Ballarat - Victoria
- Gold Rushes - timber - agriculture - Moorabool - Hepburn - Great Dividing
Range - Daylesford - Creswick - Clunes - Smythesdale - Rokewood - Buninyong -
Wombat Forest -
The Ballarat Growth
Corridor encompasses a heritage not only related to the major theme of the gold
rushes, but many related themes including exploitation of its other resources
such as timber and agriculture, development of local communities and creation of
a rural and urban fabric built on the wealth of gold.
The corridor includes the
municipalities of Moorabool, Hepburn, Ballarat and parts of Golden Plains and
Pyrenees. It is characterised by three distinct cultural landscapes.
The
Goldfields, centred on Ballarat and straddling the Great Dividing Range with
Daylesford, Creswick and Clunes to the north and Smythesdale, Rokewood and
Buninyong to the south; the Wombat Forest in the northeast with the
sawmill/mining settlements of Blackwood and Trentham; and the Basalt Plains
farming country around the main towns of Gordon, Ballan and Bacchus Marsh to the
southeast and Learmonth and Waubra to the northwest.
The histories of these
different parts are closely interconnected. The squatting era of the 1830s and
‘40s was joined, rather than superseded, by the gold rushes, which in turn
brought sawmilling, railways and roads, industry and closer settlement. However,
it was the wealth generated by the gold rushes that acted as a catalyst for
dramatic change in the society, economy and landscape of the corridor from the
mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. These themes are reflected in
over 1500 historic places, including buildings, archaeological sites, landscape
features and heritage areas identified on various heritage lists.
From 1838
‘Overlanders’ from Sydney and ‘Over Straiters’ from Van Diemen’s Land began to
spill into the district via Geelong and Melbourne. Their squatting runs took
advantage of the natural basalt plains grasslands, and often grew into vast
estates with architecturally ornate mansions, elaborate formal gardens and solid
shearing sheds and other farm buildings. Survivors such as ‘Mt Boninyong’, ‘Lal
Lal’, ‘Ercildoun’, ‘Glendaruel’, ‘Bungeeltap’ and ‘Carween’, provide an insight
into the social and economic structure of the squatting period.
The few
substantial pre-goldrush towns such as Ballan on the road to the Western
District, Burnbank on the old track to the Wimmera, and Buninyong on the road to
Geelong catered for travellers’ needs with postal and Cobb & Co depots,
blacksmith, stables and an inn, at the so-called ‘ten mile towns’, each a day’s
travel apart and usually at a stream crossing.
The landscape of the corridor is
now a reflection of the grid of boundaries and minor roads imposed by surveyors
from the 1850s, and reinforced by later subdivisions following the post-1860s
Land Acts and soldier settlement in the early twentieth century. Remnant native
vegetation along road reserves, dry stone walls and fences dividing properties
and exotic trees, hedges and windbreaks characterise this rural settlement
pattern, particularly in the treeless volcanic plains country.
From the official
discovery of gold in August 1851 in Clunes and Buninyong, through to the closure
of the last mines in 1918, mining transformed the landscapes and built heritage
of the
corridor. The organically evolved miner’s tracks developed into sinuous routes
with buildings set close to the road. An example can be seen in the way the
meandering Main Road in Ballarat contrasts sharply with the later gridiron
pattern of streets and straight avenues from official surveys, typified by Sturt
Street.
The distinctive miners’ cottages of the township, originally constructed
using local materials such as stone and split timber are scattered through these
streets. Historically, building materials reflected the availability of
naturally occurring supplies. Timber slab, bark and canvas buildings gave way to
the native bluestone, which was in turn supplanted by manufactured materials
such as brick and sawn timber. The relative expense of different materials was
also reflected in the status they attracted, ranging from the simple bluestone
‘Montrose cottage’ (c. 1858) to the elaborate mine managers house ‘Yarrowee
Hall’ (c. 1870). The extraordinary landscape and archaeological heritage of gold
can also be seen in the undulating ground where the alluvial mining fields
remain, and the more dramatic mullock heaps and machinery footings of the deep
lead and quartz mines.
Until the 1870s, Ballarat was one of the richest
goldfields in the world. The dramatic population increase from immigrant
gold-seekers resulted in building booms and land development which transformed
the district and had impacts throughout Victoria. Although Ballarat City now has
very little physical evidence of the mining operations, the opulent public and
commercial buildings, gardens and civil works of Ballarat, (and the scaled down
versions in Creswick, Clunes or Daylesford), are evidence of the wealth
generated by the gold rushes and express the prosperity of the city and its
surrounds.
The burgeoning sense of civic pride can be seen in the high Victorian
architecture including the flamboyant Craig’s Hotel (1853), the Railway Station
(1862-88), Mining Exchange (1887-9), Fire tower (1858), Town Hall (1870-2), Post
Office (1864) and the Lydiard Street bank precinct (1860s).
The significance of
the goldrush period in creating an instant egalitarian society fostering radical
thinking is apparent not only in the mining relics and places, but also in the
intangible heritage of the stories of the Eureka Rebellion and the symbol of the
Southern Cross flag. Although initially notable by their absence, women came to
play a civilising role as Ballarat grew.
Also often marginalised in Ballarat’s
history, Chinese miners and their descendants have contributed a special
character to the region’s cultural heritage. During the gold rushes the Wombat
and other forests in the corridor supplied essential pit props, firewood and
construction timbers to the mines, and today are artefacts of goldmining and
sawmilling.
The timber settlements of Barkstead and Blakeville are hidden deep
in the forests, where evidence of sawmills and timber tramways can still be
traced. Within a decade of the gold rushes, the widespread destruction of the
Wombat Forest had spurred early conservation awareness in Victoria with calls
being made to preserve the forests from unfettered logging.
The gold rushes also
stimulated improvements to transportation and the wealth generated in the colony
resulted in finely engineered stone and timber bridges such as the Djerriwarrh
Creek Bridge (1859). The Geelong-Ballarat Railway, completed in 1862, was one of
the first trunk lines in the
colony, featuring the highest standards of civil engineering and architecture.
It took another 20 years for the direct connection to Melbourne. The drama and
scale of the Ballarat Station demonstrates its role as a regional interchange
with branch lines to Maryborough, Daylesford, Waubra, Rokewood, Buninyong and
Skipton.
Improved transport encouraged new economic activity such as orchards
and market gardens at Bacchus Marsh. The more mobile and prosperous population
in the 20th century gave rise to tourist developments based on natural
attractions social activities, such as the mineral springs at Hepburn,
Daylesford and elsewhere, while the history of the gold rushes also became a
tourist drawcard most evident at Sovereign Hill. Much of the initial development
of civic and community places in small townships of the region also occurred in
response to the gold rushes. This phase is expressed in the building of post
offices, police stations, stores, hotels, blacksmiths, schools, churches,
Mechanics Institutes, and shire offices, which took place in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries.
To some extent the identity of each town is now
defined by the surviving heritage buildings of this period. The amalgamation of
councils and loss of old local boroughs and shires has not diminished this sense
of local heritage. Economic and political advances also led to improved civic
works. The need for a more reliable water supply led to the construction of
Kirk’s and Gong Gong Reservoirs, to replace the unreliable supply from Lake
Wendouree. Surviving stone lined channels along creek lines are evidence of
efforts to reduce the flood and sludge nuisance from the gold mines.
After the
demise of the gold era in the later nineteenth century, Ballarat was transformed
into a successful industrial-age city. Industries such as the famous Phoenix
Foundry served deep lead and quartz mining. Locomotive works and gas works
provided infrastructure, while flour mills, breweries, woollen mills, carriage
builders, implement makers, potteries and brickworks manufactured products for
the growing population. Surviving examples of Ballarat’s industries include the
Sunnyside Woollen Mill (1873), Brind’s Distillery (1860), and Bacchus Marsh
printing works (1866).
Reference
|
