THEMATIC HISTORY VOLUME 1 City of Ballarat Heritage Study (Stage 2) April 2003: Thematic History 2 City of Ballarat Heritage Study (Stage 2) April 2003: Thematic History TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS i LIST OF APPENDICES iii CONSULTANTS iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v OVERVIEW vi INTRODUCTION 1 ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING 2 1.TRACING THE EVOLUTION OF THE AUSTRALIAN ENVIRONMENT 2 1.3 Assessing scientifically diverse environments 2 MIGRATING 4 2. PEOPLING AUSTRALIA 4 2.1 Living as Australia's earliest inhabitants 4 2.4 Migrating 4 2.6 Fighting for Land 6 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 7 3. DEVELOPING LOCAL, REGIONAL AND NATIONAL ECONOMIES 7 3.3 Surveying the continent 7 3.4 Utilising natural resources 9 3.5 Developing primary industry 11 3.7 Establishing communications 13 3.8 Moving goods and people 14 3.11 Altering the environment 17 3.14 Developing an Australian engineering and construction industry 19 SETTLING 22 4. BUILDING SETTLEMENTS, TOWNS AND CITIES 22 4.1 Planning urban settlements 22 4.3 Developing institutions 24 LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT 26 5. WORKING 26 5.1 Working in harsh conditions 26 EDUCATION AND FACILITIES 28 6. EDUCATING 28 6.1 Forming associations, libraries and institutes for self-education 28 6.2 Establishing schools 29 GOVERNMENT 32 i City of Ballarat Heritage Study (Stage 2) April 2003: Thematic History 7. GOVERNING 32 7.2 Developing institutions of self-government and democracy 32 CULTURE AND RECREATION ACTIVITIES 34 8. DEVELOPING AUSTRALIA’S CULTURAL LIFE 34 8.1 Organising recreation 34 8.4 Eating and Drinking 36 8.5 Forming Associations 37 8.6 Worshipping 37 8.8 Remembering the fallen 39 8.9 Commemorating significant events 40 8.10 Pursuing excellence in the arts and sciences 40 8.11 Making Australian folklore 42 LIFE MATTERS 43 9. MARKING PHASES OF LIFE 43 9.7 Dying 43 CONCLUSION 45 BIBLIOGRAPHY 46 ii City of Ballarat Heritage Study (Stage 2) April 2003: Thematic History LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1 Localities Appendix 2 Australian Historic Themes Framework iii City of Ballarat Heritage Study (Stage 2) April 2003: Thematic History CONSULTANTS This report was prepared by: Hansen Partnership Pty Ltd Ms. Roz Hansen Mr. Ian Gibb Ms. Christine Renkin Wendy Jacobs, Architect Ms. Wendy Jacobs + Heritage Consultant Ms. Vicki Johnson Ms Julie Stevens (sub consultant historian) Naga Services Dr. Jan Penney iv City of Ballarat Heritage Study (Stage 2) April 2003: Thematic History ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to acknowledge the assistance of the following people: The City of Ballarat Steering Committee: Mark Marsden City of Ballarat Hedley Thomson City of Ballarat Lorraine Huddle City of Ballarat Cr. Liz Sheedy City of Ballarat Cr. Gary Anderson City of Ballarat Cr. David James City of Ballarat Geoff Austin Heritage Victoria Bruce Cossins Ballarat Restoration Advisory Committee Greg Binns Ballarat Restoration Advisory Committee Community Reference Group: Bill Loader Tony Moran Beth Ritchie Lorraine Harvey Eileen Anderson Wade Perrett Gerald Jenzen Rod Lacey Dorothy Wickham Peter Hiscock Jack Harvey Betty Jones Meredith Harvey Bruce Bartrop Terry Benjamin Greg Binns Peter Wilsdon Laurel Johnson Peter Zala Bill Shillito Simone Serlazzo Steve Johnston Brian Pola Joan Garner Peter D’Auvergne Michael Irwin Roger Trudgeon Anne Beggs-Sunter Peter Mansfield Michael Taffe Pat Grisby Roy Huggins Graeme Ambrose Derick Leather Alan Bath Project Officer Miriam Semmel City of Ballarat v City of Ballarat Heritage Study (Stage 2) April 2003: Thematic History OVERVIEW The Ballarat Heritage Review (Stage 2) was commissioned by the City of Ballarat. This review is contained in four volumes as follows: Volume 1 Thematic History and Bibliography Volume 1 contains a thematically arranged history of the municipality, which is intended to form a historical framework for the overall study. In addition a detailed bibliography of material relating the historical development of Ballarat has been prepared and is provided in this volume. Volume 2 Heritage Precincts The focus of Volume 2 is on the presentation of proposed planning policy relating to heritage conservation, and on presenting detailed information for each of the twenty heritage precincts identified during the study. It is proposed that each of the twenty heritage precincts will be included within the Heritage Overlay provisions of the Ballarat Planning Scheme, and that the Local Planning Policy Framework of the scheme will include a heritage conservation policy as well as a local policy relating to each specific precinct. Volume 2 also contains a description of the study brief; study methodology; and the extent of community consultation undertaken. Volume 3 Further Recommendations Volume 3 contains recommendations arising from the study which are intended to guide further work in the future. Given the scope of this study and the budget and resource limitations it has not been possible to deal with all matters that have been raised during the course of the review. The consultant team has focused on the study outputs contained in Volume 1 and 2, and has sought to identify a series of recommendations contained in Volume 3 to assist the municipality in management of ongoing heritage work. Volume 4 Community Consultation Volume 4 contains information from the Community Reference Group workshops held during the study, and also contains information submitted by members of the community concerning heritage places. This information was valuable in informing the study team, and in providing a sense of heritage places of particular community value. vi City of Ballarat Heritage Study (Stage 2) April 2003: Thematic History INTRODUCTION This Environmental History was completed as part of Stage Two of the Ballarat Study and is designed to complement and extend the Draft Environmental History written by Weston Bate as part of Stage One. The Stage One Draft Environmental History did not encompass the themes adopted by the Australian Heritage Commission and incorporated in the Ballarat Heritage Study nor did it accommodate the extent of the Study Area. The Stage Two Environmental History has been designed to give an overall view of the Study Area through time to provide a general background to the decision making exercise. For more detailed historical information one should read the area specific precinct histories that discuss individual contributions towards the larger history. The Environmental History is not a chronological history of Ballarat and district. It is neither comprehensive nor complete but should be read in conjunction with the three major historical works on Ballarat: W.B. Withers, The History of Ballarat; Weston Bate’s Lucky City: the first generation at Ballarat: 1851-1901and his Life After Gold: twentieth century Ballarat. These books provide comprehensive and chronological accounts of Ballarat’s early history that is not duplicated here. This account should also be read together with histories of particular events, eg Eureka Stockade, or individual industries such as flourmills or railway history for instance. Wherever possible footnotes have been used to indicate the most useful, and readily available, source material on particular topics. The extensive bibliography is some guide to works related to the district and has been ordered by the themes of the Study. The Ballarat Heritage Study Steering Committee made the decision to incorporate as much of the original Draft from Stage One as possible into the Second Stage. This has been accomplished by using direct inserts of un-edited material which are indicated by the use of italics rather than extensive para-phrasing or footnoting references back to this account. The Study uses the themes set by the Australian Heritage Commission in its publication Australian Historic Themes Framework and follows those guidelines for the layout. The complete list of themes is attached to Appendix 2 which allows readers to see the themes chosen in context to those omitted. Any such choice is by its nature artificial but these are constraints imposed on Environmental Histories as part of a funded Heritage Study. Such studies are focussed on elements of a historic nature which still exist rather than on a more general history often focused on elements of history which may no longer be apparent in the physical sense. Jan Penney 4.3.2003 1 City of Ballarat Heritage Study (Stage 2) April 2003: Thematic History ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING 1.TRACING THE EVOLUTION OF THE AUSTRALIAN ENVIRONMENT 1.3 Assessing scientifically diverse environments The Ballarat and district landscape was a fertile one, dominated by the volcanic hills of Mt Buninyong and Mt Warrenheip, with higher country like Black Hills and White Horse Range providing excellent vantage points for the original Aboriginal occupants. 1 The range of hills from Buninyong to Berringa and from Smythesdale to Linton, including White Horse Range, Black Hill and Nerrina, provided the host rock, made up of an Ordovician slates, for the gold-bearing quartz veins of the region. 2 The grassy plain, which lay beneath the hills and forests, was transected by the Yarrowee River and interspersed across the plains were the swamps and lakes. Yuille's Swamp, later Lake Wendouree, was far shallower than Lake Burrumbeet and Lake Learmonth while Coghill's Creek, although an important water supply was less impressive than the Yarrowee. There are six different types of rocks in the Ballarat district, the oldest being the Cambrian and Ordovician bedrock once part of a deep marine basin and now forming the higher ground. Granite outcrops formed during the Devonian period presenting as prominent hills such as Mount Beckworth and Mount Bolton, occur at a few places in the East and in the west at Mt Bute, Chepstow and Wallinduc. 3 Extensive alluvial accumulations of sand, quartz gravel and clay were laid down during the Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary times but subsequent erosion has confined it to the hilltops and flanks. Such Older Drifts occur at Golden Point, Pennyweight Hill, Black Hill and Watson's Hill near Smythesdale.