurang and Sedgwick; these were important district industries in the 1930s.
The poultry industry was another important animal industry in Greater Bendigo. In 1919, the Rosedale Egg Farm at Kangaroo Flat supported more than 4,000 birds.340 There were also poultry farm operations at Golden Square in the late 1920s, in the St Just Point and Long Gully areas in the 1930s, and at Kangaroo Flat in the 1940s. From 1935, Huntly also had a significant poultry industry, increasing its operations after electricity was connected to Huntly in 1944. An egg freezing plant opened in Bendigo in 1943. Eggs were delivered to grading floors at Crystal Egg Company in Bendigo and Agg and Simpson, later Sympag, in Kangaroo Flat.341
Mechanisation of chicken feeding and rearing, and the introduction of on-farm cool storage rooms, helped to increase production. Commercial poultry production on small farms reached its peak in the 1960s.342 The Egg and Egg Pulp Marketing Board of Victoria, later the Victorian Egg Marketing Board, was established in Bendigo in 1937.343 The Board introduced the hen quota system in 1974 in Bendigo, to regulate farmers keeping 50 or more
LOVELL CHEN 2013 81 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 laying hens. The regulation resulted in small operations selling out to bigger chicken farms.344
Environmental issues relating to poultry production in Bendigo's residential areas resulted in poultry enterprises moving to the Epsom and Lockwood districts in the early 1970s. By 1985, the region had 56 flocks with more than 2,000 birds and another 250 farms with fewer. In this year, avian influenza broke out in the area and wiped out the broiler industry.345 Today, Hazeldene's is a significant poultry industry that employs over 600 workers at its operations at East Bendigo and Lockwood.346 Keanes Poultry also continues operations at Huntly.
The Consolidated Press of Sydney and Swift’s Mayfair of Chicago, later Mayfair Hams and Bacon, established Australia’s first fully intensive pig unit at Huntly in April 1965 and over the next five years grew the operation to 2,000 sows. This was the beginning of the intensive pig industry in Australia. Multi-site pig farming systems were also developed from the late 1980s, including sow farms in Bendigo which produced weaner pigs that were grown and finished in St Arnaud, in the Northern Grampians municipality.347
Privately owned slaughterhouses operated in gold towns from the 1850s, including one at Axedale owned by the Rev Henry Backhaus.348 Municipal sale yards opened in 1861 on the Market Reserve in Charleston Road, in what is now East Bendigo. By the early 1880s, the area was known as Slaughterhouse Hill, and it was the centre for several butcheries with killing sheds and yards. These were condemned by the City Surveyor and municipal brick abattoirs were constructed in 1888 on the Market Reserve.349
In 1890, the Municipal sale yards sold 33,555 cattle, 239,016 sheep, 22,206 pigs and 1,193 horses.350 By 1935 the Bendigo weekly livestock markets were ‘the largest outside the metropolis’.351 In the 1990s, the saleyards were sold after the Bendigo Livestock Exchange was established in Huntly.
Following residential subdivision of the nearby Lansell estate, calls were made to remove the abattoirs, and in 1912 new abattoirs were opened on the Market Reserve. They were designed by prominent Melbourne architect and engineer, Charles D'Ebro, and included twin slaughter and hanging rooms for cattle, sheep and pigs, and two smaller ancillary brick buildings.352
Other businesses on the Slaughterhouse Hill site included a tannery, livery stables, piggery, soap maker, shoemaker, sheep dealer and tripe merchant.353 Tanneries were often located near slaughterhouses for convenience and were relatively small but important enterprises in the municipality, particularly outside Bendigo. One of the first tanneries in the district was established by the Deehan Brothers at Sheepwash Creek, now Mandurang, in 1859. By 1864 it was known as the Edinburgh Tannery, and continued to operate until decimated by fire in 1940.354
The Bendigo Freezing Works opened off Strickland Road on the Heathcote railway line in 1922. The Inland Meat Authority Act 1942 established the Victorian Inland Meat Authority (VIMA) to operate Amalgamated Freezing Co (Victoria), including the freezer works at Bendigo. At the same time, the government proposed the closing of Municipal Abattoirs. In 1945, 11 acres, including the site of the Municipal Abattoirs, was handed over to the Country Roads Board and livestock slaughtering operations shifted to the Bendigo Freezing Works. The operation was enlarged in 1958.355
The economic value of livestock slaughtering is significant. In 2005-6, the industry accounted for 64.8 per cent of the total value of agricultural production in the Greater Bendigo municipality.356
Related places
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Bee-keeping sites including immediate box ironbark forest settings Infrastructure associated with honey bottling, distribution and sales Properties associated with dairying, including historic farm dairies, butter and cheese factories, public cool store facilities Properties associated with poultry raising, and chicken and egg production. Properties associated with the pig industry Saleyards and historic market reserves Sites and properties associated with abattoirs, tanneries and meatworks
5.2 Developing a manufacturing capacity
Foundries and engineering works
By 1871, just under half of the Bendigo goldfield’s largely male workforce was employed in mining, with manufacturing occupying some 13 per cent.357 The expanding gold mining industry drove demand for local foundries and engineering works. Without local foundries, machinery was imported from Melbourne or Sydney, or more commonly, from the United Kingdom. The lack of local engineering facilities also resulted in significant delays for repairing damaged machinery. As early as 1854 the Bendigo Advertiser noted that the establishment of a local foundry would be of ‘enormous benefit’ which, ‘if it did no other good, would certainly have the effect of stimulating any discovery of iron ore’.358
In June 1856, Joel Horwood, son of a prominent Adelaide foundry proprietor, started the Bendigo Iron Works. Construction of the workshops was completed rapidly and the first castings were soon poured. Horwood’s was a major employer in the region, having 200 staff by the early 1870s.359
Other local foundries included William Kidd’s Iron Bark Foundry (1858), Penrose and Company’s Eagle Foundry at White Hills (1859) and Gripe’s Foundry and Timber Yard (1860).360 Initially focussed on repair work, Sandhurst foundries also started manufacturing their own machinery. The first engine made by Bendigo firm, Jopling, Cunningham and Company, was for Clarence Reef Mining, Drainage and Crushing Company in July 1861.361 With the increase in agricultural activity following the Land Acts of the 1860s, foundries and machine shops also branched into production of agricultural equipment and irrigation machinery. Foundries additionally tapped into the demand created by the railways.362 Local foundry production encompassed machinery for Murray River paddle steamers, ornamental ironwork for buildings, and iron seats and water pipes for local councils.363
A number of foundries were established in Eaglehawk, including the Federal Engineering Works of 1901, and the National Foundry of 1905.364 In the second half of the twentieth century, however, with development of alternative products and changing demands, the Bendigo foundries declined, although foundries such as the recently demolished Golden City Implement Works continued to operate until the late twentieth century.365
Demand for safety fuses was high in the mining industry. A number of local enterprises were established to meet this demand, although local fuse manufacture ceased in the early twentieth century. Charles Perry and John Hunter began manufacturing fuses in the 1870s. These consisted of gunpowder spun with a fabric sheath and sealed with lacquer; Perry and Hunter also manufactured lead covered fuses for use in underwater contexts.366 Their works were located first at Forest Street and later at Wattle Street, Bendigo. The Bentley Brothers also established a fuse factory in Eaglehawk in 1899.367 The Bentley works relocated to Footscray in 1903 and was subsequently acquired by Nobel.368
To power the increasing population resident on the goldfields, a gas works was established in Weeroona Avenue, Sandhurst, in 1860 by the Bendigo Gas Company.
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Figure 37 Gripe’s Foundry and Timber Yard, 1861. The foundry was opened in October 1860 in conjunction with Gripe’s already established timber and iron yard. Source: State Library of Victoria.
Figure 38 Former Fuse Factory, Wattle Street, Bendigo. Source: Lovell Chen, 2011
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The gasworks were one of the first in Victoria, expanded into the 1870s, and then faltered in the 1890s, with falling gas consumption and rising costs. In the 1920s and 1930s, however, significant improvements were made to the retort house and gas distribution system; and in 1958, after purchase by the Gas and Fuel Corporation, further upgrading occurred. The historic plant is now regarded as ‘the last and technologically most complete gas works in Victoria, having operated continuously from 1860 to 1973’.369 Internationally, the Bendigo Gasworks is reputedly one of only a handful of comparable sites in the world.370
Related places
• Former foundries and engineering works • Items and machinery manufactured by local foundries • Former Fuse Factory • Items and machinery associated with the Former Fuse Factory • Bendigo Gas Company • Items and machinery associated with the Bendigo Gas Company • Infrastructure associated with the Bendigo Gas Company
Brickworks and potteries
In the mid-nineteenth century, brick-making was mostly undertaken by part-time or itinerant brick makers. Brick buildings were also relatively rare in the early days of the gold rushes, although brick chimneys were more common. However, around 1860 there was a huge increase in brick and stone dwellings being built in Greater Bendigo, making the production of bricks both necessary and profitable.371
John Wolstencroft established his brickworks on McIvor Road ‘near the site of the present railway bridge’, and a number of brickworks were set up along Back Creek at Sandhurst, and at Heathcote. This operation later moved to Miller Street. There were other brickworks at Eaglehawk and records also indicate one Chinese brick maker operating ‘near the …Joss House and Chinese encampment’.372 Brickworks also operated at Elmore from the 1870s.373
Figure 39 Bendigo Pottery, Epsom (established 1864). Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 674)
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Throughout the latter decades of the nineteenth century, more brickworks and potteries came into production in the Sandhurst area. This included the Bendigo Steam Brick and Tile Company and J and W Wolstencroft’s operation with a Hoffman type brick-making kiln.
In the twentieth century, brick production continued into the 1970s. Operators included the Sandhurst Brick Company, originally the Wolstencroft works, and Phillips Bricks in McIvor Road. In the mid-1980s, Bendigo Brick Pty Ltd was established. This operation was located in East Bendigo and supplied bricks to Victoria and interstate, before closing in 2010.374
Fine kaolin clay discovered in the municipality in the nineteenth century was used by the now nationally renowned Bendigo Pottery, established in Huntly in 1857, before moving to Epsom in 1864. Salt-glazed bottles and domestic wares were produced, as well as containers for local brewers and other manufacturers. The pottery also manufactured bricks for culverts for the Big Hill to Sandhurst section of railway in 1859. By 1880, the pottery owned more than 80 acres, was importing clay from other locations in the district, and had a huge complex of buildings covering two acres.375 While the operation declined in the mid-twentieth century, not least of all due to cheaper ceramic products being imported from overseas, the business was revived in the 1970s and continues to operate.
More recently, small artisan potteries have been established in the municipality although some have subsequently closed down. These include Sweeneys Creek Pottery at Strathfieldsaye, and Cannie Ridge Pottery and Tannery Lane Pottery in Mandurang.
Related places
Sites/properties associated with brick making and production Sites/properties associated with potteries Bendigo Pottery
5.3 Marketing and retailing
Merchants followed diggers to each new rush, setting up rudimentary stores and importing items from Melbourne and elsewhere, before establishing local enterprises. In 1852 the Bendigo goldfield was a mass of tents; by the following year temporary and often portable shops and stores were appearing around Government Camp. Heavy foot traffic along Camp Street also enabled this area to develop a commercial character.376
The first commercial buildings to emerge on the newly surveyed blocks of Sandhurst were usually locally designed and built of local materials.377 Pall Mall, and the surrounding Hargreaves, Bridge, McCrae, Mitchell and View streets, rapidly developed as the centre of business activity in Sandhurst.378
By the late 1850s the town had a population of more than 12,000 and had ‘its heart and lungs as I may call Pall Mall and Market Square’.379
Pall Mall and Mitchell Street also attracted the main commercial enterprises, although Pall Mall accommodated more professional services than retailers. By the end of 1856 the offices of the Advertiser, James Ross’ surgery and the chambers of Wards Solicitors were housed there.380 By the 1860s, the commercial precincts of Sandhurst had taken on a recognizable order. The newly constructed railway station also provided impetus to the establishment of nearby shops, boarding houses, and livery stables.381
Simcha Baevski, later known as Sidney Myer, arrived in Australia in 1899. After working with his brother Elcon in an underclothing business in Flinders Lane, the brothers moved to Bendigo where they opened a small drapery store.382 They also hawked goods in the district, and established premises on Pall Mall in 1900.
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Figure 40 Pall Mall, with former Colonial Bank at left and Beehive Building at right. Source: Lovell Chen archives
They subsequently expanded into a series of outlets, eventually the Myer Emporium in Melbourne, and then the nationally renowned Myer retail empire.383 By 1907, the Pall Mall store had over 60 staff, and within a year Sidney had bought out a competitor to become Bendigo's leading merchant.384
Bush’s Store on Williamson Street in Bendigo retains a number of original or early components including the corner shop building, tea loft, chaff house and stables.385 It was constructed in stages from 1857 to 1890, for Albert Bush. Remarkably, ownership of the store remained in the Bush family until 1997.
The development of local industry also influenced the character of Sandhurst, and later Bendigo’s, commercial precincts, and small manufactories often doubled as retail outlets. Knitting mills, clothing manufacturers, foundries, potteries, brewers, and rubber manufacturers all sold their own wares, often from factory premises.
Other retailers of note included David Higgie, who established a saddlery on Inglewood Street in Raywood in the 1870s;386 and John Stevenson’s 1870 Victoria Store in Kangaroo Flat, which sold a range of goods including iron tools, clothing, millinery, boots and groceries.387
Chinese merchants and business people established a range of commercial and retail operations at Back Creek, Epsom, Kangaroo Flat, Golden Square, White Hills and Elsmore. In the period 1861-1881, Chinese people were occupied as butchers, chemists, drapers, tea merchants, fish mongers, lottery agents, opium dealers, hoteliers, restaurateurs, barbers, jewellers, shoemakers, and operators of gaming and boarding houses. There were also doctors, preachers and interpreters.388
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Figure 41 Butchers shop, Kangaroo Flat, in operation as a butcher since the 1880s. Source: Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, 2010
Figure 42 Barber shop, Kangaroo Flat, another long standing local business in an 1880s building, used intermittently as a barbers since the 1920s. Source: Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, 2010
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Many of these businesses were conducted in rented premises, as Chinese people were subjected to discrimination and most did not have the money to buy a shop or the means to borrow outside the Chinese community. Segregation even occurred within commercial buildings where the use of internal spaces could be prescribed; in some instances, separate Chinese and European entrances were provided.389
Commercial properties also appeared on the main roads of towns and settlements. The surviving strip of shops in High Street, Kangaroo Flat, retains a number of historic commercial buildings, some of which accommodate very long running businesses.
More recently the retail character of Bendigo has changed with the opening of larger national retail outlets, and developments such as Lansell Plaza at Kangaroo Flat; Strath Village in Strathdale; the closure of part of Hargreaves Street in Bendigo to form Hargreaves Mall in the 1980s; and the establishment of the Market Place shopping centre near the railway station.390
Related places
Site of the earliest commercial centre in Bendigo, near the Government Camp Early shops and commercial properties on the goldfields Produce markets Early hotels Properties associated with Chinese merchants and commercial activity Manufactories-cum-retail outlets Original/early Myer retail properties Other important retailers and their properties
5.4 Exhibiting Greater Bendigo’s innovation and products
The breadth of inventions and innovations in manufacturing in the municipality covers foodstuffs, farming machinery, building technology and engineering.391 The economics of mining, to locate and extract gold at greater and greater depths, required ever more sophisticated equipment, different mining procedures and increased capital expenditure. The Royal Commission of 1889 recommended the Victorian government offer premiums for the invention of appliances or techniques to lessen operational costs. Inventions could be associated with extraction, timbering, ventilation, hauling, fuel or explosives.392
Innovations date back to the mid-nineteenth century and continue through to the present. Examples include the use of Robert Alexander Love’s cavity walls in house construction, introduced to Greater Bendigo in the 1860s and believed to be their first application in Victoria after being invented in Britain 20 years earlier; Leggo’s famous brand of foodstuffs, founded in Eaglehawk in the 1890s; and John Donnellan’s invention of the starting machine for horse races in the 1890s.
Local inventors also made important contributions to advances in agriculture. In the period 1870-90, the need to settle the northern plains of the state has been attributed with driving innovation in agricultural technology in Victoria.393 One of the best-known innovations of this time was Hugh McKay’s combine-harvester of 1884, which combined the roles of reaper, thresher, winnower and bagger. McKay went on to found the Sunshine Harvester Company.
In the twentieth century, inventions and innovations include Four and Twenty Pies, founded in Bendigo in the late 1940s; Harold Abbotts ‘Barblok’, a military use barbed wire; the Chiko Roll in 1953; and Diana Williams’ Fernwood Women’s Health Club.394 Other recent innovations in Greater Bendigo include Altaus vertical wind turbine electricity generators; the establishment of Australia’s first egg-pulp pasteurisation plant; and the ‘Elbo’ do-it-yourself steel framing system.
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Related places
Sites and properties associated with inventions
5.5 Banking and finance
In the period 1851-60, Victoria produced one-third of world gold output.395 This was at a time when gold was the primary international standard of exchange; Europe, in recession in 1850, was also ready to seize any opportunity to expand into new markets.396 The hoarding of vast quantities of Californian and Victorian gold by banks in America, England and France provided a basis for currencies and financial systems around the globe, and supported a huge credit expansion that bankrolled world trade, shipping and manufacturing.397 Banks were amongst the most prominent early buildings in the commercial precincts of Sandhurst. A finance precinct developed on View Point Hill, with the construction in the 1850s of the Bank of New South Wales and Bank of Victoria.398
A number of building and investment societies were also established from the 1850s, including the Bendigo Mutual Permanent Land and Building Society (1858), Sandhurst Mutual Permanent Investment and Building Society (1881), Sandhurst Trustees (1887) and the Bendigo and Eaglehawk Starr-Bowkett Building Society (1901).399
By 1888 there were eight banks in Sandhurst. Surrounding communities, with much smaller populations, could have one or two branches. During the booming 1870s, many Sandhurst banks built lavish premises to reflect their financial clout and attract custom. In this vein, the Commercial Bank relocated from its 1860s premises on Pall Mall to a handsome new building in View Street.400
Today’s Bendigo Bank had its origins as the Bendigo Mutual Permanent Land and Building Society. Even from its earliest days, the institution was progressive, driven by a reforming ethic of equal access to funds to build a home and that all levels of society deserved decent housing.401 It provided financial assistance to the community through a shareholder system and funded construction of workers houses like miners’ cottages as a means of improving conditions on the goldfields. The building society had great financial clout in the city, and it eventually grew, particularly in the second half of the twentieth century, into one of Australia’s largest retail banks. When it converted to a bank in 1995, it was at that time Victoria’s largest and Australia's oldest building society.402 Bendigo Bank has also played a role in the growth of community banks, establishing pilot community banks in Victoria in 1998. This has grown to several hundred community banks across Australia.403
At one stage three lively stock exchanges were operating in Sandhurst, rivalling activity in Melbourne. The Bendigo Mining Exchange in the 1872 purpose-built Beehive Building on Pall Mall was equipped with a dedicated stock exchange hall, with stockbrokers’ offices on the first floor, and a retail arcade on the ground floor. Other exchanges operated from the Shamrock Hotel and at Eaglehawk.404
The Bendigo Mining Exchange is the earliest known surviving purpose-built stock exchange in Australia. Although trading in shares of mining and other companies occurred as early as 1852 in Australian capital cities and provincial areas, the business of the exchanges was conducted in an ad hoc manner and quite commonly on the street. Trading in Melbourne, at the time the Beehive Building was constructed in Sandhurst, was still being conducted ‘under the verandah’ and in the Hall of Commerce on Collins Street. The Bendigo Mining Exchange is also regarded as a possible model, through its combination of offices, exchange hall and arcade, for other provincial mining exchanges. Ballarat, the only other surviving purpose- built mining exchange in Victoria, was constructed in 1887-89 and has strong similarities with Bendigo.405
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Figure 43 Former Royal Bank, Bendigo, established in 1908. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1332)
Figure 44 Former Bank of Victoria, Eaglehawk, built 1881. Source: National Trust Citation, File No B3876, Victorian Heritage Database
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Prosperity in Victoria gave way to a bank and property collapse in the 1890s; banks closed, British investment dried up and immigration slowed. In 1893 the suspension of payments at the Commercial Bank in Bendigo was the first financial shock to hit the city.406 As elsewhere in Victoria, recovery came in the first decade of the twentieth century.
With the decline of mining in the early twentieth century, the economies of former mining towns gradually adjusted to new sources of revenue including manufacturing, service industries and agriculture.
Related places
Commercial precincts Main street enterprises Bank buildings and financial institutions Mining exchanges
5.6 Entertaining and socialising
One of the most significant meeting places established on the goldfields for workers and industry was the Bendigo Trades Hall. The Trades and Labour Council of Bendigo had formed in 1885, but it was only when the old court house on View Street was vacated that the Council was offered a more permanent location. The court house underwent some minor alterations and was opened as the Bendigo Trades Hall in 1896.407 In 1913 the Trades and Labour Council gave the old court house a purpose built two storey frontage.408
The more popular mode of socialising on the goldfields was drinking and hotels and licensed public houses were also amongst the first businesses. During the early days of the rushes, sale and manufacture of alcohol was banned on the goldfields but illegal grog tents did a roaring trade. The lack of readily available drinking water also made drinking an appealing pastime. Along with unlicensed miners, sly grog houses were hunted down by the Government Commissioners. According to Robyn Annear, officers received up to £25 for a successful sly grog conviction.409 Fines for operating a sly grog house were also increased.
The earliest hotels were, as with other buildings on the goldfields, very rudimentary, and tents and basic huts served the purpose. After prohibition was lifted in May 1854, a wave of hotels sprung up, immediately becoming the hub of goldfields social life. The number and rapid growth of hotels was phenomenal; by 1857, there were over 90 hotels in Sandhurst.410 The hotels were also multi-functional, providing entertainment spaces for concerts and dances, meeting rooms for clubs and lodges, venues for political meetings, and even sometimes accommodation for church services.411
Many hotels were constructed on main roads to the goldfields, and between towns, providing accommodation and food for travellers, and rest for horses, as with the Former Camp Hotel and Store in Woodvale (1868). The Redesdale Hotel and the Mia Mia Inn were also both important stopping places, as were the Heathcote Hotel and Knowsley Hotel. 412 Many were supplied by local breweries, including Elliott and Hill’s at Kangaroo Flat.413
After the 1870s, many Sandhurst hotels were also rebuilt, with the earlier utilitarian buildings replaced with more elaborate constructions. Bendigo’s famous Shamrock Hotel, for example, had several incarnations beginning with the 1854 hotel on the site, which was replaced by a hotel constructed in 1860 by Vahland and Getzshmann and then again in 1897 to a design by Philip Kennedy.414 As with the Shamrock, the replacement hotels were often architect designed. The Goldmines Hotel at Golden Square was designed by Vahland in 1872.
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Figure 45 Former Camp Hotel and Store, Woodvale, 1868. Source: Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, 2010
Figure 46 Goldmines Hotel, Golden Square. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 827)
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Other hotels were also shut down in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by the License Review Board, and after 1906, the Licences Reduction Board. In Heathcote alone 11 hotels were closed; these included the Ben Nevis Hotel (1854-55); Criterion Hotel (1858); Shamrock Hotel (c.1854-55); and the Northumberland Arms, Commercial and Family Hotels (c.1860).415
Hotels, as with churches, remain ubiquitous in Greater Bendigo. Many occupy prominent corners, with separate entrances to bars, dining rooms and accommodation. Their construction varies but some have, or had, outbuildings and stables, and yards for coaches and horses. Many historic hotels which long ago lost their licences have also been adapted to residential or other commercial uses.
Related places
Buildings and places associated with trade associations, councils and unions Early hotels Former and still operating hotels Hotel complexes comprising the main building, outbuildings, stables, and yards
291 Earth Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye Thematic History, Earth Tech Engineering for City of Greater Bendigo, 2002, p. 42.
292 Lovejoy, V, 'Depending Upon Diligence: Chinese at Work in Bendigo 1861-1881', in Journal of Historical and European Studies, Vol. 1, December 2007, p. 31.
293 Chinese Footsteps: Historical Sites of Bendigo – Links With the Chinese Community, Golden Dragon Museum, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p. 22.
294 Chinese Kiln and Market Garden, VHR citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/#detail_places;14222. Accessed 20 March 2013.
295 'Bendigo Agricultural and Horticultural Society Autumn Exhibition', The Argus, 23 March 1865, p. 5.
296 Dunstan, D, 'Viticulture and Winemaking in the Bendigo District in the 19th Century’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 209.
297 Dunstan, D, 'Viticulture and Winemaking in the Bendigo District in the 19th Century’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 209.
298 Bendigo Wine Region History, Bendigo Winegrowers Association. Available http://www.bendigowine.org.au/history.asp. Accessed 11 July 2011.
299 Dunstan, D, 'Viticulture and Winemaking in the Bendigo District in the 19th Century’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 209.
300 'Winemaking at Greiffenhagen's vineyard Axe Creek near Sandhurst', Illustrated Australian News, 10 June 1878, p. 103; Former Greiffenhagens Winery and Homestead, VHR citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/#detail_places;436. Accessed 20 March 2013.
301 James Halliday cited in Bendigo Wine Region History, Bendigo Winegrowers Association. Available: http://www.bendigowine.org.au/history.asp. Accessed 11 July 2011.
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302 Dunstan, D, 'Viticulture and Winemaking in the Bendigo District in the 19th Century’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 209.
303 Dunstan, D, 'Viticulture and Winemaking in the Bendigo District in the 19th Century’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 209.
304 Mackay, G, History of Bendigo, 1891, reprinted in 2000 by Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p. 177.
305 See Mackay, G, History of Bendigo, 1891, reprinted in 2000 by Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p. 177; and Shaw, M, Our Goodly Heritage: History of Huntly Shire, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1966, p. 66.
306 Shaw, M, Our Goodly Heritage: History of Huntly Shire, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1966, p. 67.
307 Bendigo Wine Region History, Bendigo Winegrowers Association. Available: http://www.bendigowine.org.au/history.asp. Accessed 11 July 2011.
308 Dunstan, D, 'Viticulture and Winemaking in the Bendigo District in the 19th Century’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 216.
309 'Bendigo Industries', The Argus, 7 August 1919, p. 17.
310 Limelight on Longlea 1877-1977, Back to Longlea Committee, n.p., n.p.
311 'Bendigo, Victoria' in State Savings Bank Notes, November 1930, p. 13.
312 'Bendigo Industries', The Argus, 7 August 1919, p. 17.
313 'Bendigo and District', The Argus, 12 October 1932, p. 10.
314 'Bendigo Tomatoes', The Argus, 1 November 1933, p. 18.
315 Thomas, J, The Century of Change: History of Marong and District, D G Walker, Kangaroo Flat, Vic, 1999, p. 41.
316 Webb, C and Quinlan, J, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District from 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, p. 238.
317 'City of Greater Bendigo. How is our economy structured? Agriculture Census', economy id., 2011. Available: http://economy.id.com.au/Default.aspx?id=134&pg=12350. Accessed 5 December 2011.
318 Rhule, B and Butcher, M, ‘Brewing in Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 137.
319 The Brewers of Australia. Available: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~englishsurname/EP_data/aus/bios/victoria/r aywood/stories/brewers.htm. Accessed 25 July 2011.
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320 Bruce, S, Beginning in Bendigo: from humble origins to a captured market, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Vic, 2011, pp. 4-5.
321 Rhule, B and Butcher, M, ‘Brewing in Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 140.
322 Rhule, B and Butcher, M, ‘Brewing in Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 146.
323 ‘Brewers and Brewing’, Encyclopedia of Melbourne online. Available: http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00232b.htm. Accessed 3 November 2011.
324 Rhule, B and Butcher, M, ‘Brewing in Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 147.
325 Bruce, S, Beginning in Bendigo: From Humble Origins to a Captured Market, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, 2011, p.6.
326 ‘Brewers and Brewing’, Encyclopedia of Melbourne online. Available: http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00232b.htm. Accessed 3 November 2011.
327 Fahey, C, ‘Flour Milling in the Bendigo District’, in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 105; Bendigo Advertiser 11 January 1890, p. 3.
328 Jones, L and P, The Flour Mills of Victoria 1840 – 1990: An Historical Record, The flour Millers’ Council of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic, 1990, p. 274; Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002, p. 43.
329 Jones, L and P, The Flour Mills of Victoria 1840 – 1990: An Historical Record, The flour Millers’ Council of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic, 1990, p. 274; Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002, p. 43.
330 Information provided by City of Greater Bendigo, May 2012.
331 Fahey, C, ‘Flour Milling in the Bendigo District’, in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 111.
332 Parsons, T G, Australian Economic History Review, pp. 137 – 138, as cited in Fahey, C, ‘Flour Milling in the Bendigo District’, in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 110.
333 Jones, L and P, The Flour Mills of Victoria 1840 – 1990: An Historical Record, The flour Millers’ Council of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic, 1990, p. 278.
334 Much of this information has been supplied by Fraser, Stuart, personal communication, 1 May 2012.
335 Mackay, G, History of Bendigo, 1891, reprinted in 2000 by Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p. 181.
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336 Webb, C and Quinlan, J, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District From 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, pp. 102 & 211.
337 Shaw, M, Our Goodly Heritage: History of Huntly Shire, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1966, p. 95.
338 Information provided at the City of Greater Bendigo Thematic Environmental History workshop, Heathcote, 26 May 2011.
339 Thomas, J, The Century of Change: History of Marong and District, D G Walker, Kangaroo Flat, Vic, 1999, p. 89.
340 'Bendigo Industries', The Argus, 7 August 1919, p. 17.
341 Huntly 126 Years: 1854 to 1860 A Chronicle of Events, Back-To-Huntly 1980 Committee, Huntly, Vic, 1980?, p. 16.
342 Webb, C and Quinlan, J, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District From 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, pp. 216.
343 Webb, C and Quinlan, J, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District From 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, pp. 215.
344 Webb, C and Quinlan, J, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District From 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, pp. 215.
345 Webb, C and Quinlan, J, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District From 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985, pp. 214 & 219.
346 'Heritage', Our Company, Hazeldene's, 2012. Available http://www.hazeldenes.com.au/pages/386/heritage. Accessed 9 May 2012.
347 Cutler, R, and Holyoak, P,'The Structure and Dynamics of the Pig Meat Industry', Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, May 2007, pp. 8-9; and Huntly 126 Years: 1854 to 1860 A Chronicle of Events, Back-To-Huntly 1980 Committee, 1980?, p. 66.
348 Hewat, T, Bridge Over Troubled Waters: A History of the Shire of Strathfieldsaye, Macmillan, Melbourne, Vic, 1983, p. 36.
349 Mackay, G, History of Bendigo, 1891, reprinted in 2000 by Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p. 123.
350 Mackay, G, History of Bendigo, 1891, reprinted in 2000 by Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p. 123.
351 Victorian Centenary Issue 1934-35: Bendigo Camera Pictures, Bolton Bros and Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1935?, n.p.
352 National Trust listing, for 47 Lansell St, Bendigo, Victorian Heritage Database.
353 Hewat, T, Bridge Over Troubled Waters: A History of the Shire of Strathfieldsaye, Macmillan, Melbourne, Vic, 1983, p. 26.
354 Butcher, M, ‘Tanning in the Bendigo District in the 19th Century’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, pp. 241- 2.
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355 Vines, G, ‘Abattoirs in Bendigo' in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, pp. 236-38.
356 'City of Greater Bendigo. How is our economy structured? Agriculture Census', economy id., 2011. Available http://economy.id.com.au/Default.aspx?id=134&pg=12350. Accessed 5 December 2011.
357 Collins, Yolande M J, ‘Introduction’, in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 2.
358 Bendigo Advertiser, 11 August 1855 as cited in Churchward, M S, ‘Bendigo’s Foundries and Engineering Works’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 33.
359 Churchward, M S, ‘Bendigo’s Foundries and Engineering Works’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 33.
360 Churchward, M S, ‘Bendigo’s Foundries and Engineering Works’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 34.
361 Churchward, M S, ‘Bendigo’s Foundries and Engineering Works’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 34.
362 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 7, unpaginated.
363 Churchward, M S, ‘Bendigo’s Foundries and Engineering Works’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 34.
364 Churchward, M S, ‘Bendigo’s Foundries and Engineering Works’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 46.
365 Golden City Implements, VHR citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/#detail_places;6047. Accessed 20 March 2013.
366 Butcher, M, ‘Safety Fuse and Powder Manufacture in Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 55.
367 Butcher, M, ‘Safety Fuse and Powder Manufacture in Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 55.
368 Butcher, M, ‘Safety Fuse and Powder Manufacture in Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 55.
369 Former Bendigo Gas Works, VHR citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/#detail_places;147. Accessed 20 February 2012.
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370 Institute of Engineers, Australia – Victoria Division, Bendigo Gasworks Commemorative Plaque Nomination 6 August 1995. Available: http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/Bendigo_Gasworks_Nomination.pdf. Accessed 1 June 2013.
371 Stuart, I and Butcher, M, ‘ Building Materials in Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 178.
372 Stuart, I and Butcher, M, ‘ Building Materials in Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 178.
373 Information provided by City of Greater Bendigo, May 2012.
374 Information provided by Daryl McClure, May 2012.
375 O’Hoy, D R, ‘from Gold to Clay: The Vicissitudes of the Bendigo Potteries 1857 – 2004’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, pp. 95-6. See also Bendigo Pottery, VHR citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/#detail_places;437. Accessed 19 February 2012.
376 Stuart, I and Butcher, M, ‘Building materials in Bendigo’ in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 177.
377 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 7, unpaginated.
378 Heritage of the Past, Bendigo Historical Society. Available: http://www.bendigohistory.com/heritage_of_the_past.shtml. Accessed 16 September 2011.
379 William Kelly as cited in Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, p. 11.
380 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, p. 11.
381 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, p. 13 and 17.
382 This store is believed to have been on Pall Mall, south of Mundy Street. Information provided in an email from Denis O’Hoy, 29 September 2011.
383 Hyslop, A, ‘Myer, Simcha Baevski (Sidney)’, in Australian Dictionary of Biography, at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/myer-simcha-baevski-sidney-7721. Accessed 19 February 2012.
384 Hyslop, A, ‘Myer, Simcha Baevski (Sidney)’, in Australian Dictionary of Biography, at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/myer-simcha-baevski-sidney-7721. Accessed 19 February 2012.
385 Former Bush’s Store, VHR citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/result_detail/5235?print=true. Accessed 19 February 2012.
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386 Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, Volume 2, Citations, ‘Former ‘Victoria Store’ 143-147 High Street, Kangaroo Flat’, prepared for City of Greater Bendigo, 2010.
387 Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, Volume 2, Citations, ‘Former Store and Premises, 57 Inglewood Street’, prepared for City of Greater Bendigo, 2010.
388 Lovejoy, V, 'Depending Upon Diligence: Chinese at Work in Bendigo 1861-1881' in Journal of Historical and European Studies, Vol. 1, December 2007, pp. 25-6.
389 Golden Dragon Museum, Chinese Footsteps: Historical Sites of Bendigo – Links with the Chinese Community, the Author, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p.43 and p. 55.
390 A Place of Commerce, Bendigo Historical Society. Available: http://www.bendigohistory.com/place_of_commerce.shtml. Accessed 25 July 2011.
391 This overview is based on information contained in ‘Did you know?’ (n.d.), a pamphlet produced by the Bendigo Historic Society Inc, and copy provided by City of Greater Bendigo. More information on local inventions and innovations is contained in the pamphlet.
392 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2002, p. 188.
393 Parsons, T G, 'Some Notes on Technological Innovation in the Victorian Agricultural Implement and Machinery Industry 1870 to 1890', Victorian Historical Journal 53, no 2 and 3, 1982, p. 131.
394 Bruce, S, Beginning in Bendigo: from humble origins to a captured market, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Vic, 2011.
395 Davison, G, Hirst J, and Macintyre, S, The Oxford Companion to Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Vic, 1999, p. 284.
396 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 1, unpaginated.
397 Lennon, J, 'Victorian Gold – World Heritage Status?' in Bendigo: Nothing But Gold 150 Years of Gold Mining, Conference Papers 27-28 October 2001, p. 45.
398 A Place of Commerce, Bendigo Historical Society. Available: http://www.bendigohistory.com/place_of_commerce.shtml. Accessed 25 July 2011.
399 Mayne, A, Building the Village: A History of Bendigo Bank, Wakefield Press, South Australia, 2008, p. 59.
400 Former Commercial Bank, Bendigo, VHR citation, at: http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;140. Accessed 16 September 2011.
401 Bendigo Advertiser, ‘Bendigo Bank: Together we celebrate 150 years 1858 – 2008’, special supplement, 9 July 2008, pp. 16-19. Available: http://www.bendigobank.com.au/public/about_us/150th_anniversary.asp. Accessed 21 March 2013.
402 See http://www.bendigo.ws/Our-History/Local-History/Bendigo-Bank.html. Accessed 19 February 2012.
403 ‘Did you know?’ (n.d.), a pamphlet provided by City of Greater Bendigo containing information from the Bendigo Historic Society Inc.
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404 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 7, unpaginated.
405 Allom Lovell & Associates, Bendigo Mining Exchange Conservation Management Plan, October 2001.
406 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 7, unpaginated.
407 Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, p. 21.
408 Bendigo Trades Hall, VHR citation, at: http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;5227. Accessed 21 March 2013.
409 Annear, R, Nothing but Gold: The Diggers of 1852, Text Publishing Company, Melbourne, Vic, 1999, p. 300.
410 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 4, unpaginated.
411 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 4, unpaginated.
412 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002, p. 60; Flett, J, Old Pubs: Inns, Taverns and Grog-Houses on the Victorian Diggings, the Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, Vic, 1979, p. 7; Information provided by Heathcote McIvor Historical Society, May 2012.
413 Flett, J, Old Pubs: Inns, Taverns and Grog-Houses on the Victorian Diggings, the Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, Vic, 1979, p. 8.
414 Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, pp.35-36; Hotel Shamrock, ‘The Hotel Shamrock, Bendigo: History of an Icon’, p. 2. Available at http://www.hotelshamrock.com.au/. Accessed 31 May 2013.
415 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002, p. 62.
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6.0 Theme 6: Building towns, cities and the Greater Bendigo area
Figure 47 Typical Bendigo residence Source: Steven Abbott, City of Greater Bendigo, 2013.
Squatting brought about changes to the Greater Bendigo landscape, followed by the gradual survey and sale of squatters’ land into smaller allotments and the evolving delineation of the landscape into freehold land, productive country, and reserved Crown land. The initial inward push into the region was to exploit the possibilities of a pastoral industry but the pressure for urbanisation was instigated by residents of the goldfields and primarily determined through the exploitation of mining. The surveys of Sandhurst and surrounding towns drawn by Richard Larritt, allowed for wide malls, sweeps of terraces, large lots and reserves for parks and gardens, envisaging the future Bendigo on a grand scale. These plans were eventually realised by architects and builders, many of whom were migrants, in the magnificent civic, religious and commercial architecture of the urban areas, built around the grand residential dwellings of mining magnates and prominent citizens, and the vernacular, working class, cottages of miners who first settled in the creek and alluvial gullies seeking their fortunes.
6.1 Establishing settlement in the Greater Bendigo Municipality
The first European settlers were ‘squatters’ who came to the Greater Bendigo municipality in 1838, establishing runs on river and creek frontages in the higher rainfall areas of the south and south-east. Henry Munro, with stock and assigned convicts in tow, claimed an area of about 40,000 acres in early 1838. The run was divided into two in later years: Spring Plains and Campaspe, later Coliban Estate. Charles Hutton followed what was known as the Major's
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Line, the wheel tracks left by New South Wales Surveyor General on his 1836 expedition, to take up Campaspe Plains in July 1838. The run took in the Coliban and Campaspe Rivers, as well as numerous creeks. Mount Alexander no.2 run, now known as Ravenswood, was taken up on the Bendigo and Bullock creeks, initially by Charles Sherratt in 1840.416
Squatters built huts and outstations, yards, hurdles and fences. Bark sheeting was used for the rudimentary buildings, as was timber. Some squatters used pit saws to cut timber. The first fences used stone, where available, but many were chock and log fences, and brush fences. Shearing sheds and sheep dips were also built; later examples include a shed and dip at Kamarooka built by the Hay family in the late 1890s.417
The shift to more permanent settlement was encouraged by measures enacted to control squatting. The 1847 Order in Council promised fourteen-year leases and the introduction of pre-emptive rights enabled squatters to purchase 640 acres on runs at the minimum ‘upset’ price of £1 per acre. In Greater Bendigo, squatters purchased multiple contiguous allotments along rivers and creeks, thereby securing a monopoly along watercourses.
Auctions of Crown land occurred in parts of Victoria from 1851 and locally on the Campaspe Plains station from 1854-56. In areas of high demand, such as the goldfields, prices realised at auction were often higher the minimum, ‘upset’, minimum price of £1 per acre. Thomas Robertson, lessee of the Campaspe Plains station, purchased a large number of blocks along the Campaspe River from Barnadown to Elmore.418 These blocks were located on the east bank of the river, but Robertson also established his Break O' Day farm on the opposite bank, where he built Campaspe Park on the newly acquired freehold land.419
More substantial homesteads and buildings began to be built in this period, replacing the temporary constructions of earlier runs. Surviving evidence of this phase of settlement includes the former Axedale station homestead, now Marydale, and Mount Camel station buildings.
Figure 48 Campaspe Park homestead, earliest component of which dates from 1860, built for Thomas Robertson. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 459).
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The Campaspe Plains homestead, built by 1848 but now a sandstone ruin, and the graves of Mary Lumsden Patterson (d. 10 June 1852) and Katharine Patterson (d. 14 September 1852) are located on a private property on the Heathcote-Bendigo Road.420 The complex at Ravenswood includes a stone chapel, manager's residence, huts, granite woolshed and granite sheep wash in Bullock Creek and the brick homestead is now bed and breakfast accommodation. A substantial shearing shed remains at Marong.
The intention of squatters was to produce raw material for foreign markets; their focus was not a local one, but a profit-driven broader view. Others came with very different intentions. From 1854, Rev Henry Backhaus purchased township blocks in Sandhurst, as well as investing in holdings, including over 5,000 acres of land on the Campaspe River.421 Backhaus leased the land to Irish Catholic farmers in order 'to further the interests of religion in this quarter and encourage a permanent settlement of Catholics in all these vicinities'.422
With a decline in alluvial gold, and the high price of land, people began to demand that land be freed from the squatter’s hold. The sale of crown land had not broken the political and social dominance of the squatters and accordingly a series of Crown Land Selection Acts were enacted in the colony in the 1860s. These Land Acts aimed to create small ‘selector’ holdings which could be settled by yeomen farmers and the colony’s burgeoning population.
Despite Land Acts of 1860, 1862 and 1865, alienated land stayed largely in the hands of the squatters. Squatters retained the most productive land by having nominal ‘dummy’ selectors apply on their behalf, to fulfill the residency conditions. ‘Peacocking’ was another technique used; squatters would select the most productive holdings, ‘picking out the eyes’ and leaving the surrounding farm land less viable. Archibald McLean employed both dummying and peacocking to freehold the permanent water holes on his Kimbolton run in the 1860s.423
It was a combination of factors that prompted many squatters to sell up and leave: drought conditions from strong El Niño events in 1866 and 1868, a fall in wool prices, and the opening up of all unalienated land with the 1869 Land Act. In 1870, nine-year leases expired and those leases that still remained were cancelled.
Related places
The first pre-emptive rights Sites, buildings and structures associated with pastoralism, early runs and leases Buildings, structures, fences and landscapes associated with the establishment of pastoralism Homesteads at Ravenswood, Adelaide Vale, Mount Camel and Marydale Graves on former runs on private property Sites and properties associated with the earliest Crown land auctions, sales and selections Buildings and sites associated with Rev Henry Backhaus
6.2 Creating Bendigo
The name for the local goldfield came from the Bendigo Creek on Ravenswood Run where gold was thought to be first discovered in the Greater Bendigo municipality.424 The creek itself, it was thought, was named after a shepherd who worked on Ravenswood Run and was ‘known to be an accomplished bruiser, and had been called "Bendigo" after the celebrated English prize-fighter of that name’.425 Officially, the goldfield was named Castleton on 8 December 1852, only a few months after the discovery of gold was publicised.426 The name Castleton was rescinded less than two months later, in favour of the name Sandhurst for the area at the ‘junction of Bendigo Creek and the Golden Gully, Mount Alexander’.427 Many of the officers stationed at the Government Camp trained at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in England and this is possibly where the name originated.428
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The municipality was known as Sandhurst for nearly four decades. The debate about the original and most suitable name was reignited in 1889 by the Royal Commission on Gold Mining. The commission was to investigate the gold mining industry in the region and, amongst other issues, considered who was responsible for the first discovery of gold. The name issue took on a life of its own in the Bendigo Advertiser and was resolved well before the Commission made its report to Parliament in late 1891. A group of prominent citizens met with the Council on 5 September 1890 with the result that the City of Sandhurst petitioned to have the name of the municipality changed.429 Others argued that it should be the decision of the ratepayers and the matter was put to poll on 28 April 1891, with the overwhelming majority in favour of the change to ‘Bendigo’.430 The City of Sandhurst’s petition was granted on 8 May 1891 and the municipality became known as the City of Bendigo, making it one of the few cities in the world named by the choice of the populace.431
In the early 1850s thousands of people moved across the current municipal landscape naming hills, valleys, creeks and tracks, and starting and abandoning small settlements, determined largely by the demands and requirements of mining. Government surveys often followed, giving some order or structure to the development of towns and settlements. The surveys mapped out the towns’ physical dimensions, limits of settlement, and areas for growth, and established the layout and arrangement of streets and suburbs. Larger towns and settlements – or those expected to grow into larger towns – also had reserves set aside for courthouses, police stations and lock-ups, post offices and town halls, churches, schools and hospitals, sports grounds, and in some cases public and botanic gardens. These surveys were historic town plans, which can still be read and interpreted through the surviving buildings and streetscapes of many towns today. Central Bendigo’s outstanding public buildings and reserves, particularly in the area around Pall Mall and View Street, are an obvious result of this early town planning.
By the early 1850s, Bendigo Flat was ‘a village of shanties, calico largely predominating, the streets unformed, and, in winter, on a sea of mud’.432 In 1854, government surveyors began the task of straightening out crooked tracks and imposing order on the crude development of the diggings, and formalising the township layout. The formal survey and layout of Sandhurst was commenced in 1854 by Surveyor General Andrew Clarke and his team.433 However, the earliest surviving maps of Bendigo are all attributed to Englishman, Richard Larritt.
Richard William Larritt was only 29 years old when he migrated to Australia from England in 1849.434 Larritt’s training is unknown, but after only a few short years in Victoria, he was appointed the Assistant Surveyor and he had already completed several area surveys before being assigned to Sandhurst. After a year surveying the goldfields, Larritt was made the District Surveyor in 1855 and three years later he took up residence in the purpose built surveyor’s office and residence, the Former District Lands Office in View Street.435 Within five years, Larritt would become the Inspector General of Roads and Bridges in Victoria, as well as the Chief Mining Surveyor. Larritt would seem to have had a remarkable career and yet in 1868 he was retrenched and in 1869, twenty years after he arrived in the colony, Larritt died at only 49 years of age.
Beginning with the design for the streets and settlement of the township, Larritt formally arranged the nucleus of Sandhurst’s central business district, which today consists of approximately 20 blocks. The focus of commercial, business and civic activity was to be Pall Mall, Bridge, McCrae, Hargreaves and View streets.
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Figure 49 Plan of Portion A, Township of Sandhurst on Bendigo Creek Source: State Library of Victoria
Larritt used the standard colonial grid to define a symmetrical balanced townscape but with unique features such as precincts with formal wide streets such as Pall Mall, curved terraces such as Lyttleton Terrace and large lot sizes.436 Included in his surveys, Larritt also reserved areas close to the centre for government purposes, as well as for a hospital and benevolent home.Residential growth and settlement was the next stage of town planning addressed by Larritt, and from 1854 to 1858, he surveyed urban and suburban growth in Sandhurst, west of the Government Camp around Barkly Terrace and north to White Hills, Golden Square, Kangaroo Flat, Ironbark and Long Gully. The physical boundaries of the growing district were delineated in a traditional manner with stone plinths, or boundary stones. The stones were marked with their territory, ‘S[andhurst] M[unicipal] B[orough]’, and numbered, with grooves to show the directions to adjacent stones. To establish the boundaries and know the area they governed, councillors would ‘beat’ the boundaries by walking from post to post. Larritt assisted in at least one ‘beating the boundaries’ ceremony.437 Several of the boundary stones have been located and some remain in their original positions.438
Richard Larritt also surveyed goldfield towns in the surrounding area. This included Lockwood, Marong, Goornong, Barnadown, Shelbourne and Axedale. In laying out these townships, Larritt is thought to have drawn inspiration from places such as Edinburgh, Bath and London but diaries retained in Larritt’s family do not conclusively confirm that he ever visited these cities.439 It is more likely that it was the Surveyor General, Captain Andrew Clarke, who provided design inspiration and guidance to Larritt as both his superior and mentor.440
Even from the earliest goldrushes, issues with water were evident.
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Figure 50 Conservatory Gardens, Bendigo, today. Source: Lovell Chen archives
In his early plans for Sandhurst, Larritt left an area around Bendigo creekline, preserving it from development despite strong resistance amongst the council and residents. In his last survey in 1858 of Bendigo valley, Larritt accurately foresaw the need for water provision and storage and drew a series of reservoirs to the south of Bendigo valley. In the same survey, Larritt also made provision for infrastructure for transport, setting aside land for a rail connection and station to the township.
Larritt’s surveys of Sandhurst and the area are a legacy that ‘provided the framework for something on a grander scale’.441 This legacy was already evident only two decades following Larritt’s death: by 1888, it was reported that the streets of Sandhurst were ‘well formed, are kerbed and channelled, and the footpaths asphalted’.442
Public parks and gardens were seen as a means of alleviating the unhealthy conditions of industrialised cities. By providing pleasant gardens of exotic species people of different backgrounds and classes could mix and take their recreation.443 In the goldfields, the establishment of parks and gardens faced several barriers. These included an unreliable water supply, and the economic imperative of mining potentially auriferous ground. As a consequence, the first parks on the goldfields were not developed until the 1860s, when water was also more readily available in some areas.444
The first major park developed in the Sandhurst area was the 15 acres of land permanently reserved in 1861 at White Hills, for Botanical Gardens purposes.445 Little formal cultivation occurred until the 1870s, when Ferdinand von Mueller, government botanist and curator of Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens, laid out the gardens with various native and exotic species.446
Establishing parklands was also a means of transforming worked-over mining landscapes. The establishment of Lake Weeroona transformed degraded areas of the Bendigo Creek. In 1878 William Guilfoyle, the recently appointed director of Melbourne’s Royal Botanic
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Gardens, was commissioned to design what was then referred to as the Nolan Street Reserve. Guilfoyle submitted plans to Council which provided for 1,600 trees to be planted, including Bunya Pine, fig and varieties of pine trees.447
The provision of a more permanent water supply in the 1870s with the Coliban Water Scheme encouraged the establishment of parks and gardens in Eaglehawk, Heathcote, Axedale, Axe Creek, Mia Mia, Marong and Maiden Gully. By the early twentieth century, councils were moving away from formally landscaped gardens, to natural bushland parks and flora and fauna reserves. Within the municipality, these include reserves at Spring Gully Creek, Lake Neangar, Lake Tom Thumb, McIvor Creek, Heathcote and Axedale.
Beautification of Sandhurst was also a priority and municipal authorities recognised the importance of street planting. By the turn of the nineteenth century, around 100 miles of streets and roads in the goldfields have been planted with elms as well as sugar gum, blue gum and ironbark trees.448 Many of these trees survive today lining roads around the city.
Related places
Features likes malls and terraces associated with early town planning Buildings associated with the establishment of Bendigo and surrounding towns Boundary stones Early public parks, botanical gardens and ferneries Built infrastructure of gardens Public parks and reserves including bushland and flora and fauna reserves Street trees
6.3 Shaping the suburbs
In amongst the township of Sandhurst that was planned and surveyed, survive older settlement areas of the Bendigo goldfields. Miners’ cottages can still be seen that do not face the current road alignment, but instead front the track that once existed to the nearby diggings. An aerial view of today’s Bendigo reveals the distinguishing development characteristic of the distribution of suburban settlement in lines and clusters. An early map from 1853 by Alfred Selwyn, Geological Surveyor, indicates why this pattern occurred.449 At the top edge of the map Selwyn has meticulously marked in the ‘auriferous quartz veins’ that run on a north-south alignment through the southern edge of the Bendigo goldfields. Clustering around the gullies for alluvial gold and then later following the quartz reef lines, the suburbs of Sandhurst were shaped by the geology of mining.
In the early years of the gold rush, it was the gullies and the possibility of alluvial gold finds that determined the miners’ settlement patterns. The Bendigo Creek valley, where the first gold find occurred, and gullies in its watershed were the areas that saw the most development from 1851 to 1855, as miners worked over these sites.450 These early settlements were constructed of canvas shelter and tents, arranged around the diggings with no order, being mobile structures to suit the transient nature of the search for gold. Some temporary buildings were extended with additions such as lean-to kitchens, chimneys and log rooms, showing a tendency towards more established dwellings by some miners.451
As settlements in and around Sandhurst became more permanent, the residential pattern transitioned from canvas towns to more durable buildings. Miners’ cottages, with their utilitarian design and lack of decoration, became more visible and predominant. In Sandhurst alone, the 1861 census records some 484 single roomed dwellings, 784 dwellings that had at least two rooms and 717 buildings that had three to four rooms.452
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Figure 51 Geological Sketch of the Country in the Vicinity of Mt Alexander by A. R. Selwyn, Geolol. Survr. for the Colony of Victoria, 1853 Source: Department of Environment and Primary Industries
An emergent wealthy class of mining managers and magnates was already evident in this first decade. Some 178 dwellings reported in the 1861 Census had more than five rooms, there were 131 buildings with more than six rooms, and a significant number of these Sandhurst residences were constructed of brick and stone.453
Mining magnates such as George Lansell lived in residences, such as Fortuna Villa that were literally on the top of their source of wealth. During the 1870s and 1880s, the pattern of building on the hills and heights of Bendigo to display mining wealth was imitated by the professional and commercial classes, forming an ‘elite suburbia’.454 A streetscape view of Bendigo today shows how the suburban settlement pattern was driven by the economy of mining, with the architectural grandeur in the heights alongside the functional miners’ cottages in the gullies.
Towns such as Eaglehawk, Kangaroo Flat, White Hills and Epsom all initially developed because of their proximity to alluvial gold. Eaglehawk began as a significant gold settlement, with a major rush after gold was discovered in 1852. Within three years, the population had risen to 20,000.455 In this early period, the roads and tracks of Eaglehawk were haphazard, following gullies and dodging alluvial workings. Residences were typically tents, replaced by small cottages as miners settled more permanently in clusters around the centres of mining activity.456 The township formed around a triangular centre lined with shops and hotels, from which the roads to Sandhurst forked off. Eaglehawk was eager to assert its independent identity, and at one stage locals proposed the construction of a toll on the road between the two centres.457 Quartz reef mining was also successfully established at Eaglehawk, its profits contributing to the construction of the elegant villas and handsome public buildings for which it is known.458
Some places such as Kangaroo Flat grew faster than others, trading off the patterns of boom and bust on the goldfields. Kangaroo Flat was established in the 1850s on the extremities of the Bendigo goldfields. It soon became a township in its own right with a post office, and
LOVELL CHEN 2013 109 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 by 1858 was a stopping place on the Cobb & Co. coach route from Melbourne. Although there was some early mining in the developing township, it was not until the early 1870s that extensive mining began in the area. Suburban development in towns like Kangaroo Flat was supported by the establishment of the transport routes, with the ubiquitous hotels and churches following, and the later development of community buildings such as schools and health facilities. The first church services were held in Kangaroo Flat in 1854 and the state school opened as a church school in 1870.459
Other settlements such as White Hills initially supported large populations of miners but faded to small hamlets, with populations numbering less than one hundred by 1860.460 Epsom also started with a large mining population, but by 1860 had less than one hundred people.461 The community held fast, however, and in 1885 the township of Epsom in the Parish of Sandhurst was proclaimed.462
Further outlying suburbs began as centres in agricultural districts, as a social and commercial focus of their areas; Junortoun, Mandurang and Huntly are all examples. The survey of these towns often provided an impetus for development, as opposed to gold centres which were surveyed and formally laid out after mining activity commenced. Huntly, for example, was surveyed by Charles W Russell in 1854. The streets were laid out on a diagonal grid and surrounded to the east and west by small farming allotments.463
Suburbs associated with Bendigo may have developed due to different pressures but the communities prospered or declined in response to economic and industrial changes. Suburbs such as Ironbark grew around the focal point of activity – the mines – which provided employment, livelihood, and social cohesion. When reefs were exhausted, the once lively communities were often left with abandoned mines, a fact which could significantly impact on the community.464
Measures taken by state and local government began to improve former goldfields in urban and suburban areas for residents. A shaft-filling program, conducted by the Mines Department between 1935 and the 1970s, resulted in some 100,000 shafts being filled in the Bendigo Mining District, including the Heathcote Division.465 In the 1950s the Victorian government set up the Soil Conservation Authority to improve soil and erosion management practices. The rehabilitation of mullock heaps in goldfields areas accelerated during the 1960s, with the heaps stabilised through planting of pampas grass and peppercorn trees. By 1960, municipal councils were rehabilitating the surface of mining scars, removing the Deborah sand dump in Breen Street, the Garibaldi-North Old Chum dumps, the Unity dump in Bennett Street, and the Lazarus dump in Lily Street. In the 1950s and 1960s mining wastlelands around Carlisle United and Garden Gully were rehabilitated to provide sites for low cost government housing and facilities for aged cared and charity organisations.466
In 1968, the state government increased funding for reclamation of mining land. By 1975, the Bendigo and Eaglehawk land reclamation committees had instigated projects to preserve sites for their mining heritage but also to create useable public open space at Long Gully, California Gully, Birds Reef, the Virginia and Hicks Street sand heaps, and the Chum and Thistle Street sand heaps.467
Related places
Buildings associated with the establishment of suburbs Low cost buildings and suburbs associated with rehabilitated mine sites Reserves and open space associated with rehabilitated mine sites
6.4 Living in country towns
Settlements in the Greater Bendigo municipality expanded throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. Towns such as Marong, Sebastian, Myer’s Flat and Heathcote followed a
110 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 similar patter to Sandhurst, developing because of their proximity to alluvial gold. Within a year of discovery of gold at McIvor Creek, government buildings had been constructed at the police camp overlooking the goldfield.468 By the end of 1853, there was a gold office, courthouse, storerooms, offices, barracks and stables. The goldfield was renamed Heathcote in September 1854. Some settlements developed around gold mining, and disappeared after the initial rush petered out, but others like Heathcote eventually grew into substantial towns and municipal centres.
Many gold towns declined significantly with the cessation of alluvial mining activity or closure of local mines, but some towns, such as Sebastian, sustained mining for a longer period. Cyanide treatment operations in Sebastian, for instance, continued to recover gold until their closure at the declaration of World War Two.469 Some towns adopted the name of the local mine, like Costerfield, which came from ‘Coster, Field and Company’, the company involved in local antimony mining. Even when settlers stayed after the initial rush passed, involved in later phases of mining, engaged in commercial pursuits, or having selected Crown land under the various Land Acts, many settlements still declined in population and activity over time. This has resulted in some settlements retaining, despite declining populations, buildings that evidence nineteenth century patterns of occupation and activity. Raywood was established in 1863 and retains a former Municipal Hall and hotels, as well as shops and a post office. 470 Country towns served as a focal point for surrounding communities, providing a place of meeting, commerce and exchange. Elmore was associated with the wheat farming surrounding it; Goornong with cropping; Woodvale was historically associated with mixed farming and dairying. A number of smaller towns on the periphery of the goldfields developed around river crossings. Axedale was built around the notoriously hazardous Campaspe River, subject to extreme changes in flow and speed.471 The town by the 1850s included a school and hotels, and a temporary bridge opened in 1857, with more permanent bridges following.472 Barnadown was also a river crossing. Mia Mia and Redesdale developed on either side of the 1868 bridge, which crosses the Campaspe River.
The major transport routes of the goldfields provided a steady stream of customers for enterprising commercial businesses, including stores and inns. Many of these stopping points developed into towns. Lockwood, together with Lockwood South, was a thriving community on the main routes from Melbourne and Maldon. The first post office in Lockwood opened in January 1855 and by the early 1860s, a shire hall and council offices had also been constructed in what was a seat of municipal government, until superseded by Marong. Gold was later discovered in the area in 1863.473 Today, very little physical fabric survives at Lockwood and Lockwood South evidencing the significant history of these settlements; some of which, such as Happy Jack’s Emporium, is also highly modified.474
Later modes of transport, including railways, also influenced growth. Development of rail transport was a great boon to some towns, providing access to markets. From 1891, Redesdale was the terminus for a branch line from the Melbourne-Murray River Railway, between Kyneton and Malmsbury stations.
Related places
Ghost settlements and temporary goldfields towns Remnants of early settlements, including historic hotels, churches and main streets Early seats of local government and former municipal centres Public buildings reserves Other town reserves and planned public spaces
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6.5 Marking significant phases in development of settlements, towns and cities475
Vernacular buildings: rough timbers and mud
From the 1850s, the Bendigo goldfields were noted for the vernacular building activity, including the use of mud brick, adobe, and log construction. Log-built diggers’ huts were recorded as early as 1852. An account from that year describes structures ‘built of solid trunks of trees laid horizontally … The logs are notched at the corners, and the interstices daubed with clay … The roofs of these are almost flat, covered with sheets of bark, with logs on the bark to keep it down’.476
Relatively few early log constructions survive in Victoria but some buildings and ruins exist in Greater Bendigo. These include the log structure at Viewbank, Summerfield (after 1884) which was possibly a food store, the complex of three log constructions at the former Francis Harritable homestead in Sebastian (1860s-70s), Christian Pedersen’s building at Drummartin (1874) and several squared-log lock-ups attached to police stations or courthouses (1860s and later). 477 One of these log lock-ups survives, the Eaglehawk Court House, and is one of the last constructions of its type in Victoria.
Mud brick or earthen construction is one of Australia’s least documented vernacular building techniques but it was common to Sandhurst and the goldfields. Before the goldrushes, there is no evidence of mud brick being used in Australia. It was a technique that possibly came with miners as they migrated from other goldfields like California. Adobe constructions were often referred to as ‘German’ houses, since German settlers in South Australia were known to use adobe from the 1830s.478 The term ‘German brick’ was also used in Cornish settlements in South Australia, to describe a brick of wet earth, limestone and straw. Cornish miners travelled for the Bendigo goldfields from South Australia and this may explain how mud brick building techniques came to Greater Bendigo.
There are a number of extant mud brick buildings, including a particularly high concentration in Woodvale. There are the two structures at the Flett farmstead on Daly’s Road and the former Kelly farm house on Caldow Road. There is the also the mud brick dairy building on the former Monmore property.
Related places
Vernacular buildings and structures Early buildings made of logs, mud brick, earthern or adobe material
From timber to brick
Sandhurst had a high proportion of timber buildings in the mid-nineteenth century. As the town prospered, and sometimes due to destruction by fire, these early buildings were rebuilt in brick in the late nineteenth century and again in the twentieth century. The brick structures that succeeded the early timber buildings were usually just as plain as their timber prototypes.
Early photographs of commercial development in Sandhurst, Golden Square, Kangaroo Flat and Eaglehawk show almost entirely timber streetscapes. Building frontages were marked out in bold signage, high ‘name’ parapets and lean-to timber verandahs.479 Surviving images of hotels, general stores and other small commercial and public buildings, show they were timber-framed, weatherboard clad structures with shingle and then galvanised iron roofing, gabled to the street. Parapets were often built up in front to give a two-storeyed effect; two-storey timber buildings were less common.480
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Figure 52 St Kilian’s Church, Bendigo. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1341)
Examples include the Royal Mail Hotel at Maiden Gully, Reservoir Hotel at Crusoe, Queen’s Head Hotels in Lockwood and the White Horse Hotel in Sebastian. When replaced with brick, these buildings included a feature that become a Greater Bendigo signature and that was header bricks angled to create a dog-tooth effect.
Small timber churches were constructed in the 1850s and were typically simple timber buildings, with two bays to indicate a chancel or vestry. Examples include the small Anglican churches at Bagshot, Sebastian (demolished) and Campbell’s Forest (1909).481 One or two room schools and public halls were also built in simple timber forms. All of these buildings reflect a continuing, very basic approach to the design and construction of small institutional and public buildings in the municipality.
An exception to this pattern is William Vahland’s St Kilian’s Catholic Church in McCrae Street, Sandhurst (1888), which is regarded as one of the largest timber buildings in Australia.482 It replaced an earlier sandstone church built on land that had subsided due to mining.483
Small timber churches were replaced by brick buildings in the 1870s and 1880s, sometimes in the same design, but in red brick. These brick institutional buildings often had bichrome treatments at corners and window-heads, with triangular roof vents for churches, and cylindrical vents for schools and halls. A series of churches like this were built around Sandhurst in the 1860s and 1870s. This included John O’Brien’s St Augustine’s Church at Myers Flat (1864), which had an imposing bell-cote and broad-staggered buttresses, William Vahland’s Holy Trinity Anglican Church (1874) in exposed face brick with angled corner buttresses and J M Brady’s stuccoed Catholic Church (1875), both at Marong.484
Related places
Early timber buildings Replacement brick buildings
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Figure 53 Stone miner’s cottage, former Samson family residence, Golden Square. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 2231).
Miners’ cottages and residential areas
The Miner’s Right was introduced in 1855 to resolve issues with the gold licensing system on the Victorian goldfields, but it was a more complex concept that fundamentally affected the residential patterns in Greater Bendigo.485 By granting miners political representation, the Miner’s Right also entitled miners the right to dig for gold on land they were now allowed to own – a Residential Area. By 1857, the residence area was increased to a quarter acre. After 1865, the residence area could be registered and sold together with any improvements, for example, house, garden, sheds and fencing. These residence areas, some owned by mine laborers, others by miners who subsisted from their own block, also have a distinctive material culture associated with the settlement blocks.486
There are numerous examples of miners’ cottages and modest simple workers’ dwellings across the municipality. Miners’ cottages were constructed in residential areas associated with mines, including on Miner’s Rights blocks, within the boundaries of mining leases, on hills overlooking mining operations and in nearby towns and settlements.487 Many were constructed in the 1860s before the streets were surveyed and it is not uncommon for them to be skewed at an angle on their blocks, not facing later street alignment.488 The cottages were vernacular buildings and reflected the traditions of house construction that immigrants brought with them and transplanted to the goldfields. Common characteristics include timber, brick and stone construction materials, single or double gabled building forms, skillion-roofed kitchens with brick chimneys, and simple timber verandahs with skillion roofs. The cottages were unadorned, of modest height, with typically a central entrance off the street and under the verandah, and symmetrically placed timber-framed windows.
Related places
Miner’s cottages Residence Area blocks and structures associated with miner’s rights
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Figure 54 Golden City Implements, formerly Central Foundry, Eaglehawk Road, Ironbark Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1877).
Industrial buildings
Industrial buildings in Greater Bendigo were often simply built with timber frames and weatherboard or corrugated iron cladding. Some were quite inventive in adapting the massing, or the arrangement of the shape of the structure, to the specifics of the industrial processes. Examples include the stamper grater works at Epsom (c.1900) and McKenzie’s Tomato seed extraction works at Marong (1942).489
Other examples include eucalyptus oil distilleries like Hooper’s at Patchy Flat (pre 1914), a ruin with an iron frame and brick-lined working pits, and foundries like the now demolished Central Foundry (1872) located on Eaglehawk Road, Ironbark. 490 Gabled forms of industrial buildings persisted over a long period, well into the twentieth century. These include prefabricated steel buildings such as the aircraft hangar at TBT Aviation (c.1929) at the now closed Myers Flat airfield.491
Related places
Industrial buildings and sites
Gothic and Romanesque Revival
The growing affluence of church communities in Greater Bendigo and architectural interest in Gothic Revivalism led to some churches being stylistically enriched when they were rebuilt in brick. Gothic Revivalism demanded craft, attention to the great tradition of Medieval detail, and the direct expression of both materials and the variety of internal spaces appropriate to different parts of the liturgy. As a style, Gothic Revivalism appealed to those with a desire for symbolising distant and pre-industrial periods of the past.
The Bendigo goldfields had at least two churches in the early ‘scholarly’ Gothic style of the 1850s. These were W H Burgoyne and Arthur Hartley’s All Saints Old Cathedral on McKenzie
LOVELL CHEN 2013 115 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 and Forest Streets (1855, with substantial later additions) and George and Schneider’s first St Kilian’s Catholic Church in stone (1857, demolished).
Most of Bendigo’s extant and more ambitious Gothic churches were built later, when the revival was influenced by newer local directions and the emergent High Victorian Movement. Proponents of the High Victorian movement argued for a historically informed but more overtly inventive Gothic style. It was a style characterised by polychrome and bichrome patterning, a use of brickwork which emerged in the 1860s and combined bricks of different ‘polychrome’ colours, usually brown, cream and red, or two ‘bichrome’ colours in a pattern to highlight architectural features. High Victorian also used simpler but bolder combinations of massing.
William Vahland’s St Luke’s Anglican Church at White Hills (1863) is possibly the first polychrome church in Australia. Originally, the church was to have had a tower, but this remained unbuilt.492 Robert Love designed St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral nave in Myers Street (1867-68) and Crouch and Wilson, renowned for their bold designs elsewhere, completed the vigorous bichrome Wesleyan Church in Panton Street, Golden Square (1870- 73). Vahland and Getzschmann then matched this with a bold arch striping in their Long Gully Wesleyan Church (1877). Vahland’s St John’s Presbyterian Church on McKenzie and Forest Streets, now the Uniting Church (1890-91), was Bendigo’s finale in this mode of large churches. It is dominated by a massive chamfered corner tower and a juxtaposed set of broad gables and window tracery.
Other bold and individual High Victorian elements in churches included Vahland’s corbelled bell towers in the Church of England in Main Street, Heathcote (1868) and with Getzschmann, the corbel butresses at St Liborius’ Catholic Church at Eaglehawk (1869).
Figure 55 St Luke’s Anglican Church, White Hills. Source: Victorian Heritage Database, National Trust listing (B 1898)
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Figure 56 Uniting (former Wesleyan) Church, Long Gully. Source: Victorian Heritage Database, National Trust listing (B 2404)
High Victorian tendencies waned after the 1890s and Greater Bendigo was not noted for late or Arts and Crafts Gothic seen elsewhere in Victoria. There were enough churches in the municipality by this time, though Keogh and Austen’s St Monica’s Church at Kangaroo Flat (1926) has something of the later Gothic Revival flavour.
The next phase of church construction focused not on new churches, but on completion of the largest of them. For instance, sections of St Paul’s Anglican Church, designed originally by Robert Love, were completed: the tower in 1872–73 and in 1926-29 the transepts and sanctuary.493 Reed, Smart and Tappin’s Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral on Wattle and McKenzie Streets was commenced in the 1890s but was only finally finished in the period 1954-77.494
Related places
Gothic Revival buildings
Central Victorian Italianate
Victoria is distinctive for its Italianate style which appeared in the 1850s and later. It was characterised by exposed face brick buildings with bichrome patterning with colour changes seen in quoins, archivolts and course lines, under broad low-pitched gables. These Italianate buildings were often marked by groups of round or segmental arches with thick moulded architraves, roundel vents, and gable windows and some Lombardic arched corbelling. Chimneys were sometimes corniced in the Italianate manner and verandahs were either arcades or timber-framed with simple chamfer-cut columns and plain friezes.
In central Victoria Italianate mode is primarily linked to courthouses. The low-gabled, arcaded mode is a stylistic signature for the Greater Bendigo municipality. Examples include Eaglehawk (1869) and Huntly (1874) courthouses.
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Figure 57 Eaglehawk Court House. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 394)
Figure 58 Dudley House, Bendigo Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 272)
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Figure 59 Undated early image of Fortuna Villa. Source: Victorian Heritage Database, National Trust listing (B 1177)
Flannagan’s Heathcote court house (1863) is less typical, having a three-bayed pilastered, three-arched frontage that presages Robert Love’s later Prince of Wales’ Light Horse Orderly Room in Sandhurst and his Bible Christian Church in Long Gully (1867-68).
The Central Victorian Italianate mode included post offices and railway stations of the 1850s and 1860s, such as the railway station at Kangaroo Flat and the railway sheds at Sandhurst (1860-62). Raywood Town Hall (1878) continued this approach and used the over-scaled window and entry door frequently seen in Love, and Vahland and Getzschmann designs.495
Other examples include Dudley House in View Street (1858-59), the former survey office and surveyor’s residence and the oldest surviving government building in Bendigo, as well as J M Brady’s Bendigo Independent Newspaper office (1875).496
One of the more individual examples of the Central Italinate style was John O’Dwyer’s design for the Shire Offices in Napier Street, Huntly (1867).497 This building has the style’s characteristic red brick and cream brick striping, but swept up into seven overlapping arches, four segmental and three semicircular, and each arch expressed as ‘floating’ on slender striped square columns.
The most flamboyant example of Central Victorian Italianate was the remarkable Fortuna Villa in Chum Street (commenced 1860s, with significant later additions), home of mining magnate, George Lansell. The residential usage of arcaded and gabled wings and stairwells in Love’s design for Fortuna Villa is an example of the persistence of the style in the 1870s and early 1880s. Love also applied elements of this mode to his Foundry Arms Hotel, Golden Square (1872), an early example of the spreading, single-storey brick corner hotel more typical of later hotels in the municipality.
Related places
Buildings in the Central Victorian Italianate style
Later Renaissance modes
Late Renaissance was seen in Greater Bendigo from the late 1850s, such as F E Kawerau’s first permanent courthouse (1858) on Camp Hill in Sandhurst.498 This building incorporated components from Rome’s sixteenth-century urban palace tradition, including pronounced quoins, gracefully detailed window aedicules, and carefully corniced chimneys. Renaissance
LOVELL CHEN 2013 119 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 revivalism was in full flight under William Wardell, Chief Government architect, as can be seen in many Victorian Public Works Department designs of the 1860s. When the courthouse on Gaol Road, Camp Hill, was later stuccoed it more closely resembled these civic Victorian examples of later Renaissance modes. On View Street, the first permanent post and telegraph office (1867) built by the Public Works Department on the goldfields, now the Sandhurst Trustees building, is directly ascribed to William Wardell.499 The design used a nine-arched entry with two inflected pavilions each side of a central two-storeyed mass and a prominent cornice with a dentilled frieze. The typical Public Works Department roundel window was banished to the side.
The late Renaissance mode was applied to a number of two-storey public, institutional and commercial buildings from the 1860s onwards, seen in the earlier streetscapes of View Street and Pall Mall. The general approach was the Roman palazzo’s standard ground floor with arched windows, rusticated or coffered piers or columns between large windows and the employment of a more typically Renaissance upper level with arched or aediculed windows and a bracketed cornice or parapet.
The work of several Melbourne-based architects active in Sandhurst employed this style. Alfred Smith’s Bank of Victoria in View Street (1863) was broadly based on Bramante’s Palazzo Caprini (1501-10). Terry and Oakden’s London Chartered Bank of Australia in High and Forest Streets (1874, 1885) uses a sub-layer of arches and roundels, overlapping courses and deep-set pilasters, as well as a parapet with piers and orb finials that evoked the same rhythms and highly sculpted surfaces of Jacopo Sansovino’s Library, Loggetta and Procuratie Nuove. Reed and Barnes’ Sandhurst Savings Bank in Hargreaves Street (1872) was more complex sculpturally, using a five-arched loggia set between two stair and entry bays with a colonnaded recessed balcony above. This was closer to Venetian usage of around 1500-1550, another favourite source for inventive Australian architects.
Among local architects Vahland and Getzschmann’s arcaded Mechanics Institute (1885), later the School of Mines, was also conceived in Sansovinesque terms. Its breakfront approximates the proportions of a sixteenth century Grand Canal palace, such as Sansovino’s Corner ca Grande. Its primary departure was in its paired colonnades with open pediment bases, paralleling those that can still be seen around the Bendigo Town Hall.
The giant order, where columns rise through more than one level, was a favourite of Michelangelo and his French followers. In Bendigo the great examples are undeniably the Vahland and Getzschmann porticos for the Masonic Hall, now The Capital Theatre, in View Street (1873) and the former Benevolent Asylum, now the Anne Caudle Centre, in Barnard Street (1864-72).
The new entrance to the Benevolent Asylum replaced a similarly giant order entrance by Robert Love. Smith and Johnson’s Union Bank (1876) was a smaller building with a still forceful frontage.
The principal Renaissance element in Greater Bendigo architecture was the French Mansard roof. This tall double-pitched and often curved roof design was revived in Australia in the 1850s, and Vahland and Getzschmann use the mansard with obvious force on their 1870s- 80s additions to George Fletcher’s Town Hall on Lyttleton Terrace (originally 1859). This magnificent example narrowly avoided demolition in the early 1970s, when it was offered unsuccessfully to the Public Works Department by Council.500 The corner building Vahland and Getzschmann designed for the Mechanics Institute and School of Mines (1890) also had a tower with a mansard roof. George Watson used it as a major theme in the later Post Office (1883-87) and Law Courts (1890-96) on Pall Mall. The Post Office clock tower broke from the regular street grid and was clearly built to be a focal point.
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Figure 60 State Savings Bank, Hargreaves Street, Bendigo. Source: Victorian Heritage Database, National Trust listing (B 2662)
Figure 61 Former Masonic Hall, now The Capital Theatre, View Street, Bendigo. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 119)
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Figure 62 Law Courts, Pall Mall, Bendigo. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 227)
In size and scale these buildings rivalled their Melbourne counterparts and the Post Office is widely regarded as the most splendid of its kind outside an Australian capital city.
Rustication with deep and sometimes rough-cut stone layers, or the appearance of such, over all or most of an elevation is a signature Bendigo element. It was a particular favourite of Vahland and Getzschmann’s in their Shamrock Hotel in Pall Mall (1860), Benevolent Asylum alterations (1864, 1872), City Family Hotel in High Street (1872) and Black Swan Hotel in McCrae Street (1873). The approach was used on larger houses such as West End Hall on Lily and Barnard Streets (1868) and in additions to Fortuna Villa (1869, 1876, 1888).
Renaissance and its associated modes are generally marked in Greater Bendigo architecture by hipped or mansard roofs, use of stucco and cement rendered surfaces, pronounced quoins, and ancient Roman or Renaissance order in porticos and capping to pilasters. Other elements included aedicules around windows, scroll brackets below roof cornices and chimneys with proportionally larger moulded cornices. Verandahs had cast iron columns and friezes, parapets had waisted balusters, stone or cement finials and central bell-cast or gable mouldings were used to frame a name or year of establishment. In institutional buildings, entry was through a portico or an arcade whereas house entry was often at one end of a return verandah, sometimes delineated with a short tower. In warehouse and basements segmental-arched windows were usually favoured with round arched windows for upper floors and sometimes a reversion to segment-arched windows at attic level. Polychrome or bichrome patterning decreased in popularity but rustication and heavy stone effects remained popular on external footings and basements.
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Buildings in the late Renaissance style Vahland and Getzschmann’s buildings in this style
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Over-scaling
A persistent Greater Bendigo architectural phenomenon was deliberate ‘over-scaling’ in windows, arches and other openings. Vahland and Getzschmann employed over-scaling repeatedly, as in their Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows (MUIOOF) Hall in Lyttleton Terrace and Mundy Streets (1865). The use of over-scaling in their Town Hall work (1878-86) in this period included the windows, as well as in the double-height colonnaded balconies, sewn together precariously with open pediments and jutting out on short spur entablatures.
H E Tolhurst used over-scaling on his Bank of Victoria in High and Napier Streets in Eaglehawk (1865), as did Melbourne architects like Terry and Oakden on their London Chartered Bank (1874) and George Watson with his first floor windows on the Pall Mall Law Courts (1890-96).
Several of the smaller bank buildings gain considerable presence from over-scaling. Vahland and Getzschmann’s Commercial Bank at View Point (1875) and Smith and Johnson’s Union Bank on View Street (1876) rely on the giant order to achieve this. Vahland used over- scaling on his later banks in Pall Mall to make the National Bank (1887) look as if carved from a massive rusticated block, and the Colonial Bank (1887) as if hollowed out and skeletal, with kinetic movement projected into a series of arched balconies and openings.
Over-scaling in houses is seen in the huge arches and exaggerated side parapet gable on Avondale in Mitchell Street, Bendigo (1896). In domestic architecture examples of over- scaling continued into the 1920s.
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Buildings which use ‘over-scaling’ for particular effect
Federation architecture (national), Bendigo style (local)
Australian architecture in the Federation period of 1890-1920 developed a distinctive national style. It began with house designs and flowed into institutional buildings, drawing on the reforming ideas of the international Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau, and modern materials and planning. The Queen Anne mode was also influential, including the palette of details such as fretwork, sunburst motifs, and tall triangular pediments like those seen on Emil Mauermann’s Scott house in Bancroft Street, Kangaroo Flat (1891).
The local variation of the Federation architectural style has been termed ‘Bendigo style’ or sometimes ‘Bendigo Boom style’, due to its associations with new gold finds and wealth in the 1890s. Bendigo Style was the confluence in style around 1900 by two of Bendigo’s most well-known architects, William Vahland and William Beebe, who until this time had worked in quite distinct architectural traditions. Where the rest of Australia experienced a depression in the 1890s, Bendigo by contrast saw an upsurge in design by these two noted architects in this period, influenced by the emergent Federation styles.501
William Beebe explored a more fully fledged Bendigo style in Greater Bendigo, taking the Federation genre further, in domestic architecture. Examples include Arran on Barkly and View Streets (1895), Malmo on View and Valentine Streets (1898), Linetta on Bramble and Chapel Streets (1899), Commersdale in Panton Street, Golden Square (1898) and Langley Hall in Napier Street, White Hills (1904). Beebe preferred a strongly diagonal composition centred on a turned corner component, such as a verandah facet. His gables were close- grained and richly sculpted, like at Kelvin in View Street (1899), a combined house and surgery with a corner tower. This building also displays other Beebe signature elements: a strong verticality, half timbered detail at upper levels, stilted and then flattened arches and contrasting bold expanses of red face brick with a beautifully integrated verandah frieze.
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Other well known examples of Bendigo Boom architecture include Vahland and Son’s Penwinnick in Harkness Street, Quarry Hill (1895), their attributed Caradon in Victoria Street, Eaglehawk (1899), and W H Chandler’s The Eyrie in Reginald Street, Quarry Hill (1896-97), a timber design with four stepped frontages.
While Federation architecture is often seen as a domestic mode, Vahland and Beebe both worked on many institutional and public buildings in their careers; consequently, they influenced the transition of many elements from the residential mode into civic architecture at this time. Philip Kennedy’s new Shamrock Hotel in Pall Mall (1897) shows several emerging Federation ideas in its composition, particularly of the Williamson Street frontage. These include the asymmetrical and irregularly spaced quartet of pavilions linked by the solid round arches associated with America’s new free Romanesque revival, upper level pilasters, large lunette arches, steep-pitched triangular pediments, the interwoven horizontal and vertical layers and the relationship between the pavilions and long first floor arcade.
William Beebe displays the gamut of his interest in the then contemporary Federation detailing in his Bendigo Boom style Fire Station on View Street (1899). This included a hipped slate roof with terracotta ridge capping and horn finials, wide flattened arches, round Romanesque arches in smaller windows, floating gables, pediments set in a surrounding ‘frame’ of strap work and glazing bars.
Figure 63 Fire Station, View Street, Bendigo, built 1899. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1334)
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Figure 64 Eaglehawk Town Hall, 1901. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 713)
Characteristically vertical in proportions and expressing movement in its texture and detailing, the Fire Station manages one of Federation architecture’s greatest accomplishments: to be a smaller building with enough monumental presence and compressed activity and imagery to hold its own alongside larger and more traditionally monumental buildings, such as Vahland’s adjoining Masonic Hall, now The Capital Theatre. A major counterpart is Wilkinson and Permewan’s Eaglehawk Town Hall (1901). This dramatic building was in red face brick with features such as rendered pilasters, string courses, broad flattened arches, tall, extruded gables and a fluid panel linking the clock to the central bay and its split pediment below.
After 1905 Federation architecture saw radical experiments with its basic massing and planning, particularly as the earlier Queen Anne detailing gave way to the stylisations of Art Nouveau. Beebe’s work in the Bendigo style at this time provided several of the boldest examples in Australia. The horseshoe arches and swirling, lightly-scaled lines of his additions to Denderah on View and Valentine Streets (1910) resembled the Metro Station and apartment house of Hector Guimard in Paris or the French influenced Art Nouveau style appearing in new Russian apartment blocks around 1905.
William Beebe, by this time in partnership with G D Garvin, moved the Art Nouveau genre into public buildings. There was the Royal Bank at View Point (1908) which was one of a prominent group of buildings facing Charing Cross and the Alexandra Fountain in Bendigo. This building used earlier Beebe elements like the sting-course arch and window detailing but added a bold two-level arcade reflecting American skyscraper influence. The canted piers, rounded cornices, bowstring arches, floral capitals and relief rounded out the Art Nouveau credentials.
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Buildings in the Federation style Buildings in the Bendigo Boom style William Beebe’s buildings in this style
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Throwbacks and persistent approaches
Architectural styles and genres often widely overlapped in timing rather than following a linear sequence, and ‘throwbacks’ are associated with even the most progressive architects. Many buildings of simpler designs, including modest cottages and dwellings, persisted with similar approaches to form and massing over several decades. Sometimes those who commissioned new buildings were conservative in their taste, preferring a building style and appearance with which they were already familiar.
Vahland and Beebe’s Golden Gully Hotel on Woodward Road, Diamond Hill (1901) appears to be from the 1860s. The cast iron lace and small-grained brick bichrome patterning on Beebe’s Rosslyn in Olinda Street, Quarry Hill (1905) presents the building as 1880s. Beebe’s additions to Fortuna Villa used two distinct styles: mansards that followed the 1887-90 Vahland and Getzschmann additions and a more characteristically Federation tower. George Austen’s Limerick Castle Hotel in Williamson Street, Bendigo (1926) looks like a Federation design mixed with 1880s cast iron lace in its verandahs. The exception was the low-pitched half-timbered gable in the central upper awning, which recalls 1920s grandstand designs in Victoria and the broad, half-timbered gables of the so-called Californian bungalow.
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Buildings in conservative styles Buildings in mixed styles
Early twentieth century and interwar architecture
The ‘Californian’ bungalow in Australia was in many ways a simplified and more horizontal variant of Federation architecture, without the diagonal composition and multiple chimneys. Bungalows were generally more compact than the Federation residences that preceded them. The term, Californian, was predominantly a way to sell the style in Australia, evoking both the new glamour of Hollywood, Los Angeles and the health-conscious lifestyle of the Californians.
Bendigo saw the building of a great many bungalows, including State Bank bungalows designed by G Burridge Leith. The hipped roof was typical in Bendigo with double-fronted houses. There was a local variation with the single-front gabled bungalows in Bendigo, which favoured stepped walls below the gable or conspicuously asymmetrical window placements. There is an Edward Billson design (c. 1924) in View Street that was heavily influenced by the time he was in practice with Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin, the planners of Canberra.
Bungalow treatment was also used in smaller public and institutional buildings. In the Elmore Post Office (1909-10), one of his first designs for the Commonwealth Department of Works, John Smith Murdoch used the new horizontality of the bungalow while incorporating his new signature, brick rustication. Goornong Catholic Church on the Midland Highway (1922) was also a good example of timber bungalow detailing and a simple roof pattern.502
Larger institutional and public buildings of these years were influenced initially by a revival of English seventeenth and eighteenth century monumental architecture, now termed Edwardian Baroque. William Beebe’s remodelling of the 1860-72 Metropolitan Hotel in Hargreaves and Bull Streets (1899) was an early example, as were the parapet and central pediment details of the Lyric Theatre on High Street (1913, demolished).503 The AMP Insurance building at View Point (c. 1911) had segmental arches embedded in thick piers, with the Baroque’s characteristic ionic order to each side of the entry.504 The attic level, framed in a more neoclassical manner, was still strongly Baroque in its sculpture and upper column usage.
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Southern Mediterranean references also spread, translated through an American influence. In larger buildings this was seen in a flamboyant Baroque style variously influenced by Spanish and Portugese Colonial Baroque of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the association with Los Angeles, the California missions and the birth of the film industry. An example of Spanish Baroque in Bendigo was Cowper, Murphy and Appleford’s Plaza Cinema, now Gazman clothing, in Mitchell Street (1934).505
After World War One the earlier Edwardian Baroque gradually gave way to a plainer classical usage that went back to simple applications of ancient Greek and Roman elements. Elmore Memorial Hall in Hervey Street (1923) was a full-fledged example of Edwardian Baroque in a small public building, using the locally favoured two-storey rustication and rough-cast walling, which gave it an Arts and Crafts flavour.506
Outside of classical and Baroque traditions, Gothic had a reprise in Keogh and Keogh’s new wing at St Aidan’s Orphanage’s in St Aidan’s Road (1931). It was a towering and somewhat intimidating building although it was only three storeys. Their earlier 1909 wing was as direct and imposing in its volume and as conservative for its period.507
From the mid-1930s, after the Depression began to recede, a clearly ‘functionalist’ architecture developed, celebrating speed, movement, plainness, and the imagery of the machine. Modernising tendencies had been evident in earlier architecture, but the new mode was streamlined and incorporated imagery of modern ships, cars, trains and aircraft. Examples included the large Moderne house on High Street, Golden Square (c. 1935-39) with stuccoed white walls, glazed brick trim, parapets concealing a flat roof, and large rounded bay windows, similar to bridges on ocean liners or airship cockpit canopies. 508 Mulqueen’s Funeral Centre (c.1934) resembled a corner pub in its massing, although its rounded parapet steps, sandblasted entry doors and insistent string courses lend it a sumptuous Art Deco- Moderne flavour.
Related places
Buildings of the early twentieth century and interwar periods Examples of Bungalows including dwellings and small public buildings Buildings in the Edwardian Baroque style • Buildings in the Art Deco and Moderne styles
416 Billis, R V and Kenyon, A S, Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip, Stockland Press, Melbourne, second edition, 1974, p.247.
417 Pedersen, G., A brief history of the Kamarooka District, Back to Kamarooka Committee, Kamarooka, Vic, 1987, p. 68.
418 Elmore Parish Plan.
419 Shaw, M, Our Goodly Heritage: History of Huntly Shire, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1966, p. 11.
420 Randell, J O, Kimbolton, Queensberry Hill Press, Carlton, Vic, 1976, pp. 18 & 23; Randell, J O, Pastoral Settlement in Northern Victoria, Volume Two: the Campaspe District, Chandos Publishing Company, Burwood, Vic, 1982, pp. 304 & 312.
421 Nolan, M J, The Enterprising Life of Dr Henry Backhaus Bendigo Pioneer, The Author, Bendigo, Vic, 2008, p. 50.
422 Nolan, M J, 'Henry Backhaus - A Different Type of Pioneer Priest', in The Australasian Catholic Record, Vol. 85, No. 1, January 2008, p. 64.
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423 Randell, J O, Kimbolton, Queensberry Hill Press, Carlton, Vic, 1976, p. 37.
424 Redmond, J, ‘Places. Bendigo, VIC’, eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00247b.htm. Accessed 5 April 2013.
425 Mackay, G, History of Bendigo, 1891, reprinted in 2000 by Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p. 2.
426 The Victorian Government Gazette, 8 December 1852, p. 1425.
427 The Victorian Government Gazette, 26 January 1853, p. 121.
428 Mackay, G, History of Bendigo, 1891, reprinted in 2000 by Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p. 26.
429 The Victorian Government Gazette, 26 September 1890, p. 3843.
430 Bruce, S, Naming Bendigo: evolution of a city’s identity 1836-1891, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Vic, 2010.
431 The Victorian Government Gazette, 8 May 1891, p. 1932.
432 Macartney, J N, ‘What we were, what we are and what we may be, or the past, the present and the future of Sandhurst: a lecture delivered in the Sandhurst Mechanics Institute on Wednesday, December 5, 1860’, Macartney, Sandhurst, Vic, 1860.
433 Building the City, Bendigo Historical Society. Available http://www.bendigohistory.com/building_the_city.shtml. Accessed 25 July 2011.
434 Peter Hargreaves, ‘Richard William Larritt: Bendigo’s first town planner’, Master of Social Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic, 2007.
435 Dudley House, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;146. Accessed 30 March 2013.
436 Peter Hargreaves, ‘Richard William Larritt: Bendigo’s first town planner’, Master of Social Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic, 2007, p. 3.
437 ‘Beating the Boundaries’, Bendigo Advertiser, 15 April 1856, p. 2.
438 Muller, Roger and Norm Stimson, ‘Sandhurst Municipal Boundary Stones’, Report to the City of Greater Bendigo Heritage Advisory Committee from the Department of Sustainability and Environment, June 2012.
439 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, p. 11; Peter Hargreaves, ‘Richard William Larritt: Bendigo’s first town planner’, Master of Social Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic, 2007, p. 5.
440 Peter Hargreaves, ‘Richard William Larritt: Bendigo’s first town planner’, Master of Social Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic, 2007, p. 5.
441 Peter Hargreaves, ‘Richard William Larritt: Bendigo’s first town planner’, Master of Social Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic, 2007, p. 6.
442 Sutherland, A, Victoria and its metropolis: Past and Present, Vol. 3, McCarron and Co, Melbourne, Vic, p. 266.
443 Sport and Recreation, Encyclopedia of Melbourne online. Available: http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00018b.htm. Accessed 16 September 2011.
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444 Leisure and Entertainment, Greater City of Bendigo. Available: http://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/Leisure_and_Entertainment/Parks_gardens_and_reserves/Crusoe _Reservoir_and_No_7_park. Accessed 16 September 2011.
445 The Victorian Government Gazette, 16 August 1861, p. 1124.
446 Bendigo Parks and Picnic Spots, Bendigo Tourism Guide. Available: http://www.bwc.com.au/tourism/see&do/parks.shtml. Accessed 16 September 2011.
447 Leisure and Entertainment, Greater City of Bendigo. Available: http://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/Leisure_and_Entertainment/Parks_gardens_and_reserves/Lake_ Weeroona. Accessed 16 September 2011.
448 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 7, unpaginated.
449 See also Selwyn’s ‘Plan of the General Survey from the Town of Malmsbury to the Poprcupine Inn, from the source of Forest Creek to Golden Point, shewing the Alexandrian Range also Sawpit Gully Bendigo and Bullock Creek’ in Clare Needham, Mapping Greater Change: The landscape of central Victoria, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Vic, 2013.
450 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, pp.4-6.
451 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, p.20.
452 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, pp.21-24
453 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, pp.10 and 21-24.
454 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, p.34.
455 Arnold, K, Bendigo and District: The Way it Was, Crown Castleton Publishers, Maiden Gully, Vic, 1988, p. 29.
456 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993.
457 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993.
458 ‘Eaglehawk Culture and History’, The Age, 28 November 2008. Available: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-factsheet/eaglehawk--culture-and-history-20081118- 6a0w.html. Accessed 4 November 2011.
459 Anon., Shire of Marong 1864-1964, unpaginated, and Horsfall, D (ed), Kangaroo Flat A History: Goats, Gold and Peppercorns, p. 14.
460 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, p. 11.
461 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, p. 11.
462 Victorian Government Gazette: 46 – 01/05/1885.
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463 Arnold, K, Bendigo and its Environs: The Way it Was, Volume 2, Crown Castleton, Bendigo, Vic, 2003.
464 Amanda Jean, Ironbark Heritage Study, volume 2, for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2010, p. 149.
465 Bannear, David, North Central Goldfields Project: Historic Mining Sites in the Heathcote (Waranga South) Mining Division, Department of Conservation & Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, p. 3.
466 Ellis, G E, A Brief History and Reminiscence of Long Gully, George Ellis, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p 47.
467 Bannear, David, North Central Goldfields Project, Historic Mining Sites in the Sandhurst, Eaglehawk and Raywood Mining Divisions, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, May 1993, p. 28.
468 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, Vic, 1985, p. 16 & 21.
469 Ken Arnold, Bendigo its Environs: The Way it Was, pp. 279-281, and Andrew Ward, City of Greater Bendigo (Marong District) Heritage Study.
470 Raywood was declared a Borough in 1865, and was united with the Marong Shire on 1 October 1915.
471 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Pty Ltd, Burwood, Vic, 1985, p. 69.
472 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Pty Ltd, Burwood, Vic, 1985, p. 69.
473 Horsfall, D (ed), Kangaroo Flat A History: Goats, Gold and Peppercorns, p. 23, Ken Arnold, Bendigo its Environs: The Way it Was, pp. 69-70, and Andrew Ward, City of Greater Bendigo (Marong District) Heritage Study.
474 Lovell Chen, ‘Happy Jack’s Emporium’, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, Volume 2, Citations, prepared for City of Greater Bendigo, 2010.
475 The architectural styles, or classification system, used in this chapter are based on, albeit with some variations reflecting local characteristics or distinctions, those included in Richard Apperly, A pictorial guide to identifying Australian architecture: styles and terms from 1788 to the present, Angus & Robertson, North Ryde, 1989. This system is also employed in the Victorian Heritage Register under ‘Architectural style’.
476 William Howitt, Land, Labour and Gold, or Two Years in Victoria, Longman Brown, London, 1858, p. 377, cited in Miles Lewis, ‘The Goldfields,’ Section 2.02 of Australian Building: A Cultural Investigation. Available: mileslewis.net. Accessed 16 July 2010.
477 Arnold, K, Bendigo its environs: The Way it Was, Vol. 2, Crown Castleton, Bendigo, Vic, 2003, pp. 196-7.
478 Miles Lewis, ‘Adobe or Clay Lump,’ Australian Building: A Cultural Investigation, Sections 3.02.2, 3.02.9, 3.02.10, 3.02.12 and 3.02.15. Available: mileslewis.net. Accessed 30 August 2010.
479 See esp. ‘Pall Mall in 1855’ in McKay, G, History of Bendigo, 1891, reprinted in 2000 by Lerk and McClure, p. 32.
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480 See examples in Arnold, K, Bendigo its environs: The Way it Was, Vol. 2, Crown Castleton, Bendigo, Vic, 2003.
481 Arnold, K, Bendigo its environs: The Way it Was, Vol. 1, Crown Castleton, Bendigo, Vic, 2003, pp. 121, 265.
482 See Lewis, M (ed), Victorian Churches: their origins, their story and their architecture, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Melbourne, Vic, 1991, p. 103 item 203. This site was the Cathedral site for a time until the Wattle-McKenzie Street site was chosen.
483 Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, p. 75; Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Four Significant Sites, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, p. 277; and St Kilian’s Catholic Church, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/#detail_places;1274. Accessed 31 May 2013.
484 Arnold, K, Bendigo its environs: The Way it Was, Vol. 1, Crown Castleton, Bendigo, Vic, 2003, pp. p. 144, 255; Lewis, M (ed), Victorian Churches: their origins, their story and their architecture, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Melbourne, Vic, 1991, p. 118 item 259.
485 Annear, Robyn, David Bannear and Keir Reeves, ‘The Miner’s Right’, egold Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold online. Available: http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00222b.htm. Accessed 31 May 2013.
486 Lawrence, Susan, ‘After the Gold Rush: Material culture and settlement on Victoria’s Central Goldfields’, Gold: Forgotten Histories and Lost Objects of Australia edited by Iain McCalman, Alexander Cook and Andrew Reeves, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001, pp.250-266.
487 Amanda Jean, Ironbark Heritage Study, for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2010.
488 Amanda Jean, Ironbark Heritage Study, for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2010, p.59.
489 Arnold, K, Bendigo its environs: The Way it Was, Vol. 2, Crown Castleton, Bendigo, Vic, 2003, p. 29; Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, Volume 2, Citations, prepared for City of Greater Bendigo, 2010, pp.96-100.
490 Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, Volume 2, Citations, prepared for City of Greater Bendigo, 2010, pp.112-118; Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, p. 110 and Golden City Implements, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;6047. Accessed 29 March 2013.
491 Arnold, K, Bendigo its environs: The Way it Was, Vol. 1, Crown Castleton, Bendigo, Vic, 2003, p. 219.
492 Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, p. 158.
493 St Pauls Anglican Cathedral, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;3695. Accessed 30 March 2013.
494 Lewis, M (ed), Victorian Churches: their origins, their story and their architecture, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Melbourne, Vic, 1991, p. 104 item 206 (St Paul’s Cathedral), and 105 item 210 (Sacred Heart).
495 Arnold, K, Bendigo and its environs: The Way it Was, Vol. 1, Crown Castleton, Bendigo, Vic, 2003, p. 329.
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496 Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, pp. 17-18, 33; Everist, R (ed), The Traveller’s Guide to the Goldfields: History and Natural Heritage Trails through Central and Western Victoria, Best Shot Publications, Ballarat, Vic, 2006, p. 153; Smith, R and Flower C, The Heritage of Australia, Viking O’Neil, Ringwood, Vic, 1891, pp. 3 and 146.
497 Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, p. 160.
498 Former Supreme Court, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;137. Accessed 31 March 2013.
499 Sandhurst Trustees. Former Post and Telegraph Office, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;5228. Accessed 29 March 2013. An earlier stone post office stood on the same site from 1858 to 1867 which, when dismantled, was re-erected at 71 Barkly Place. See Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, pp. 22 and 90.
500 Department of Planning and Community Development, ‘A Golden Heritage – a golden palace’. Available http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/heritage/heritage-tours-and- stories/heritage_stories/a-golden-heritage/a-golden-palace. Accessed 29 March 2013.
501 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Two, Environmental History, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, pp.49-51 and Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Four, Significant Sites, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, pp.ii- iii.
502 Arnold, K, Bendigo and its environs: The Way it Was, Vol. 2, Crown Castleton, Bendigo, Vic, 2003, p. 431.
503 Walking Melbourne. Available: www.walkingmelbourne.com.au. Accessed 20 April 2011.
504 Commercial View. Available: www.commercialview.com.au. Accessed 21 April 2011.
505 Purden, M, ‘Plaza Theatre, Bendigo’, Cinema Record, 13 August 1996.
506 Arnold, K, Bendigo and its environs: The Way it Was, Vol. 2, Crown Castleton, Bendigo, Vic, 2003, p. 287.
507 Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, p. 159.
508 Art Deco and Modernism Architecture Australia. Available: www.modernaus.blogspot.com/2010/09.bendigo-art-deco-streamline-home.html. Accessed 16 September 2011.
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7.0 Theme 7: Governing Greater Bendigo area
Figure 65 Old Bendigo Gaol Source: Steven Abbott, City of Greater Bendigo, 2013.
Administration of the goldfields was associated with an initial bitter struggle for political rights; this subsequently fostered a political awareness in Greater Bendigo for other causes such as the Federation of Australia. Despite moves towards recognition of the rights of miners, land owners continued to dominate the electoral system and political process for some time. The activities of state government, and the act of ‘governing’ the goldfields, has resulted in numerous institutions and buildings, from the early police camps, through to grand and not so grand town halls and court houses, and the requisite police stations and ‘lock-ups’. Governing is therefore a very visible theme, in virtually every town and locality in the Greater Bendigo municipality.
7.1 Developing institutions of self-government and democracy
Announcement of the discovery of gold occurred just months after the establishment of the colony of Victoria, and controlling the rapidly burgeoning goldfields population was a massive challenge for the new government. Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe was still appointing his Executive Council as gold fever spread, and the new government was inexperienced in both legislature and politics, at a time when the colony began experiencing unprecedented crises.
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Many of La Trobe’s early decisions about the goldfields followed the model of the earlier gold rushes in New South Wales. This included implementation of the unpopular gold licence fee, despite the fact that most diggers were unable to pay the 30 shillings per month fee.509 Regulation of licence fees was the responsibility of Goldfields Commissioners who were posted at Sandhurst.
The goldfields were also almost immediately out of La Trobe’s control; he sent urgent pleas to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in London for military reinforcements.510 La Trobe was also in danger of losing members of the Legislative Council to the diggings.511 By the end of 1851, there were only 44 soldiers remaining on duty in the colony and recruitment of police was virtually impossible.512
Assistant Commissioner Horn established the first Government Camp at Bendigo Creek in December 1851, overlooking Golden Gully.513 The designated Government Camp precinct, now part of Rosalind Park, was one of the largest in the goldfields. It comprised Commissioners’ quarters, police barracks, licence tent, gold receivers’ offices, stables and a log lockup.514
The Municipal District of Sandhurst was created on 23 April 1855,515 with the first Municipal Council held in 1856. At the time there were 1,532 properties in the township of Sandhurst, with a rateable value of £99,021.516 Provision of street lighting, improving and making roads, and the establishment of a regular water supply for the district were all priorities.517 Historic stones which mark the original Sandhurst municipal boundary have been located, five in situ and one in private hands. The squat upright stones are inscribed ‘S M B’, and are located at Flora Hill, Diamond Hill/Kangaroo Flat, Specimen Hill, White Hills and Spring Gully.518
Figure 66 Camp Reserve, Sandhurst. Source: Published in the Illustrated Melbourne Post, 15 November 1862, accessed at State Library of Victoria.
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Figure 67 Former Council Chambers, Huntly. Source: Lovell Chen archives
The Campaspe Road Board was established in 1861, and became the Shire of Huntly in 1866; Strathfieldsaye District Roads Board was also created in 1861; and Eaglehawk became a borough on 29 July 1862.519
Other local government bodies included, in the 1860s, the Metcalfe and Marong Road Districts, which later became shires or boroughs.520 The Borough of Heathcote was created in 1869, but later re-annexed to the Borough of McIvor. The Local Government Act of 1874 classified districts into boroughs, shires and cities according to the size and number of householders.521 The Municipal District of Sandhurst became the Borough of Sandhurst, and in 1871 officially a City less than 20 years after its establishment.522 The City of Sandhurst was renamed the City of Bendigo in 1891.523
In 1994 the new municipality of Greater Bendigo was formed, bringing together the former City of Bendigo, Rural City of Marong, Borough of Eaglehawk, Shires of Huntly, Strathfieldsaye and McIvor, and the Redesdale district of the Shire of Metcalfe.
Related places
• Sites associated with early municipal activity, including Council meeting places • Municipal and civic buildings including town halls, offices, libraries and work depots • Historical municipal boundary markers, stones, etc
7.2 Struggling for political rights
Struggling for political rights occurred from the earliest establishment of the Greater Bendigo municipality. Ostensibly, Commissioner’s camps were the first government administrative centres established on the goldfields, but they were largely focussed on the extraction of licence fees, and did little to mediate the chaos of the diggings. Heavy handed police methods contributed to growing discontent, but the population had little recourse to political representation. Aware of their powerless position, diggers became increasingly organised
LOVELL CHEN 2013 135 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 and the issue of representation was publicly championed, including by the Anti-Gold License Association.
In 1851, delegates from the diggings were appointed to engage with the government, on an ‘equitable system’.524 The January 1852 Act to Restrain by Summary Proceeding Unauthorised Mining on Waste Lands of the Crown also gave free reign to persons empowered by the Crown to apprehend license dodgers.
While a rudimentary administrative system consisting of assistant commissioners, police inspectors, magistrates, constables and foot police had been established by the middle of 1852, the new administration had little effect on the often lawless and dangerous conditions facing prospectors.
Although political organisation was virtually non-existent in Melbourne,525 on the goldfields on subsequent months, organisations such as the Victoria Gold Mining Association and the Anti-Gold License Association attempted to give voice to the diggers’ grievances. Agitators organised the Bendigo Petition in mid-1853, which called for a reduction in monthly licence fees and land reform for diggers. It was an issue that found commonality with miners of all backgrounds and members of the Chinese community in Sandhurst also participated.526 Wearing red ribbons in their hats as a sign of protest, the petition was also known as the ‘Red Ribbon Rebellion’.527 Miners also met in Heathcote in July 1853 to petition on a similar range of issues.528
By late 1853, improved recruitment and organisation of the police force had gone some way towards stabilising conditions. According to Serle, ‘bushranging had been crushed, the main goldfields were comparatively safe, and the criminal element was only a serious danger in the first weeks of new rushes’.529
Tensions escalated again with La Trobe’s rejection of the 1853 petition and on 28 August 1854, over ten thousand diggers protested outside the Government Camp at Sandhurst. Armed soldiers prepared for a revolt, but it was peaceful protest and no revolt eventuated. In December 1854 protest from miners culminated in rebellion at the Eureka stockade in Ballarat. Just prior, on 16 November 1854, Governor Sir Charles Hotham (who had taken over from La Trobe), appointed a Royal Commission to enquire into conditions on the goldfields, which subsequently recommended administrative changes. These included introduction of a Miner’s Right of £1 per annum in place of the licence fee, and wardens and local courts in place of the Goldfields Commission.530
In June 1855, the Goldfields Act implemented most of the report’s recommendations, and the Victorian Government Gazette of 13 June 1855 instated the new mining regulations.531 These arrangements were further refined in 1857 with passage of the Act for Amending Laws Relative to the Gold Fields, which established a more complex administrative and judicial structure within Mining Districts comprising mining boards, mining wardens and courts of mines.532
Miners were also awarded the right to vote and own land. The Miners’ Right was enacted in 1855 and, for £1 per year, gave the holder the right to dig for gold, vote at parliamentary elections, and reside on land claimed for mining purposes. However, despite these arrangements, miners' political influence remained limited, in part due to conditions that required miners to have resided in the district for 12 months, and to have possessed a miner’s licence for at least six months before qualifying for electoral registration.533
Despite limited or no electoral status, many residents and ratepayers on the goldfields found ways to voice their concerns and have their issues represented politically. Women, unenfranchised men, usually miners and workers, and the illiterate signed over 270 petitions to local government in the period from 1870 to 1899.534 Comprising over 10,000
136 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 signatures, these petitions document ordinary people’s concerns on issues such as the reinstatement of employment and livelihood, access to parks and public areas for leisure, and the provision of infrastructure and improvement of conditions in workplaces.
This tradition of fighting for rights of representation continued in the twentieth century political sphere of Greater Bendigo. There were a number of prominent politicians born or raised in Bendigo, who have been active in political struggles on a state or federal scale. Perhaps the most notable was Sir John Quick (1852-1932), who grew up and worked on the goldfields, and was knighted for his eight year campaign to Federate Australia.535
Related places
Early government camps Sites associated with miners’ dissent and political actions Sites associated with early goldfields administration of law Sites associated with miners’ unrest and protests Miners’ Rights residential areas Dwellings and buildings associated with Miners’ Rights holdings
7.3 Maintaining law and order
The physical manifestation of law and order in the municipality can be seen in numerous historic courthouses, police stations and quarters, and lock-ups; there is also the Bendigo Gaol. The original township surveys set aside Crown land reserves, expressly for construction of these public buildings. Along with the Supreme Court constructed at Bendigo in 1858, smaller courthouses were constructed at Eaglehawk, Heathcote and Huntly. Several also retained components of earlier government camps, such as the log lock-up at the Eaglehawk Courthouse. The police quarters on High Street, Golden Square, was constructed in the late 1850s. It has been noted that the domestic appearance of the building reflected a broader agenda to make the police force part of community life.536 The Bendigo Law Courts were built between 1892 and 1896, reflecting the heightened municipal status of the new City of Bendigo.537
In 1922, Victorian police began using motor vehicles, including for transfer of prisoners to larger centralised lock-ups. This brought about the demise of the small nineteenth century lock-ups. More recently, in 2007, a new police station designed by Fooks Martin Sandow Anson Architects (FMSA) opened on High Street, Bendigo. The station accommodates operational police groups which were historically dispersed throughout the municipality.
Related places
Police reserves, including police stations, quarters and lock-ups Courthouses Gaols
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Figure 68 Court House and Council Chambers, Heathcote. Source: Lovell Chen archives
Figure 69 Police Barracks at Bendigo, 1861. Source: State Library of Victoria.
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7.4 Defending Victoria and Australia
In 1941, in the midst of World War Two, a 91 acre site in Finn Street, North Bendigo, adjacent to the railway line, was compulsorily acquired by the Commonwealth Government for establishment of an Ordnance Factory (later known as Australian Defence Industries, or ADI Bendigo). It became a major local employer during the war years, and at peak production in 1943 employed over 1,400 personnel, at least one third of which were women. It also required the construction of some 700 houses for the workers, and provision of a railway siding and extension of the tramway to the site. The Ordnance Factory was established during a significant expansion in the Commonwealth Government’s munitions programme. It was also the most important of the subsidiary or ‘feeder’ factories for Victoria’s main munitions production operations at Maribyrnong, established earlier in the 1920s.538
The large Ordnance Factory buildings housed precision engineering works, and provided for heavy engineering processes such as forging, casting and machine tooling. Although intended to produce 5.5 inch heavy artillery pieces and to recondition naval guns, the factory diversified into production of naval gun mountings, in demand for merchant ship defence. Production continued after the war until the later twentieth century, with work including manufacturing and refurbishing defence equipment.539
The technological advances made possible by the gold rushes, ultimately made Bendigo well placed to accommodate facilities such as the Ordnance Factory. This in turn assisted in the development of a local manufacturing expertise which has also supported other successful operations. These include Thales Australia, which operates out of Bendigo, and produces military vehicles, including armoured vehicles such as the ‘Bushmaster’.540
Figure 70 Former Ordnance Factory, Bendigo, established early 1940s (image dates from 1999). Source: Lovell Chen archives
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Another famous Bendigo property associated with defence is Fortuna Villa, in Chum Street, Bendigo. Fortuna Villa was initially a more modest home built in 1861 for Theodore Ballerstedt, next to his mining operations. In 1869 the property was sold to George Lansell, local mining magnate, who also owned the adjacent Fortuna Mine. Lansell subsequently launched into a programme of additions and extensions to the villa, incorporating extravagant furnishings and interior decorations. Fortuna Villa evolved into a sprawling mansion with outbuildings and extensive landscaped gardens.
In 1942, some 35 years after Lansell’s death, Fortuna Villa was acquired by the Commonwealth Government, and the Cartographic Headquarters of the Australian Survey Corps, later the Australian Army Survey Regiment, moved into the property. It was one of many substantial private properties purchased for use by the military during World War Two, and provided a safe location – distant from the coast and capital cities - for the critically important role of military map making. As recently as 2008, Fortuna Villa still accommodated the Army Survey Regiment.541 In 2013 it was sold back into private ownership.
Related places
Commonwealth Ordnance Factory site Buildings, lands and companies associated with military purposes, like Fortuna Villa
7.5 Protecting Greater Bendigo’s heritage
There are a number of organisations that protect the heritage of Greater Bendigo. The Bendigo Trust was formed in 1970 when the then Bendigo City Council proposed to restore and manage the Central Deborah Gold Mine. The mine had opened in 1939 and when it closed in 1954, it was the last commercial mine operating on the goldfields. During the fifteen years the mine was in operation it produced nearly one tonne of gold – around $37 million in today’s currency.542 Management of the mine was given to the Bendigo Trust who ran the first surface tours shortly afterwards and the first underground tour in 1986. The mine extends down 17 levels to a depth of 412 metres though the lowest levels are flooded. Besides the council owned Central Deborah Gold Mine, the Bendigo Trust has also managed other council assets like the Bendigo Tramways (1890) since 1972, the Discovery Science & Technology Centre since 1995 in the former Railway Goods Shed, the Bendigo Joss House (late 1860s) since 2007, as well as the Bendigo Gasworks (1860) and Victoria Hill mine site (1850s).543
The Golden Dragon Museum opened in 1991 with a broad vision: to document, interpret and preserve the Chinese heritage in Australia. Some of the items donated to the museum by the Bendigo Chinese Association are of international significance. Many of these items have been used in the annual Bendigo Easter Fair, which began in 1871 to raise money for the Bendigo Hospital with significant participation and contribution by the Chinese community over the past century and more. There are textiles and costumes in the collection which originated from Canton, Guagnzhou, and date from the 1880s.544 The most recognised Easter Fair item in the Golden Dragon Museum collection is the heritage listed Loong Chinese Dragon.545 Made in China and originally measuring about 60 metres long, Loong was carried by many dancers, to make his ceremonial way through the procession.
The Bendigo Archives Regional Centre (BRAC), located in the Goldfields Library, is an official place of deposit for state records relating to the region.546 Established in 2007, BRAC is a partnership between the Public Records Office of Victoria, the Goldfields Library Corporation and the City of Greater Bendigo to preserve local and regional records that document the history of the goldfields for the use and posterity of the community. The strength of the archive collection is in the council records held, particularly the rates books for the Greater Bendigo municipality, including the first rate book from 1856 for Sandhurst.
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There are more than twenty organisations that actively research and preserve the history and heritage of Greater Bendigo. These include local historical societies such as the Bendigo Historical Society, as well as societies that focus on the ethnic history of family groups that settled in the municipality, such as the Bendigo Chinese Association.547 There are also a number of societies that publish on place history, such as the Eaglehawk Heritage Society, Heathcote McIvor Historical Society and Huntly and Districts Historical Society.548 Other organisations are local branches of national groups, such as the Bendigo Family History Group of the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies and the Bendigo and District Branch of the National Trust of Australia.549
Many of these organisations have a representative that sits on the City of Greater Bendigo’s Heritage Advisory Committee. Comprised of both state government officers with expertise in heritage as well as community members and a councillor, the Heritage Advisory Committee provides advice to Council on strategy, planning, policy, development, promotion, funding, education and awareness on heritage matters.550
509 Serle, G, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victorian 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 1963, p. 19.
510 Serle, G, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victorian 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 1963, pp. 24 – 25. See also Mahar, C, 'Law and Order Overview', egold Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold online. Available: http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00008b.htm. Accessed 25 July 2011.
511 Serle, G, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victorian 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 1963, p. 23.
512 LaTrobe to S of S, 3 and 19 December 1851 as cited in Serle, G, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victorian 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 1963, p. 24.
513 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002, p. 65.
514 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 3, unpaginated.
515 Description of Agency VA 4862, Public Records Office Victoria. Available: www.prov.vic.gov.au, accessed 1 June 2011. Accessed 25 July 2011.
516 Bendigo Rates Books VPRS 16267/P1, 1856, unpaginated, Bendigo Regional Archives Centre.
517 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002, p. 117.
518 N Stimson, ‘Sandhurst Municipal Boundary’, report to City of Greater Bendigo Heritage Advisory Committee meeting, 19 April 2011.
519 Victorian Municipal Directory, 1938, p. 694, p. 849, and p. 493.
520 Victorian Municipal Directory, 1938, p.756, and p. 750.
521 Arnold, V H, Victorian Year Book 1973 Centenary Edition, Number 87m, Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Victorian Office, 1973, p. 454.
522 Victorian Municipal Directory, 1938, p. 370.
523 O’Callaghan, T, Names of Victorian Railway Stations, Melbourne, 1918, p. 28.
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524 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002, p. 84.
525 Serle, G, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victorian 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 1963, p. 17.
526 Jones, P, 'Chinese sojourners, immigrants and settlers in Victoria: an overview', MMA project, 2008. Available www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/doc/Jones_ChinOverview.pdf. Accessed 12 March 2013.
527 Hocking, G, The Red Ribbon Rebellion! : the Bendigo petition, 3rd-27th August, New Chum Press, Castlemaine, Vic, 2001, p
528 Including a reduction in the licence fee and penalty for not having a licence; and the unlocking of lands from the squatters’ grip; see Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, Vic, 1985, p. 18.
529 Serle, G, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victorian 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 1963, p. 82.
530 Victorian Government Gazette, no. 115, 8 December 1854, at http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1854&class=general&page_num=2817&state=V&clas sNum=G115&searchCode=3393300. Accessed February2013.
531 Victorian Government Gazette, no. 56, 13 June 1855, at http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1855&class=general&page_num=1419&state=V&clas sNum=G56&searchCode=3393306. Accessed February 2013.
532 Act for amending Laws Relative to the Gold Fields, 1857.
533 Jennings, S, ‘Landing a Vote: The past importance of land ownership as an electoral qualification in Victoria, Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, September 2007, No. 6, p. 3.
534 ‘Petitions of the People: Petitions from the Nineteenth Century Correspondence to the City of Sandhurst (Bendigo)’ Bendigo Regional Archives Centre Digitising Project, Bendigo City Council Inwards Correspondence 1856-1899, VPRS 16936. Available www.brac.vic.gov.au. Accessed 30 March 2013.
535 Maslunka, M, ‘Quick, Sir John (1852-1932)’, in Australian Dictionary of Biography, at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/quick-sir-john-8140. Accessed 12 March 2013.
536 Australian Heritage Council, Our House: histories of Australian Homes, Golden Square Police Quarters. Available: http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/ahc/publications/commission/books/ourhouse/vic08.ht ml. Accessed 30 August 2011.
537 Bendigo Law Courts, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;131. Accessed 25 July 2011.
538 Allom Lovell & Associates, ADI Bendigo: Conservation Analysis, June 1999, pp.5-8. See also Harrington Bullows, R, ‘The Bendigo Ordnance Factory’, in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 167.
539 Allom Lovell & Associates, ADI Bendigo: Conservation Analysis, June 1999, pp.5-8. See also Harrington Bullows, R, ‘The Bendigo Ordnance Factory’, in Butcher, M and Collins, Y M J (eds), Bendigo at Work: An Industrial History, Published by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo and District Branch, Strathdale, Vic, 2005, p. 167.
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540 See Thales website. http://www.thalesprotectedmobility.com.au/brochures/ProMob_8p_Folder_lowres_web.pdf
541 See National Trust citation, Victorian Heritage Database. http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;68334; and Victorian War Heritage Inventory, Victorian Heritage Database. http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;126158. Accessed 8 April 2013.
542 Bendigo Trust, ‘Central Deborah Gold Mine’s Story’, http://www.central- deborah.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=54. Accessed 8 April 2013.
543 Bendigo Trust, ‘Bendigo Tramways’, http://www.bendigotramways.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid= 58. Accessed 8 April 2013; ‘Discovery Science & Technology Centre’, http://www.discovery.asn.au/index.php/visit/about-us. Accessed 8 April 2013.
544 Golden Dragon Museum, http://www.goldendragonmuseum.org/exhibits_and_collections.html. Accessed 8 April 2013.
545 Loong, Chinese Dragon, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;14363. Accessed 8 April 2013.
546 Bendigo Regional Archives Centre, http://www.brac.vic.gov.au. Accessed 8 April 2013.
547 Bendigo Historical Society, http://www.bendigohistory.com/history.shtml and Bendigo Chinese Association http://www.bendigochinese.org.au/index.html. Accessed 1 June 2013
548 Eaglehawk Heritage Society, http://www.eaglehawkheritagesociety.org/; Heathcote McIvor Historical Society, http://victoriancollections.net.au/organisations/heathcote-mcivor- historical-society; Huntly and Districts Historical Society, http://www.cv.vic.gov.au/organisations/3492/huntly-districts-historical-society/. Accessed 8 April 2013.
549 Bendigo Family History Group, http://www.bendigofamilyhistory.org/; Bendigo and Region Branch, http://www.nationaltrust.org.au/vic/bendigo-region-branch. Accessed 8 April 2013.
550 City of Greater Bendigo, ‘Heritage Advisory Committee’, http://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/Residents_and_Services/Heritage/Heritage_Advisory_Committee. Accessed 8 April 2013.
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8.0 Theme 8: Building Greater Bendigo’s community life
Figure 71 Soldiers Memorial Institute, Pall Mall Source: Anthony Webster, Imagine Pictures, Thematic Environmental History Photography Project 2011.
The goldfields were renowned for a diversity of religious denominations, including minor sects. These denominations often built distinctive places of worship, from grand and opulent churches through to more simple, utilitarian and relatively unadorned buildings which are, in turn often reflective of the particular denomination’s belief system or in some cases a less affluent congregation. Earning an income from mining was not restricted to the men of a household – mining was often a family enterprise and children were there to work. This, combined with the transient nature of goldfields life, made delivery of education difficult. Adult education was an important aspect of goldfields life and educating miners in the technologies of mining and processing, including the increasingly specialised mining equipment, was much needed by the mining industry. However, despite improving industrial technologies, harsh conditions and unsafe mining practices had a significant impact on the health of the goldfields populations. The great wealth generated by the gold rushes was put to monumental purposes but many public structures were also funded by miners’ subscription.
8.1 Maintaining spiritual life
Within months of gold being discovered in the area in 1852, the Catholic priest, Rev Henry Backhaus celebrated the first mass, conducting services in a bark and slab chapel built by
144 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 the diggers.551 Religious services were also held in the open air, delivered by both travelling preachers and lay people.
The minister’s life was arduous, travelling long distances on rough roads between settlements, and preaching moral and spiritual enlightenment to an itinerant and not always receptive population. The ‘unsettled life of the miner’ did not afford a very encouraging field ‘for the labors of the clergymen’.552 In 1853, The Argus reported that there was a ‘very small’ chance of getting a minister of ‘any persuasion’ to the McIvor diggings.553
The provisions of mining licences required that ‘…all Persons on the Gold Fields maintain and assist in maintaining due and proper observance of Sundays…’; Goldfields Commissioners were also to ensure that ‘…Sundays are properly observed’.554 While the majority of diggers stopped mining on Sundays, those who observed the day as one of rest and worship were in the minority. As Mrs Andrew Campbell noted, most ‘…took the day to wash and mend their clothes, fell trees, repair their tents, and when they had not these to do spent it in drinking, gambling, and idleness.’555
As new townships took shape, church buildings were often the first of the more permanent structures. Canvas tents and open air services were replaced by timber and then brick churches. From the mid-1850s, major denominations were granted church reserves, often on prominently sited blocks in towns. Manses, presbyteries, and all forms of accommodation for priests and parsons were also built. Between 1851 and 1871 the number of churches in Victoria experienced an extraordinary increase, from less than forty to over two and a half thousand.556
Methodists were prominent in the early goldfields, especially in the western gullies.557 According to Serle, trained lay members could take up preaching and pastoral work, form a congregation, start a Sunday School, and build a church even if suitably qualified clergy were not available.558 The multiple small Methodist churches across the municipality stand as testament to their success. In contrast, the Catholic Church tended to lag, requiring consecrated priests, often from Ireland, to establish parishes and from this basis, develop their properties.
The high number of churches, including often multiple churches in comparatively small townships, is a distinguishing characteristic of the Greater Bendigo area. Towns could accommodate Church of England, Catholic, Wesleyan and Presbyterian churches. Early churches also reflect the relative strength or presence of the different ethnic groups on the goldfields. The Wesleyan Church at Long Gully was established by the Cornish community, while St Kilians Catholic Church at Sandhurst was connected to the Irish.
Chinese migrants worshipped in Joss Houses. Up to seven Joss Houses were erected by different groups in the Ironbark camp, and there were others at Golden Square, Eaglehawk and in the Long Gully Camp.559 Constructed in the late 1860s, the sole surviving Joss House in Bendigo, and one of the only remaining buildings of its type in Australia, was preserved as an historic site by the National Trust in 1970. Now managed by the Bendigo Trust, the Bendigo Chinese Temple is a rare and tangible link to Chinese religious practices of the nineteenth century goldfields.
In 1856, land in Sandhurst was set aside for a synagogue for the growing Jewish population.560 The synagogue was designed by Vahland and Getzschmann and constructed in 1872 on what is now Hopetoun Street.561 This building was eventually demolished in 1926.
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Figure 72 Sunday Camp Meeting by S T Gill dated 1869 depicts an open air sermon on the goldfields. Source: State Library of Victoria.
Figure 73 Bendigo Synagogue, undated. Source: http://intranet.cbhslewisham.nsw.edu.au
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Figure 74 Methodist Church, High Street, Eaglehawk. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1458)
As the alluvial rushes died down and much of the itinerant population dissipated, a number of churches, especially those in smaller townships, fell into disuse. Elsewhere, larger facilities were required for expanding congregations. The Catholic Church in Sandhurst had grown sufficiently for the formation of a local diocese and the appointment of a bishop. A cathedral reflecting the status of the congregation, of a suitable scale and magnificence, was also required. Construction of the Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral commenced in 1896 although the building was not finished until 1977.562
As the makeup of the goldfields communities has changed and evolved, and many of the traditional congregations have declined, there has been a rise in charismatic, evangelical and Pentecostal churches. However, people identifying with the Catholic, Anglican and Uniting Churches remain the most numerous in the municipality. In more recent times, the Atisha Centre in Myers Flat introduced Tibetan Buddhism to the region (in 1981) and continues the tradition of religious diversity practiced in the Greater Bendigo municipality.563
Related places
Sites associated with early church services Early church buildings Church reserves Churches and places of worship associated with various denominations, including synagogues, Joss Houses and gompas Manses, presbyteries and parsonages
8.2 Educating people
By December 1852, there were almost 12,000 children on the Victorian diggings,564 and many were expected to help their families find gold. There was apprehension about the consequences of allowing these children to remain uneducated, including concern that the
LOVELL CHEN 2013 147 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 children might ‘learn to love a lawless life’, and not become the much needed next generation of industrious miners.565
Early classes were held in canvas tents or in rudimentary wooden buildings.566 Church buildings were also used as classrooms, and some small private schools opened for varying periods during the 1850s. They were often single teacher schools, such as that opened by Mrs Lucas in Heathcote in 1859, and relied on parents having the necessary income to pay the higher fees.567
Prior to the establishment of formal schools, educated people including journalists and lawyers sometimes held informal lessons for children on the diggings.568 Quality teachers were difficult to find and retain and the Goldfields’ Commission acknowledged the difficult circumstances for education.569 Inspections in the late 1850s revealed that the majority of existing ‘school’ facilities were in a deplorable condition, with teachers working in ‘old dilapidated stores, or deserted public houses, which barely afford shelter from sun or storm’.570
By the mid-1850s, school reserves were set aside during surveys of goldfields townships. As well as government schools, religious institutions were also allocated land for educational purposes, including in Sandhurst the Free Presbyterian School in 1856; Church of England School in 1861; and Evangelical Lutheran School prior to 1859.571 By 1860, the Wesleyans had constructed nine schools in Sandhurst, and were loaning three of them to the Presbyterians.572
School funding was based on the New South Wales model, incorporating a Denominational Board, which managed schools established by religious institutions, and National Board, which managed non-sectarian schools. By 1859, the Denominational Board had fifty large tents on the goldfields being used as churches and schools, and housing a total enrolment of 3,326.573
In 1862, a single Board of Education was established,574 and in 1872, Victoria became the first Australian colony to introduce free, compulsory and secular education; school attendance subsequently increased by approximately fifty percent.575 The Department of Education was also established, which subsequently controlled all aspects of state primary education. Church schools retained an independent system, although state aid to these schools ceased in January 1874.576
Following the Education Act of 1872, there was a rush of school building activity throughout the municipality from Sandhurst to Wild Duck Creek.577 Many of these were simple, one room common schools but standard plans for classrooms/schools, based on English models, had been available since 1866.578 Standard plans were frequently altered to suit local conditions and available materials.
Some schools were built by prominent architects. Kangaroo Flat Common School was designed by Vahland and Getzschmann and built by George Pallett, a notable builder in the region.579 School buildings could therefore be quite varied; from temporary timber structures to solid brick buildings that were extended according to need over time.
The government provided financial incentives to communities to purchase or donate land for the construction of a school.580 Schools were also relocated according to need. Mount Camel primary school was relocated from Kyneton Road to Mount Camel in 1927, after the local Soldier Settlement Scheme generated increased demand.581
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Figure 75 State School Heathcote by photographer A E Frost, 1910. Source: State Library of Victoria.
Figure 76 Corporation High School, Bendigo, in c. 1872, now forms part of the Bendigo Senior Secondary College Campus. Source: State Library of Victoria.
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Figure 77 Primary School No 210, Eaglehawk. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 364).
During the 1870s several secondary schools opened, including the Corporate High School in the Camp Reserve, now Bendigo Senior Secondary College. The Sisters of Mercy established the first local Catholic secondary school, St Aloysius, in 1876. In 1893 the Marist Brothers took over education for boys at the Marist Brothers College.582 As well as religious schools, a variety of private and finishing schools were additionally established in the larger centres. By 1888 some twenty one private schools, with enrolments totalling 1,800 pupils, were operating.583
Other buildings have a more varied association with secondary education. In 1907, the Bendigo Supreme Court was acquired by the Education Department and converted for use as a Continuation School, which operated until 1927. It was subsequently used for a number of years by the Bendigo Teachers College, before closing and then re-opening as the Bendigo Girls School of Domestic Arts in 1937.584 In 1959 the building was taken over by Bendigo High School and in 2013 it continues to be part of the Bendigo Senior Secondary College campus.585
In the townships, secondary educational facilities were generally established much later. Land for a high school was slated for Eaglehawk in 1949 but the school was not opened until 1964.586 Other secondary schools were established in the 1960s at Golden Square, Flora Hill and Kangaroo Flat.587
Private schools, including secondary schools that continue to provide education in Greater Bendigo include Girton Grammar School in Bendigo (begun in Stawell in 1884), Catholic College Bendigo at Junortoun (1983) and Victory Christian College, Strathdale (1995).588
Self-instruction, moral improvement through education, and the betterment of the working man were the aims of the Mechanics Institute movement. Amidst the chaos of the goldfields Mechanics Institutes were popular and an alternative to the entertainment provided by shanty hotels and concert halls.589
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Figure 78 School of Mines Bendigo, c. 1910. Source: State Library of Victoria.
Figure 79 Athenaeum and Memorial Hall, including former Free Library, Elmore. Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1744).
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Most institutes incorporated a free lending library, provided access to newspapers, and were used as venues for lectures and related activities. Orators travelled from town to town offering lectures on topics ranging from natural history, geology, technical advances to overseas events.590 Mechanics Institutes were eventually established throughout Bendigo and in most goldfields towns including Heathcote (1859) and Mia Mia (1907).591 Other groups and societies, including Progress Associations and science societies also fostered the development of adult-educational facilities and opportunities.
The Sandhurst Mechanics’ Institute and Literary and Scientific Association opened on McCrae Street in 1856, incorporating a lending library, reading room, museum and lecture room.592 In 1871 the Institute proposed establishing a School of Mines, to provide scientific and practical training in mining practices and technology, albeit not exclusively. The school was originally located in the Institute building, with classes beginning in about 1873, although from the 1870s through to the early decades of the twentieth century, the school expanded across the site. Buildings and additions, some of which were designed by Vahland, included laboratories for the study of chemistry and metallurgy, and workshops and classrooms. In the late nineteenth century, an octagonal library and large public lecture hall were added to the Mechanics’ Institute and School of Mines complex. In the 1920s a Junior Technical College was constructed at the east corner of the site. In 1959 the School of Mines became the Bendigo Technical College; the Institute of Technology in 1965, and later a TAFE college.593
These adult education facilities have continued to expand in the municipality, with the addition of the Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE and Bendigo campus of La Trobe University. With around 4000 students, the Bendigo campus has grown steadily since its establishment in 1991 and is now La Trobe University’s second largest campus. Monash University has also established the Bendigo Regional Clinical School, which offers clinical training for medical students.
Related places
Early goldfields school buildings and teaching facilities School reserves Schools established under the 1860s and 1870s legislation Properties associated with various private, religious and finishing schools Early high/secondary schools Technical schools Mechanics Institutes Buildings associated with various adult-education groups and programs School of Mines facilities Tertiary education facilities
8.3 Providing health and welfare
Early health services were unable to cope with the conditions of the goldfields. Medical professionals were mostly affiliated with the government camps and employees and doctors were generally inaccessible to other than wealthy residents.594 By 1853 there were five doctors in private practice in Heathcote as well as the camp doctor.595 A high proportion of those claiming to be doctors on the goldfields also, in all likelihood, had no, or limited, professional qualifications, but benefited from the high demand for medical attention and lack of regulation.596
Prospecting methods consumed vast amounts of water, often leaving little for washing or drinking. That which did remain, including in creeks, was often contaminated.597 Poor sanitation and unhygienic food preparation practices, coupled with the lack of water, also contributed to outbreaks of disease.
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Figure 80 Sandhurst Hospital showing clock tower and additional wings, 25 May 1865. Source: State Library of Victoria.
Figure 81 Bendigo Benevolent Asylum and Industrial School, photograph by J W Forbes, 1875. Source: National Library of Australia.
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There was additionally in the early gold rush period little access to fresh vegetables, and diggers largely relied on a diet of mutton. Dysentery was an almost continual problem in summer, as was ‘sandy blight’ or trachoma, an eye disease present in populations with poor hygiene and little or no public health controls.598 Mining itself was also dangerous, and there were frequent accidents, injuries and deaths.
Demand for a hospital on the goldfields was growing in 1852, with the first hospital at Sandhurst built on Hospital Hill the following year.599 By 1854, Sandhurst had a district surgeon, and a medical association had also been established.600 A small stone hospital was also constructed at Heathcote in 1859, largely financed through public subscription.601
In 1857 a site bounded by Lucan, Arnold, Stewart and Bayne streets in Sandhurst was reserved for a more permanent hospital.602 Designed by Vahland and Getzschmann, the hospital was constructed and then periodically extended, with later works including two additional wings in 1864, a clock tower in 1866, ‘lunacy wards’ in 1871 and a nurses’ home in 1900.603
Philanthropy played a significant role in the establishment of health and welfare related facilities. Following the death of his father, mine owner J B Watson, John Boyd also set up the Watson Sustentation Fund to provide assistance to miners who were permanently disabled in his mines.604 Various wealthy locals, including mining investor Thomas Luxton, contributed to the fund.605
From the 1850s, Chinese herbalists and doctors offered health services on the goldfields. Doctors such as James Lamsey (1831-1912) had both Chinese and European patients. Born in Canton into a family of physicians, Lamsey trained at King’s College and the Canton Hospital.606 Like Lamsey, many of these health practitioners were located in the Chinese area near Bendigo Creek, forming an eastern section of the goldfields health precinct. A sign advertising Lamsey’s services can still be seen on one of the buildings in Farmer’s Lane.
Adult males could subscribe themselves and their families to one of forty or so Friendly Societies, including the Rechabites, Oddfellows, Hibernians, Druids and Ancient Foresters. These societies provided insurance against accident, illness and death for miners and their families.607 One of the oldest, the Bendigo United Friendly Society Dispensary, began in 1872 to provide medicine and advice to its membership. Nearly a century and a half later, the Friendly Society continues to operate as the UFS Pharmacy with seven stores.608
Private hospitals were also popular although many were short lived. In 1877, the Heathcote Post Office was converted to private hospital facilities, and was known as Ivy Cottage. It operated sporadically from 1877 to 1912, and the building is still extant. Similarly, a brick house at Brightwell’s Hill opened as a private hospital in 1913, and continued to operate until at least 1921.609
Charitable institutions also offered care, including Benevolent Asylums and infirmaries for the young, old and infirm. The Bendigo Benevolent Asylum was constructed in 1860 to the design of architect Robert Alexander Love.610 Originally intended as a home for the aged, infirm and destitute, the complex has also housed an industrial school for neglected children (1868-85), and a maternity hospital for destitute women (1884-1920).611 The Benevolent Asylum also ran a program of ‘Outdoor Relief’, first introduced in 1860, which distributed food to the needy.612
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Figure 82 Former St Aidan’s Orphanage, Kennington, (est. 1905). Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 2057).
St Aidan’s Orphanage, in St Aidan’s Road, Kennington, was established in 1905. It was run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and is regarded as one of the ‘largest and most visible’ former charitable institutions in Victoria.613 St Luke's Toddlers' Home in Bendigo, also known as Langley Hall, was established by the Mission of St James and St John in 1932. The home accommodated children from 18 months to five years of age, and closed in the late 1970s.614
From 1968, the old Benevolent Asylum was known as the Bendigo Home and Hospital for the Aged, and in 1995 it merged with Bendigo Hospital to form the Bendigo Health Care Group. This building is now known as the Anne Caudle Centre.
In 1995, the Bendigo Health Care Group was formed from the three major health providers in Bendigo, being the Bendigo Hospital, Anne Caudle Centre and Bendigo and Region Psychiatric Services. Bendigo Health is also recognised as a major teaching facility, for medical, nursing and allied health students.615
Related places
Early goldfields hospitals and hospital reserves Chinese herbalist properties Early pharmacies and dispensaries Friendly Societies’ buildings Benevolent asylums and infirmaries Orphanages
8.4 Preserving traditions and commemorating
Many public memorials were built by citizens who had made their wealth through gold, and in a generous civic spirit funded the construction of statues and monuments. This civic spirit was also shared by many in the wider mining community and it was also common for monuments to be funded and built through public subscription.
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Figure 83 Looking from Charing Cross north-west along Pall Mall, c.1915, with the Alexandra Fountain (of 1881) at centre left. Source: State Library of Victoria
The Alexandra Fountain (1881), designed by Vahland, sited at the south end of Pall Mall was built from the proceeds of the Bendigo Juvenile Industrial Exhibition of 1879, a generous gift from mining magnate, George Lansell, and money from the Sandhurst City Council.616 Important local figures, like George Lansell, were also commemorated. When Lansell died in 1906, he was honoured with a statue at the edge of the Queen Victoria Gardens on Pall Mall. At the north end of Pall Mall, the Discovery of Gold Jubilee Statue (1906), sculpted by Charles Douglas Richardson, was built with funds from the Gold Jubilee Exhibition held in 1902 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of gold in the area.617
Australia’s first major contribution to an international conflict was the Boer War in South Africa, between 1899 and 1902. Heathcote has a Boer War memorial, in the form of a drinking fountain and streetlight.
Some 500 people from the Bendigo district died in World War One.618 Community members purchased a brick stamped with ‘White Hills’ on one side and ‘Memorial Arch’ on the other, and through this public subscription, raised the funds to construct the Arch of Triumph in White Hills.619 As the entrance to the historic Bendigo Botanic Gardens, White Hills, the Arch is one of only 4 World War One arches in Victoria and it is unique in its Mannerist design.620 World War One memorials were also erected at Brassey Square, Eaglehawk, and in the local Garden of Remembrance at Huntly. Returned soldiers also formed organisations, resulting in buildings such as the Returned Soldiers' Memorial Hall on Pall Mall, which opened in November 1921.621
World War Two, later wars including Korea and Vietnam, and more recent overseas conflicts are also commemorated, often on or associated with the earlier World War One memorial. Kangaroo Flat has an example: the surrounds were constructed to enclose the World War One memorial, raised through public subscription in the late 1920s and unveiled on ANZAC
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Day in 1930.622 The Sandakan memorial (1996) on the McIvor Highway in Bendigo is a purpose-built World War Two memorial.
Public commemoration continues, including through the establishment in 2011 of a memorial to the Black Saturday bushfires on the Marong Road. Designed by landscape architect Karoline Klein, the memorial references the timeline of events surrounding 7 February 2009.623
Avenues of honour, where trees were planted along main streets and principal roads, often in the 1920s, are another common form of war memorial. Examples include the avenues at Epsom consisting of Cotton Palm (Washingtonia filifera); Goornong along the Midland Highway; Kangaroo Flat consisting of Sugar Gum (Eucalyptus cladocalyx) along the Calder Highway; and the small avenue of Canary Island Palm (Phoenix canariensis) in Marong.
Following their ill-fated journey to cross the continent, Burke, Wills, Gray and King were honoured in 1862 through a public memorial funded by the people of Bendigo. The striking monument - in the form of a Corinthian column mounted on a foundation stone, and topped by Grecian-style urn draped with the Union Jack - is located in the Back Creek Cemetery. It was designed by Adam Duncan, with the stone reputedly quarried from New Chum Mine.624
Bicentennial projects such as the Major Mitchell Trail retrace the explorer’s historic journey through Redesdale, Heathcote and Costerfield. The trail can be followed through and beyond the municipality enabling motorists to retrace Mitchell’s journey, with the entire route covering 2100 km.625
Related places
War memorials, in all forms Avenues of honour Fountains, statues, and monuments to significant people and events
8.5 Marking the phases of life
In the early years diggers buried their own dead, using simple wooden coffins, boxes, or bark wrapping, and often in shallow graves with few markings.626 Many diggers also passed away anonymously. Informal graves were associated with each new rush; in some locations these were grouped together as informal cemeteries, but lone graves also existed across the diggings. The oldest lone grave in Bendigo is that of Cornish immigrant Maria Ninnes and her two children in Maiden Gully, who perished from illness on the goldfields in 1852.627
An unconsecrated non-denominational burial ground operated close to Bendigo Creek from 1853, with the approximately 10 acre site appearing on a government survey as 'burial ground'.628 In the same year, the Victorian government passed An Act for the Establishment and Management of Cemeteries in Victoria, facilitating the establishment of official burial sites throughout the colony. The Act required a burial ground to be at least one mile from a town, forcing the closure of some earlier cemeteries, including the cemetery at Back Creek.629
The following year and in accordance with the Act, trustees were appointed for the cemeteries at Kangaroo Flat, Lockwood and White Hills. At the latter cemetery, as was typical, separate sections were set aside for different denominations, including the Independents, Society of Friends, Wesleyans, Anglicans, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics. Space for Chinese burials and 'Other Denominations' was located in the rear sections of the cemetery.630 In accordance with popular conceptions of cemeteries, the grounds were also laid out in an ornamental fashion, with the denominational sections delineated by a path system.
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Figure 84 Entrance to White Hills Cemetery. Source: Victorian Heritage Regiister online (VHR 2136)
It is estimated that up to 1000 Chinese burials took place at White Hills, and approximately 260 footstones survive from 1854.631 Chinese people were also buried at Kangaroo Flat, Bendigo and Eaglehawk cemeteries, along with informal burials in unconsecrated ground.
Establishment of cemeteries often depended on the size of the population and the rate of development of a township. While a formal cemetery had been designated at Axedale by the mid-1850s, it was not until 1863 that a cemetery site was identified for Eaglehawk.632
Related places
Early unofficial cemeteries Town cemeteries and cemetery reserves Lone graves Cemetery infrastructure, including buildings, monuments, layout and landscaping
551 St Kilians Church, Bendigo, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;1274. Accessed 16 September 2011.
552 Original source not provided. Donati, L, 'Religion', egold Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available: http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00130b.htm. Accessed 16 September 2011.
553 The Argus, 2 November 1853, p.4, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/4798943. Accessed 13 March 2013.
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554 Mahra, C, 'Recreation and Entertainment', egold Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available: http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00113b.htm. Accessed 16 September 2011.
555 Donati, L, 'Religion', egold Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available: http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00130b.htm. Accessed 9 August 2011.
556 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 4, unpaginated.
557 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 7, unpaginated.
558 Serle, G, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victorian 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 1963, p. 342.
559 Bendigo Chinese Association Museum Inc, Chinese Footsteps: Historical Sites of Bendigo – links with the Chinese Community, Golden Dragon Museum, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, p. 29.
560 The Victorian Government Gazette, 12 August 1856.
561 Historical Time Line, Bendigo Historical Society. Available: http://www.bendigohistory.com/historical_timeline.shtml. Accessed 16 September 2011.
562 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 7, unpaginated.
563 Atisha Buddhist Centre. Available http://www.atishacentre.org.au. Accessed 4 March 2013.
564 Australian History Life in the Goldfields. Available: http://www.australianhistory.org/goldfield-life. Accessed 25 July 2011.
565 Third Report of the Commissioners of National Education, 1854-55, Victoria Legislative Council, 1856 as cited in Blake, L J, Vision and Realisation: A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, Education Department of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic, 1973, p. 36.
566 The Valley of the Springs: Spring Gully’s first 127 years, n.d.; The Argus, 7 February 1853, p. 5.
567 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002.
568 Children on the Goldfields, NSW Department of Primary Industries. Available: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/109324/children-on-the-goldfields.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2011.
569 Donati, L, 'Schools', eGold: Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available: http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00126b.htm. Accessed 25 July 2011.
570 No original citation included, Blake, L J, Vision and Realisation: A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, Education Department of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic, 1973, p. 38.
571 The Victorian Government Gazette, 3 October 1856, p. 3; 11 February 1861, p. 286; 20 May 1859, p. 1.
572 Blake, L J, Vision and Realisation: A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, Education Department of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic, 1973, p. 55.
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573 Blake, L J, Vision and Realisation: A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, Education Department of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic, 1973, p. 37.
574 VA 713, Board of Education, Public Record Office Victoria. Available: http://www.access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/component/daPublicBaseContainer?component=daView Agency&breadcrumbPath=Home/Access%20the%20Collection/Browse%20The%20Collection/Age ncy%20Details&entityId=VA%20713. Accessed 16 September 2011.
575 VA 713, Board of Education, Public Record Office Victoria. Available: http://www.access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/component/daPublicBaseContainer?component=daView Agency&breadcrumbPath=Home/Access%20the%20Collection/Browse%20The%20Collection/Age ncy%20Details&entityId=VA%20713. Accessed 16 September 2011.
576 VA 713, Board of Education, Public Record Office Victoria. Available: http://www.access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/component/daPublicBaseContainer?component=daView Agency&breadcrumbPath=Home/Access%20the%20Collection/Browse%20The%20Collection/Age ncy%20Details&entityId=VA%20713. Accessed 16 September 2011.
577 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002; information also provided by Heathcote McIvor Historical Society.
578 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 4, unpaginated.
579 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002.
580 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002.
581 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002.
582 Catholic College Bendigo. Available: http://www.ccb.vic.edu.au/home/about. Accessed 16 September 2011.
583 Cusack, F, Bendigo: A History, Revised edition, Lerk and McClure, Bendigo, 2002, p. 177.
584 The Girls School of Domestic Arts was established earlier, in 1916, and was reputedly the first such school in Victoria. Information provided by Dr Michele Matthews, May 2012.
585 Former Supreme Court, Bendigo, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;137. Accessed 16 September 2011.
586 Eaglehawk Secondary School. Available: http://www.eaglehawksc.vic.edu.au/schoolHistory.asp. Accessed 26 August 2011.
587 Information provided by Dr Michele Matthews, May 2012.
588 Girton Grammar School, Bendigo. Available: http://www.ccb.vic.edu.au ; Catholic College Bendigo. Available: http://www.ccb.vic.edu.au; Victory Christian College. Available: http://www.vcc.vic.edu.au. Accessed 12 March 2013.
589 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002.
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590 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002.
591 Baragwanath, P, If the Walls Could Speak: A Social History of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria, Mechanics Institute Inc, Richmond, Vic, 2000, various pages.
592 Building the City, Bendigo Historical Society. Available: http://www.bendigohistory.com/building_the_city.shtml. Accessed 21 September 2011. See also Baragwanath, P, If the Walls Could Speak: A Social History of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria, Mechanics Institute Inc, Richmond, Vic, 2000, p. 66.
593 Former Mechanics Institute and School of Mines, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/#detail_places;129. Accessed 20 May 2012.
594 Function VF 125, Public Health, Public record Office Victoria. Available: http://access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/component/daPublicBaseContainer?component=daViewFunct ion&breadcrumbPath=Home/Access%20the%20Collection/Browse%20The%20Collection/Function %20Details&entityId=VF%20125. Accessed 26 July 2011.
595 Earth-Tech, Heritage Study Heathcote – Strathfieldsaye, Thematic History, prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo, 2002, p. 44.
596 Serle, G, The Golden Age: A history of the colony of Victoria 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1977, p. 81.
597 Russell, G, Water for Gold: The fight to quench central Victoria’s goldfields, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic, 2009, p. 15.
598 Serle, G, The Golden Age: A history of the colony of Victoria 1851 – 1861, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1977, p. 80.
599 Lloyd, D, Domestic Comforts, 2003, p. 2.
600 Function VF 125, Public Health, Public Record Office Victoria. Available: http://access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/component/daPublicBaseContainer?component=daViewFunction&br eadcrumbPath=Home/Access%20the%20Collection/Browse%20The%20Collection/Function%20Details& entityId=VF%20125. Accessed 26 July 2011.
601 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Shire of McIvor, Heathcote, Vic, 1985, p. 159.
602 Heritage Alliance, Conservation Management Plan Bendigo Health’s Anne Caudle Campus, prepared for Bendigo Health, 2009, p. 10.
603 Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, p. 94.
604 J B Watson, Australian Dictionary of Biography online. Available: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/watson-john-boyd-4812. Accessed 26 August 2011.
605 Thomas Luxton, Australian Dictionary of Biography online. Available: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/luxton-thomas-4049. Accessed 26 August 2011.
606 Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia. Available http://www.chia.chinesemuseum.com.au. Accessed 13 March 2013.
607 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 7, unpaginated.
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608 UFS Pharmacies. Available http://www.bendigoufs.com.au/history.asp. Accessed 13 March 2013.
609 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, 1985, p. 173.
610 Butcher, M and Flanders, G, Bendigo Historic Buildings, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), Bendigo, Vic, 1987, p. 94.
611 Heritage Alliance, Conservation Management Plan Bendigo Health’s Anne Caudle Campus, prepared for Bendigo Health, 2009, p. 23.
612 Heritage Alliance, Conservation Management Plan Bendigo Health’s Anne Caudle Campus, prepared for Bendigo Health, 2009, p. 23. The benevolent programs were particularly important in the 1930s, when food, boots, blankets, etc, were distributed. Information provided by Dr Michele Matthews, May 2012.
613 St Aidan’s Orphanage, VHR citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/result_detail/12952?print=true. Accessed 20 May 2012.
614 Find and Connect Australia. Available: http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/vic/biogs/E000096b.htm. Accessed May 2012.
615 Bendigo Health. Available: http://www.newbendigohospital.org.au/bendigo_health_history.asp. Accessed 19 February 2012.
616 Alexandra Fountain, Bendigo, National Trust Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;68184. Accessed 13 March 2013.
617 Discovery of Gold Jubilee statue, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;5148. Accessed 13 March 2013.
618 The Bendigo Advertiser, 26 April 2011.
619 City of Greater Bendigo and Friends of Bendigo Botanic Gardens, White Hills Botanic Gardens Bendigo 1857 – 2007, City of Greater Bendigo, 2008, p. 9.
620 White Hills Arch of Triumph, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;125230. Accessed 13 March 2013.
621 Returned Solders Memorial Hall, Bendigo, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;5150. Accessed 4 August 2011.
622 Hammill, W, Photographic History of Kangaroo Flat 1993, volume 1, Sloans Printery, 1993, unpaginated.
623 ‘Bendigo’s Bush Fire Memorial’, ABC Central Victoria. Available: http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2011/04/15/3192516.htm. Accessed 16 September 2011.
624 See http://www.burkeandwills.net.au/Memorials/bendigo.htm. Accessed 19 February 2012.
625 See the ‘Major Mitchell Trail’ at http://www.mapsdownunder.com.au/cgi- bin/mapshop/MM-111315.html. Accessed 19 February 2012.
626 Donati, L, 'Cemeteries', egold Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available: http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00124b.htm. Accessed 16 September 2011.
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627 Lovell Chen, Bendigo Heritage Policy Citations Review, Volume 2, Citations, ‘Ninnes Lone Grave and Reserve’ Allotment 36, Parish of Marong, Maiden Gully, prepared for City of Greater Bendigo, 2010.
628 White Hills Cemetery, White Hills, Bendigo. Available: http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;1641. Accessed 16 September 2011.
629 Bendigo Heritage Cemeteries. Available: http://bendigoheritagecemeteries.wordpress.com/2009/06/. Accessed 16 September 2011.
630 Bendigo Cemeteries Trust. Available: http://www.bencemtrust.com.au/cemeteries.asp?id=18 . Accessed 16 September 2011.
631 White Hills Cemetery, White Hills, Bendigo. Available: http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;1641. Accessed 16 September 2011.
632 Bendigo Cemeteries Trust. Available: http://www.bencemtrust.com.au/cemeteries.asp?id=17. Accessed 19 February 2012.
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9.0 Theme 9: Shaping Greater Bendigo’s cultural and creative life
Figure 85 Former Masonic Hall, now The Capital Theatre, Bendigo Source: Anthony Webster, Imagine Pictures, Thematic Environmental History Photography Project 2011.
Regulation of working hours provided time, outside of labour and livelihood, for sport and recreation. In the hard life of miners, sporting pursuits such as horse racing, cricket, football, boxing, gymnastics, athletics and foot races were popular. With increasing affluence, sports also became more regulated. Local councils provided sporting facilities such as horse and foot racing tracks, cricket and football grounds, and later swimming pools, bowling greens and tennis courts. The goldfields were also known for a culture of heavy drinking and the emergence of temperance halls promoted other activities such as lectures, recitals, concerts, meetings and theatre. The wealthy cosmopolitan nature of the goldfields nurtured a picture gallery and several grand theatres in the nineteenth century and a number of ornate cinemas in the early twentieth century. This strong tradition of arts and culture continues today with the Bendigo Art Gallery, The Capital Theatre and La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre.
9.1 Participating in sport and recreation
One of the oldest sports played in Greater Bendigo was horseracing. According to Andrew Lemon, the first horse races on the Bendigo goldfields were held in April 1854 ‘on the course below the Seventh White Hill’, believed to be near the location of the current Epsom racecourse.633
As the popularity of horse racing boomed, racing tracks were quickly established including at Axedale, Redesdale and Epsom. Reserves for racing tracks were also set aside in township
164 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013 surveys. According to J O Randell, races were held at Heathcote as early as January 1854,634 although land was not reserved in the town for the purposes of establishing a racecourse until 1860.635
Horse racing was regarded as a pursuit worthy of gentlemen, and a means of asserting colonial social hierarchies.636 By the late nineteenth century, the industry had paid racing club officials, trainers, jockeys and stable-hands.637
After World War Two, however, horse racing was increasingly centralised in Melbourne and many of the rural racecourses declined in popularity. In the late 1960s a number of smaller racecourses were de-licensed, including the historic Heathcote course.638
Race tracks at Epsom and Elmore continue to be in frequent use by the Bendigo Jockey Club and Elmore Racing Club. At Junorton there are two tracks, one used for harness racing and the other for greyhound racing.639 The Bendigo Cup remains a popular horse racing event. The Victorian public holiday for race day is observed for the Bendigo Cup Day, not Melbourne Cup.
Cricket was introduced to the Sandhurst district in the early 1850s and interest in the game accelerated during that decade. Teams were demarcated by their country of origin, and some of the first matches were played between the Australian Club and Albion Club, with the former comprising Australian-born players and the latter English-born. In other early games, married men played single men.640
In January 1861 the Bendigo United Cricket Club was formed, and in March 1861, six acres of land at Back Creek was set aside for a cricket ground.641 Echoing the make-up of the goldfields’ communities, the club mainly comprised migrants. This ground later became known as Kennington Oval.
At Heathcote, a cricket team was formally established in 1859. Early home games were played at Barrack Reserve; other matches were played at Mia Mia and Axedale.642 In 1862, an English team of professionals toured Australia and played at Bendigo; the popularity and profitability of their games encouraged the development of cricket on the goldfields. By the 1870s, cricket clubs were established at View Point, Chewton, Eaglehawk, Happy Valley, Long Gully, North Bendigo, West Bendigo, Epsom and Sydney Flat; other teams bore the names of local businesses.643
The first women’s cricket match in Australia was played at Sandhurst on 7 April 1874, for the purpose of raising funds for the Bendigo Hospital and Asylum.644
Bendigo United Cricket Club joined the Victorian Cricket association in 1879, and around the turn of the century the Bendigo Cricket Association was formed. Four teams participated in the first season: Kangaroo Flat, Bendigo United, North Bendigo and Long Gully.645
From the 1930s, various cricket associations ran the local competitions, for instance Costerfield, Mia Mia, Knowsley, Axedale and Toolleen have played in various Heathcote Cricket Associations.646
In 2011, following extensive refurbishment, Bendigo’s Queen Elizabeth Oval was reopened for use by Bendigo Cricket club and Bendigo and District Cricket Association, as well as Sandhurst Football/Netball Club, South Bendigo Football/Netball Club, Bendigo Football/Netball League, and the two football clubs, Bendigo Pioneers and Bendigo Gold.
Australian Rules Football was invented in Melbourne in the late 1850s, purportedly to provide winter sport for cricketers. Most of the early football clubs sprang from cricket clubs and played on cricket fields.647
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Figure 86 A boxing match at Mia Mia, c. 1890. Source: Gilbert J Dunning, State Library of Victoria.
The formation of the Bendigo District Football Association in 1880 prompted the establishment of additional local teams. The first premiership competition under the auspices of the new Association was won by Bendigo in 1880.648 In 1906, a rival organisation, the Bendigo and Northern District Football Association was established although it was soon disbanded. The Bendigo District Football Association was superseded in 1913, by the Bendigo Football League.649
Clubs were frequently formed and disbanded, according to club finances and player availability. There were also many industry clubs, sponsored by local companies. Eaglehawk Football Club was founded in 1882, Kangaroo Flat in 1890, and South Bendigo in 1893. Golden Square was formed later, in 1932, and Strathfieldsaye more recently in 2008.
Boxing, gymnastics and athletics did not require expensive facilities or equipment, and boxing tents were amongst the first sporting facilities introduced to the goldfields. While the majority of matches were bare-knuckle bouts between locals, ‘gloved exhibitions’ of boxing, put on by travelling boxing troupes, often featured interstate and overseas fighters. The police could shut matches down, meaning that fights were often held in secrecy.650
In the 1890s, The Argus reported frequent boxing matches in various locations in Bendigo and surrounding towns. Matches were held at the Bendigo Athletics Club, which by 1892 had reportedly improved their rooms so as to be ‘the second best in Victoria.’651 Other venues included the Australian Natives Association Hall in Bendigo.
Professional foot-running, or ‘pedestrianism’ as it was initially known, began on the goldfields. Miners competed on handicap for a ‘gift’, usually a piece of gold donated by a publican or mine owner.652 The races drew large crowds, with bets placed on the outcome, and the distance often completed in laps, rather than in a straight line. Laps of a town block or even of the inside of a building allowed spectators to witness these ‘feat[s] of endurance’.653 By the 1860s the sport had formalised to some extent and considerable prizes were offered in professional footraces, often attracting runners from overseas.654
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Figure 87 Grandstand, Queen Elizabeth Oval, Bendigo (built 1901). Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 803)
Hotel-keepers also promoted athletic contests, including footraces, jumping, tests of strength, walking races, boxing, skittles and ‘putting-the-stone’. Betting and gambling on these activities boosted their popularity, and allowed some participants to receive appearance money and compete as professionals on a circuit.655 Athletics was increasingly formalised after the establishment of the Victorian Amateur Athletic Association in 1891. Interclub athletic meetings were open to females in Victoria from 1929. The second Commonwealth Youth Games were held in Bendigo in December 2008. Some 24 countries participated and contested 10 sports over a period of three days.656
Communities utilised other purposed locations for informal outdoor recreation. Crusoe and No 7 Reservoirs south of Kangaroo Flat remain popular picnic spots, and sporting reserves such as the Heathcote racecourse and Kennington cricket ground were popular. Changing patterns of recreation has influenced the management of parklands and prompted the development of infrastructure for cycling, bushwalking and horse riding. Green spaces have been linked with specially built trails like the Bendigo Creek Linear Park and Bendigo Bushland Trail, as have historic features with the Mulga Bill Bicycle Trail and O’Keefe Rail Trail. Children’s playgrounds are a more recent means of utilising open space to create recreational areas for different age groups.
Related places
Early sporting facilities Places and reserves associated with early horse racing, including racecourses Buildings and infrastructure associated with horse racing Cricket grounds and places associated with playing cricket Grandstands, buildings and other infrastructure of cricket grounds and cricket clubs Football grounds and places associated with playing football Grandstands, buildings and other infrastructure of football grounds and football clubs Places associated with boxing and foot racing
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Sites associated with the recreations of different community, migrant or age groups
9.2 Nurturing a vibrant arts scene
Lectures, recitals, concerts, meetings and theatrical performances all contributed to the social and intellectual life of the goldfields. The entertainments were variously accommodated in public and other halls, associated with religious groups, friendly societies, Masonic Lodges and Mechanics Institutes; some were also public buildings.
A culture of heavy drinking in the goldfields also encouraged the rise of temperance societies, particularly active in the Cornish community, and Temperance Halls offered an alternative for meetings and entertainment.657 The Bendigo Temperance Hall, located near the Mechanics Institute, was constructed by the Bendigo Total Abstinence Society in 1861, offering meeting rooms and, by 1862, a free library.658
The imposing Masonic Hall on View Street, Bendigo, designed by Vahland and Getzschmann, who were both prominent local Freemasons, opened in 1873. It was preceded by a Masonic Hall in St Andrews Avenue.659 The auditorium in the Masonic Hall was converted to a theatre in 1890. Much later, in the 1980s, the facility was purchased by the then Councils of Strathfieldsaye, Marong and Eaglehawk, later joined by the City of Bendigo. The complex was restored and reopened as The Capital Theatre in 1991, and now forms one of the key components of the arts precinct in View Street.660
Other groups and associations established private meeting rooms. One of these was the Sandhurst Club, on View Street, which formed in 1858 and was one of the earliest exclusive men's clubs in Victoria.661 In 1859 the foundation stone for the Masonic Temple in Heatchote was laid and between 1902 and the early 1950s, the Chinese Masonic Society occupied rooms on Bridge Street, Bendigo.662
As settlements stabilised in the wake of the early rushes, a town hall was seen as an indication of rising status. Although varying widely in size and grandeur, large town halls could incorporate an often lavish public hall, which was used for balls, banquets, meetings, lectures, exhibitions and concerts.
The first town hall in Sandhurst was constructed in 1859 and remodelled at the end of the century under Vahland’s direction. Town halls were also built in Eaglehawk (1865, replaced 1901), Huntly (1867), and Raywood (1878). The 1863 Heathcote Court House and Shire Council Chambers unusually combined justice and civic functions.663
Charing Cross, View Point and Bath Lane were a focal point for performative arts in Bendigo. In 1873, Vahland and Getzschmann advertised for tenderers to begin excavating a site in View Point for the proposed Royal Princess Theatre.664 Opened a year later in 1874, the theatre could seat 2000 and in scale, it was compared to London’s famous Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Funded by the Hotel Shamrock partners, William Heffernan and John Crowley, the Hotel has a suite named the ‘Royal Princess’ to commemorate the connection between these two buildings.665 The theatre survived into the twentieth century, being demolished in 1963.
Changing modes of entertainment in the twentieth century saw the establishment of cinemas and picture palaces. The ‘palatial’ Lyric Theatre picture palace was built in Charing Cross in 1913 at the cost of £15 000.666 Constructed on the ‘most modern lines’, the picture screen was surrounded by a magnificent proscenium, measuring some 30 feet. The theatre could comfortably seat 2500 people – 500 in the dress circle and 2000 on the floor. The theatre was destroyed by a fire in the 1960s and was closed, to be replaced in recent years by the Bendigo Bank redevelopment on the Lyric Theatre site.667
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The Plaza Theatre on Mitchell Street, at the entrance to Bath Lane, is the only surviving early twentieth century cinema in Bendigo. Built in 1934, the former theatre is now in use as a commercial building, but the ‘Plaza’ name can still be seen on the first floor exterior above Palladian windows.668 The cinematic and theatrical history of the Bath Lane precinct were recognised in 2011 with sculptural works; of a film reel at the Edward Street end, and a gentleman in a cape and top hat holding a theatre program at the Mitchell Street end.
The demand for cinemas prompted the conversion of many older halls to this newer purpose, including those associated with the various movements and societies.669 This often involved installation of a bio box at the rear, and sometimes removal of the stage. Eaglehawk Town Hall was used as a cinema from the 1950s and continues as the Star Cinema; however, after World War Two, most cinemas in Greater Bendigo were purpose-built. The post-war period also saw the proliferation of Returned Servicemen’s League halls in various communities.
As the use of public spaces has changed in recent times, halls and meeting spaces have also sometimes seen alternative uses. The foyer of the former Bendigo Post Office on Pall Mall has been converted to a Visitor Information Centre, and the two wings have been refurbished as galleries: the Post Office Gallery which focuses on exhibiting the region’s history and the Living Arts Space which showcases the region’s arts and crafts.
Today there are three major venues that offer arts and culture in Greater Bendigo and two of these are owned and managed by the City of Greater Bendigo: Bendigo Art Gallery and the Capital Theatre. The Bendigo Art Gallery began in 1887 as an association to promote art to the citizens of Sandhurst.670 Subscriptions and donations were made to build a picture gallery, which was opened the same year in the Bendigo School of Mines as the Sandhurst Fine Art Gallery. Three years later the government provided funds for a gallery to be developed on View Street, contracting William Vahland to restyle his original building for the Bendigo Volunteer Riflemen in 1867.671 The gallery was opened officially on 14 October 1890. Over the last century or more, the Bendigo Art Gallery has undergone several different periods of expansion, addition and even demolition of the 1960s façade. More recent works, including the current expansion, have been carried out by renowned Melbourne firm, Fender Katsalidis Architects.672 Today’s Bendigo Art Gallery has become a regional art gallery that is internationally recognised for its fine collection of Australian nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century art.
The Capital Theatre has had a diverse history as a performance arts space. Built for the Golden Lodge of Sandhurst as their Masonic Hall in 1873-74, the building always contained facilities for performances. The hall on the upper level had a balcony and stage and was second in size to Melbourne Town Hall as the largest hall in Victoria.673 Enlarged by Vahland and Getzschmann in 1889-90, the Masonic Hall Theatre offered residents light drama and concerts from 1890. From 1909 the theatre began showing films and was renamed the New Britannia in 1912. From around 1930 it was renamed the Capitol Theatre, then later the Capital Theatre. From the early 1950s the Theatre began offering live theatre again until it was closed in 1977 as a fire risk. A decade later, through the joint purchase by three of Greater Bendigo’s municipalities – Marong, Strathfieldsaye, and Eaglehawk – as well as public, federal and state funds, the last of Bendigo’s theatres was renovated at the cost of around $6 million to be reopened as the Performing Arts Centre for Bendigo in 1991.674
The La Trobe Visual Arts Centre directly opposite both the Bendigo Art Gallery and the Capital Theatre was built in 2005 by architect Peter Elliott, to provide a central space in Bendigo for the visual arts program of the La Trobe University, Bendigo.675 The Visual Arts Centre focuses on contemporary art and practice, offering galleries, sculpture courtyards, auditorium, meeting room and a studio and apartment for artists-in-residence. The Façade Project is a thirteen metre wide glass façade that has, from 2011, offered a distinctive streetscape public exhibition space for artists.676
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Figure 88 Former Bendigo Volunteer Orderly Room, now Bendigo Art Gallery Source: Victorian Heritage Register online (VHR 1172)
Related places
Buildings and halls used for lectures, recitals, concerts, meetings and theatrical performances, etc Town halls and civic buildings Temperance Halls Theatres, cinemas and picture palaces Club buildings, including the Masons RSL buildings Galleries, museums, archives and exhibit spaces
633 The Argus, as cited in Lemon, A, The History of Australian Thoroughbred Racing, Volume 1, Classic Reproductions, Melbourne, Vic, 1987, p. 233.
634 Randell, J O, Pastoral Settlement in Northern Victoria, Volume Two: the Campaspe District, Chandos Publishing Company, Burwood, Vic, 1982, p. 320.
635 The Victorian Government Gazette, 17 April 1860, p. 689.
636 Cashman, R, ‘The origins of sport in Australia’ in Cashman, R et al, Australian Sport Through Time: The History of Sport in Australia, Random House Australia, Milsons Point, NSW, 1997, p. 15.
637 Horseracing, Encyclopedia of Melbourne online. Available: http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00722b.htm. Accessed 25 July 2011.
638 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, Vic, 1985, p. 324.
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639 Information provided by Daryl McClure, May 2012.
640 Harris, J and Wust, K, Bendigo District Cricket 1853 – 1990, Crown Castleton, Maiden Gully, Vic, 1991, unpaginated.
641 The Victorian Government Gazette, 22 March 1861, p. 609.
642 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, 1985, p. 325.
643 Harris, J and Wust, K, Bendigo District Cricket 1853 – 1990, Crown Castleton, Maiden Gully, Vic, 1991, unpaginated.
644 The Argus, 5 May 1874, p. 3.
645 Harris, J and Wust, K, Bendigo District Cricket 1853 – 1990, Crown Castleton, Maiden Gully, Vic, 1991, unpaginated.
646 Randell, J O, McIvor: A History of the Shire and the Township of Heathcote, Brown Prior Anderson Printers, Burwood, 1985, p. 325.
647 Football, Australian Rules, Encyclopedia of Melbourne Online. Available: http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00593b.htm. Accessed 16 September 2011.
648 Bendigo Football Netball League. Available: http://www.bendigofnl.com.au/index.php?pgid=61. Accessed 16 September 2011.
649 Bendigo Football Netball League. Available: http://www.bendigofnl.com.au/index.php?pgid=61. Accessed 16 September 2011
650 Cashman, R, ‘The origins of sport in Australia’ in Cashman, R et al, Australian Sport Through Time: The History of Sport in Australia, Random House Australia, Milsons Point, NSW, 1997, pp. 14-15.
651 The Argus, 22 November 1892, p. 3.
652 Cashman, R, ‘The origins of sport in Australia’ in Cashman, R et al, Australian Sport Through Time: The History of Sport in Australia, Random House Australia, Milsons Point, NSW, 1997, p. 17.
653 Sanders, R, 'Pedestrianism', egold Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available: http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00280b.htm. Accessed 25 July 2011.
654 Cashman, R, ‘The origins of sport in Australia’ in Cashman, R et al, Australian Sport Through Time: The History of Sport in Australia, Random House Australia, Milsons Point, NSW, 1997, p. 17.
655 Sanders, R, 'Pedestrianism', egold Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia. Available: http://www.egold.net.au/biogs/EG00280b.htm. Accessed 25 July 2011.
656 Commonwealth Youth Games 2008. Available: http://pune2008.thecgf.com/history- tradition/history-tradition.php. Accessed 25 July 2011.
657 Mills, P, Environmental History of the Shires of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander, Heritage Victoria, unpublished, Chapter 5, unpaginated.
658 Baragwanath, P, If the Walls Could Speak: A Social History of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria, Mechanics Institute Inc, Richmond, Vic, 2000, p. 68.
659 Information provided by Heathcote McIvor Historical Society, May 2012.
LOVELL CHEN 2013 171 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
660 The Capital, Bendigo’s Performing Arts Centre. Available: http://www.thecapital.com.au/Page/Page.asp?Page_Id=52. Accessed 29 August 2011.
661 The Sandhurst Club, Bendigo, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#search:simple:user:list:database|places:sandhur st%20club:1. Accessed 16 September 2011.
662 Context Pty Ltd, ‘Heathcote Masonic Temple’, City of Greater Bendigo Heritage Study Stage 2 Former Shires of McIvor and Strathfieldsaye, Volume 2: Citations, October 2009, p. 3; Golden Dragon Museum, Chinese Footsteps: Historical Sites of Bendigo – Links with the Chinese Community, the authors, Bendigo, Vic, 2000, pp.10, 15.
663 Former Heathcote Court House and Shire Council Chambers, Heathcote, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;5124. Accessed 16 September 2011.
664 Bendigo Advertiser, ‘Royal Princess Theatre’, 29 September 1873, p. 4.
665 Hotel Shamrock, ‘The Hotel Shamrock, Bendigo: History of an Icon’, p. 3. Available at http://www.hotelshamrock.com.au/. Accessed 21 March 2013.
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667 Bendigo Advertiser, ‘Lyric loss sadness’, 7 October 2004. Available at http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/655024/lyric-loss-sadness. Accessed 21 March 2013.
668 Graeme Butler and Associates, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Volume Four Significant Sites, Fairfield, Vic, 1993, p. 286.
669 Thorne, R, Theatre Buildings in Australia to 1905: from the time of the first settlement to the arrival of cinema, Architectural Research Foundation, Sydney, NSW, 1971.
670 Quinlan, Karen, ‘Bendigo Art Gallery: Architectural Developments’, http://www.bendigoartgallery.com.au/About_Us/History_of_Bendigo_Art_Gallery, p. 1. Accessed 7 April 2013.
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672 Fender Katsalidis Architects, ‘Bendigo Art Gallery’, www.fkaustralia.com/project/s/name/bendigo-gallery. Accessed 31 May 2013.
673 Masonic Hall, VHR Citation, at http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/#detail_places;145. Accessed 7 April 2013.
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Ilija Šutalo, Croatians in Australia: pioneers, settlers and their descendants, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, SA, 2004.
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J Thomas, The Century of Change: History of Marong and District, D G Walker, Kangaroo Flat, Vic, 1999.
William E Thomason, Marching on: the Bendigo Regiments and companies 1858 – 1988, Bendigo Militaria Museum, Bendigo, 1989.
R Thorne, Theatre Buildings in Australia to 1905: from the time of the first settlement to the arrival of cinema, Architectural Research Foundation, Sydney, NSW, 1971.
Ray Wallace, Riders to your mark: a history of cycling in Bendigo and district, Bendigo and District Cycling Club, Bendigo, 2006.
Ray Wallace, The Naturalist in Bendigo 1945-1985, Bendigo Field Naturalists Club, Bendigo, Vic, 1985.
Ray Wallace, Sydney Flat Gold to Woodville Green, Woodvale Progress Association, Woodvale, Vic, 1984.
R Wallace, Sydney Flat to Woodvale Green, Woodvale Progress Association, Woodvale, Vic, 1984.
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C Webb and J Quinlan, Greater Than Gold: A History of Agriculture in the Bendigo District From 1935 to 1985, Cambridge Press, Bendigo, Vic, 1985.
Kathryn Wells, 'The Australian gold rush', Australian Stories, Australian Government, 2007.
Journal articles
D E Barwick, 'Mapping the past: an atlas of Victorian clans 1835 – 1904', Aboriginal History, Vol. 8, no. 2, 1984.
D A Cahir and I D Clark, '"An edifying spectacle"’: A history of "tourist corroborees" in Victoria, Australia, 1835–1870', Tourism Management, Vol. 31, 2010.
C Fahey, '"Foreign to their feelings as freemen": Liberal politics in the goldfields community, Bendigo 1853-1883' in Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 1, Issue 1, 2008.
B Gott, 'Aboriginal fire management in south-eastern Australia: aims and frequency', in Journal of Biogeography, vol. 32, 2005.
B Harper, ‘The true history of the design of the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway’ in Australian Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 1.
G Healy, 'Sunset of the Djadja Wurrung', Australian Geographic, no. 69, 2003.
S Jennings, ‘Landing a Vote: The past importance of land ownership as an electoral qualification in Victoria’, Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, September 2007.
V Lovejoy, 'Depending Upon Diligence: Chinese at Work in Bendigo 1861-1881' in Journal of Historical and European Studies, Vol. 1, December 2007.
LOVELL CHEN 2013 181 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
I McBryde, & G Harrison, ‘Valued good or valuable stone? Consideration of some aspects of the distribution of greenstone artefacts in southeastern Australia’, in B F Leach and J Davidson, (eds), Archaeological Studies of Pacific Stone Resources, Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1981.
I McBryde, ‘Wil-im-ee Moor-ring: Or, where do axes come from?: Stone axe distribution and exchange patterns in Victoria’, in Mankind 11(3), 1978.
M J Nolan, 'Henry Backhaus - A Different Type of Pioneer Priest', in The Australasian Catholic Record, Vol. 85, No. 1, January 2008.
T G Parsons, 'Some Notes on Technological Innovation in the Victorian Agricultural Implement and Machinery Industry 1870 to 1890', Victorian Historical Journal 53, no 2 and 3, 1982.
M Purden, ‘Plaza Theatre, Bendigo’, Cinema Record, 13 August 1996.
L R Smith, Janet McCalman, Ian Anderson and Sandra Smith, 'Fractional Identities: The Political Arithmetic of Aboriginal Victorians’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 38, No. 4, Spring 2008.
'Bendigo, Victoria' in State Savings Bank Notes, November 1930.
M Taylor, D Schmitt, and P Roy, 'Undermining the social foundations: the impact of colonisation on the traditional family structure of the Goulburn tribes' in Aboriginal History, Vol. 27, 2003, Australian Centre for Indigenous History, ANU, Canberra.
Theses
Robyn Ballinger, ‘An inch of rain and what it means: landscapes of the northern plains of Victoria 1836-1930’, PhD thesis, School of Historical Studies, University of Melbourne, 2009.
D ‘Fred’ Cahir, 'Black Gold: A History of the Role of Aboriginal People on the Goldfields of Victoria, 1850-70', PhD Thesis, School of Business, University of Ballarat, 2006.
Peter Hargreaves, ‘Richard William Larritt: Bendigo’s first town planner’, Master of Social Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic, 2007.
Valerie Anne Lovejoy, ‘The fortune seekers of Dai Gum San: first generation Chinese on the Bendigo goldfield 1854-1882’; PhD thesis, School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University, 2009.
Michele S Matthews, ‘Survivors, schemes, samaritans and shareholders: the impact of the great depression on Bendigo and district 1925-1935’, PhD thesis, School of Historical Studies, The University of Melbourne, 2007.
Heritage studies and related reports
Allom Lovell & Associates, ADI Bendigo: Conservation Analysis, June 1999.
Allom Lovell & Associates, Bendigo Mining Exchange Conservation Management Plan, October 2001.
Robyn Ballinger, individual place studies researched for the City of Greater Bendigo.
D Bannear and N Watson, North central goldfields historic mining sites strategy, revised draft, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, North West Area, November 1994.
David Bannear, Mining in the Goldfields Box-Ironbark Study Area – Old-growth Forest Project, Melbourne, Vic, 1996.
182 LOVELL CHEN 2013 GREATER BENDIGO THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY JUNE 2013
David Bannear, Historic mining sites in the Sandhurst, Eaglehawk and Raywood Mining Division, Department of Conservation & Natural Resources, 1993.
D Bannear, 'Study Of Historic Forest Activity Sites in the Box-Ironbark and Midland Areas of Victoria', Commonwealth Environment Forest Taskforce, Department of Environment, Sports and Territories, and the Victorian Department of Natural Resources & Environment, February 1997.
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