What ends with a sore jaw?

This week we’re heading North. Not as far as Sydney, or Brisbane or Port Douglas, while that does sound nice. No, we’re heading to the Gold fields of Victoria. There are two topics that I really love when it comes to history – property and gold and when the two are related it’s even better!

As you will probably know, the gold rush hit Victoria in earnest in 1851 following on from the 1849 Californian gold rush. The initial discoveries of gold were in Clunes and then in Buningyong near Ballarat in August 1851.

Two further events however would kick off the rush in earnest. The first was in October 1851, when the Cavanagh Brothers discovered 60 pounds of gold in a hole less than 2 metres deep in Ballarat. Then the Mount Alexander goldfield was discovered 60 kilometres north-east of Ballarat. History shows that Mt Alexander, taking in the goldfields of Castlemaine and Bendigo, was one of the world's richest shallow alluvial goldfields, yielding around four million ounces of gold, most of which was found in the first two years of the rush and within five metres of the surface. Between 1850 and 1900, Bendigo produced the most gold in the world, which in today’s terms would be worth approximately nine billion dollars.

So with all of that in mind, the journey this week is taking in three places and they’re all fairly close to each other and linked by a common person. His name was George Duncan Lockhart. He was a Scotsman, a pastoralist and he also had a crack at Gold, as a lot did back then. In some ways a lot of the pastoralists were a bit like the early prospectors – it was ALL about wealth. Now I’m not going to tell you exactly why I was in these places, for that you’ll have to read my next book but I’ll share some of what I found now.

The first place I visited on the trip was Castlemaine. I’d forgotten how beautiful this little town is and how grand some of the homes and buildings are. It’s amazing what Gold did for Victoria. If you take a look at some of the beautiful buildings that line the main streets of Melbourne (as mentioned in my Treasury Building post), there are many other ones to rival them out there in the “golden triangle.” A visit to Bendigo and Ballarat just for starters will show you this.

Back to Castlemaine. I knew it was close to Mt Alexander (mentioned above) but I didn’t realise how close. It’s right there in front of you. I also didn’t know it was the home town of Robert O’Hara Burke in Victoria, yes he of Burke and Wills fame. The monument that they erected to them in 1862, by public subscription no less (450 pounds apparently) overlooking the town is simply superb. I understand that the people of Castlemaine were the first in Australia to erect a monument and they actually wanted to bury him in the Castlemaine cemetery. Instead he’s in The Melbourne General Cemetary in Carlton with Wills. I’ll be back to Castlemaine again soon for a good look around.

Next I headed East of Castlemaine, about 5 kilometres. There you will find the tiny town of Chewton. Now, I’d never heard of it until a couple of months ago but there I was to see a couple of really interesting things. First is the Red Hill Hotel. The day I was there I timed it to arrive around 12.30pm, thinking that a parma and a frosty would be just the tonic and a chat with the Publican about the place. Well to my absolute dismay they were closed and looking around Chewton there was not much going on at all. Perhaps they’re nocturnal? I’m sure that a Friday night there is still interesting. The Red Hill Hotel is significant as the first licensee was... yes you guessed it, G.D. Lockhart. Having been there I am definitely going back as there’s a great beer garden. You just have to love a pub with a beer garden! Nest door to the pub I couldn’t help but notice the old van parked in the front yard.

The other thing in Chewton that caught my eye was the little portable police lock up. It has pride of place in the main street. One thing that I find intriguing in these small towns is how close the buildings are to what has become, and was then (except it wasn’t paved) the main road through town. You tend to see it everywhere still, so close to the road and the footpath in a lot right up to the front wall of the house. Dating back to the 1860’s it’s said to be one of the oldest in Victoria. Given that this was a mining town one can only imagine the sort of “customer” that this housed.

Having completed activities in Chewton I made my way West planning to head directly back to Castlemaine and then on to the third place. But as I was driving something caught my eye. Chewton was originally named Forest Creek and there on the left hand side of the road were the Forest Creek gold workings which I had read about. They have been preserved and are now a tourist stop. What was one to do but stop and take a good look? They have preserved the site and done a really excellent job of sign-posting it for the visitor to see and understand. They have created a path that you follow and ten “posts” where they have informative signs. For those of you that read my recent post of the Western District you’ll know I love these things. Good job Chewton!

So then I made my way to the last stop of the day. This one’s not really on the map and with complete thanks to the wonders of satellite photographs and the trusty GPS I made my way to Muckleford. If you’ve even heard of this you’re doing well and if you know where it is you take the chocolates. It’s about 8km west of Castlemaine and off the main road. My man GDL owned some land here (360 acres) and I am sorry to say that there’s not a lot to report. A lot of farms, a very tidy little cemetery and a town hall - that’s pretty much the sum of it. Curiously it’s a good way from Chewton by horse but it’s on the way to Avoca. I’ll save that for another day....

Until next time.

Burke and Wills Memorial, Castlemaine