Former Shire of Huntly Heritage Study Stage 1 Volume 2 Thematic Environmental History Shire of Huntly, 1924. (Source: H E C Robinson 1924, Victoria: showing shires, boroughs towns and cities, cited in Victorian Places 2015) Prepared for City of Greater Bendigo Dr Robyn Ballinger History Making Pty Ltd PO Box 75 Maldon VIC 3463 June 2020 FORMER SHIRE OF HUNTLY HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 1: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY Acknowledgements The consultants acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the country that is the subject of this history, the Dja Dja Wurrung, the Barpabarapa and the Taungurung peoples. A number of local residents have provided information for this history, and we thank them for their contribution. Similarly, members of the Elmore Progress Association Museum and the Huntly and Districts’ Historical Society have been most supportive, and their contribution is greatly appreciated. Conversions Weights and measures In this work imperial units for common measurements are used until 1970 when the present metric system was introduced. 1 inch = 2.54 centimetres I foot = 0.30 metre 1 yard = 0.91 metre 1 chain = 20.11 metres 1 mile = 1.61 kilometres 1 ounce = 28.3 grams 1 pound = 454 grams 1 hundredweight = 50.802 kilograms 1 ton = 1.02 tonne 1 acre = 0.405 hectare 1 square mile = 2.59 kilometres 1 horsepower = 0.746 kilowatt 1 mile per hour = 1.61 kilometre per hour Monetary values Before 1966, Australian currency was expressed in pounds, shillings and pence (£ s d). The following form is used: £2 13s 6d. Naming conventions The goldfield on Bendigo Creek was first named Bendigo in 1852. The name was changed to Sandhurst in 1853, although the diggings continued to be referred to as the Bendigo goldfield. Sandhurst was renamed Bendigo in 1891. For the sake of consistency, ‘Bendigo’ is used throughout the report. Bendigo Creek was historically known as Piccaninny Creek north of Huntly. As requested by local residents consulted during the writing of this history, this naming convention has been retained. Today’s spelling of Barnadown differs to the 2 HISTORY MAKING FORMER SHIRE OF HUNTLY HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 1: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY original spelling, ‘Barnedown’. The former spelling is used throughout the report except for the naming of the pastoral run and state school. Abbreviations Abbreviations used in the study include the following: ‘Farm complexes’ refer to farm residences and outbuildings as a group; HGA refers to the City of Greater Bendigo Heritage Gap Analysis (2019); HO refers to the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme Overlay; VHR refers to the Victorian Heritage Register of state significant historical places, shipwrecks, and objects; VHI refers to the Victorian Heritage Inventory of known historical archaeological sites in Victoria; and NT refers to the National Trust Heritage Register. 3 HISTORY MAKING FORMER SHIRE OF HUNTLY HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 1: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY 1. Introduction Since the first occupation of what was to become known as the former Shire of Huntly by the Dja Dja Wurrung, Barapa Barapa and Taungurung Aboriginal peoples, multitudes of people have interacted with the natural environment over time to create the landscape that is in evidence today. The former Shire of Huntly, located on the country of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Barapa Barapa and Taungurung Aboriginal peoples, incorporates two geomorphic divisions: the Midlands region of the Western Victorian Uplands (part of the Central Victorian Uplands), and the Murray Basin Plains. Some Box-Ironbark forest and native grasslands occur on roadsides, on private land, or are set aside in national and regional parks. The natural environment has shaped patterns of human settlement and activity and today the study area comprises extensive agricultural holdings, the townships of Epsom, Huntly, Goornong, and Elmore, and former settlements at Bagshot, Kamarooka, Barnadown, Drummartin, Hunter and Fosterville (see Figures 1 and 2). The Shire of Huntly, measuring 878 square kilometres, was proclaimed on 13 July 1866. In 1875, the estimated population of the Shire of Huntly was 3,590; in 1954, 2,247; in 1979, 2,570 and in 1991, 4,542 (Huntly 126 Years 1980:25; Victorian Places 2015). The Shire was amalgamated into the City of Greater Bendigo in 1994. Sheep and cattle grazing established by pastoralists on large runs in the area from the late 1830s displaced Dja Dja Wurrung, Barapa Barapa and Taungurung peoples, who were forced to move into other Country, to Aboriginal protectorates, or to find work on the runs. White occupation intensified with gold mining activity from the 1850s. At the same time, using local creeks and water supplied by the Coliban scheme, market gardens and orchards were developed in the southern part of the Shire of Huntly to supply the needs of miners on the Bendigo goldfield. After a series of Land Acts were introduced from the 1860s to provide land for farms to the burgeoning goldfield population, a significant wheat and sheep industry was established in the northern part of the study area, and subsequently, a number of settlements and townships were founded to provide services to their agricultural hinterlands. The Murray River-Melbourne railway line, which traversed the Huntly Shire, opened in 1864. Consolidated development continued in the Shire through to the economic depression of the 1890s. After World War I, in the first decades of the twentieth century, soldier settlement and the economic boom of the 1920s brought further development to the Shire of Huntly. This slowed with the widespread economic depression of the 1930s. After World War II, during the 1940s-60s, agriculture once again enjoyed buoyant economic conditions and further soldier settlement took place from the mid-1940s. Since the 1960s, with advances in agriculture coupled with farm aggregation, many districts of the study area have experienced a decrease in population. Conversely, the gradual loss of population from the Huntly and Epsom areas to neighbouring Bendigo was reversed in the 1980s, with residential development occurring in those areas from that time. More recently, greenfield residential developments have resulted in these parts of the former Shire taking on a more suburban appearance. This report charts the post-contact history of the former Shire of Huntly by describing the layers of physical occupation that were shaped by the attitudes and values of the time. The history focuses on themes and events that have affected key stages of development to create today’s landscape, a landscape rich in historic places. The history considers development up until the present day with less emphasis on development since 1980. 4 HISTORY MAKING FORMER SHIRE OF HUNTLY HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 1: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY The City of Bendigo’s Framework of Historical Themes has been used in the preparation of the history and the HERCON criteria have been used to develop the Statement of Significance. Figure 1. Former Shire of Huntly, showing townships, main roads, railway and waterways. (Source: Shaw 1966: frontispage) 5 HISTORY MAKING FORMER SHIRE OF HUNTLY HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 1: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY Figure 2. Former Shire of Huntly, showing and parishes and districts. (Source: City Greater Bendigo 2020) 6 HISTORY MAKING FORMER SHIRE OF HUNTLY HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 1: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY 2. Statement of Significance What is significant? The former Shire of Huntly, located on the country of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Barapa Barapa and Taungurung Aboriginal peoples, incorporates two geomorphic divisions: the Midlands region of the Western Victorian Uplands, and the Murray Basin Plains (the Riverine Plain). Its waterways include the Bendigo Creek, the Piccaninny Creek and the Campaspe River; portions of the Box-Ironbark forest remain at Kamarooka and Wellsford. This diverse environment has shaped the historical development of the study area. Pastoralists took over Aboriginal land from the late 1830s, but intensive white settlement of the area began with the mining of the deep lead at Huntly in 1859, after gold was discovered on the Bendigo Creek in 1851. The townships of Huntly and Epsom were established as part of this era of mining activity and were later sustained by market gardening and wine making. Goldmining extended to May Reef in 1869, and to the Kamarooka and Fosterville areas in the 1890s where townships were also formed. The opening of the Melbourne-Murray River railway line in 1864 saw the surveying of townships at Elmore (originally named Runnymede) and Goornong, and the establishment of settlements at Bagshot and South Elmore (today’s Avonmore). From the early 1860s, programs were introduced by successive Victorian governments to encourage people to settle on the land. These initiatives included settlement under Land Acts introduced in the 1860s, which were eventually successful in establishing a significant wheat industry on the Riverine Plain of the study area. Closer settlement Acts, introduced from the 1880s to settle people on small allotments across the colony of Victoria, resulted in the establishment of village settlements at Kamarooka during the 1890s economic depression. After World War I, large estates were subdivided for farms for soldier settler families, with the Hunter settlement founded at this time. The economic boom that followed World War II saw subdivision of remaining estates for solider settlement and a period of sustained development in the study area. With farm mergers and advances in technology and machinery,