– a trip through some amazing australian history –
The 1850’s Victorian gold rush is one of the major events that we all remember from our primary school history days. It’s an iconic era in the course of the development of the colonialist history of the nation, even surpassing the Californian gold rush in terms of the richness of the goldfields. So how can you possibly visit central Victoria without immersing yourself in an exploration of the area’s gold mining history?
We had already encountered a number of goldrush towns in the course of the previous day’s loop drive from Daylesford. And we had visited the big gold towns of Bendigo and Ballarat on previous vivtorian road trips. So our focus was on the smaller, more local experience of the goldrushes.
Today we were moving on to new accommodation, so we decided to use it as an opportunity to visit some memorable sites on the route between Daylesford and Castlemaine. The whole route is just 55km – so take your time to explore at each stop.
…be sure to download this helpful audio guide..
Before leaving on our trip, we stumbled on an excellent free audio guide that provided a route map, accompanied by commentary from historians, local stories and music. We can’t recommend The Storyteller’s Guide to the Goldfields highly enough and want to thank the generous group who put it together and particularly the producer Jan “Yarn” Wositzky. You can find the Audio Tour we took here: The Diggings Tour.
However, first a note of caution. Because we travelled from Daylesford to Castlemaine, we took the tour backwards. Had we had the benefit of hindsight, we probably would have driven to the first site and followed it in the direction suggested by the tour. We discovered that the roadside signage was all facing in that direction – which made the route easier to navigate. Also, the audio is sequential in the sense that information learned at an earlier stop can provide more context for the stops that follow. Also, beware that the mobile signal can be intermittent and you’ll need to plan around that.
I’m not going to ruin the tour by repeating the contents of the audio guide in this blog – we are just going to add some personal observations, photos and footage that might give you an idea of what you can expect as you follow along the route.
guildford and the big tree
Travelling from Daylesford, our first stop was at the tiny town of Guildford. We parked on a street to the right hand side of the road and spotted this wonderfully preserved building.
Then we crossed the main road and made our way to the big tree spotting a few more interesting local buildings on the way..
I agree with Jan that you need to stand under the tree to appreciate just how wondrous a thing it is. Make sure you do!
Then we drove on for a shot from the Guildford lookout which you can get to by driving up a fairly steep hill.
chinese burial ground and vaughan springs
The Chinese burial ground was small with a few stone headstones but the story of the hard times and prejudice faced by the Chinese community left us pretty emotional.
Vaughan Springs was a pretty spot despite the overcast day. The Loddon River runs through the reserve and there’s a swimming hole and nearby dry toddler pool. The structures appear to have been part of a mineral springs complex planned in the early 20th century.
The dam wall was crumbling when we visited and it wasn’t possible to get to the lookout on the other side of the bank without getting wet. However, it’s a a very picturesque spot and you can sample the mineral spring water, stop for a picnic or take a scenic walk.
red knob landscape and the duke of cornwall engine house
The audio guide had a pretty thrilling account of events at Red Knob. The devastation caused by sluicing at the site is incredible. However, we had to admit it made for a very dramatic landscape. Also beautiful, was the meandering stand of autumn-bare poplars. These were planted to mitigate the erosion caused by the mining works.
We stopped briefly at the Duke of Cornwall Engine House, sadly in private hands and undeniably unapproachable.
It looked so alien in the Australian countryside – a visitor from the other side of the planet.
the escott grave
Probably one of the most poignant sites on the day was the grave of the extremely brave Elizabeth Scott and her daughter, Fanny. It was located in the middle of nowhere.
I won’t ruin the audio tour by going into the details here, but it would seem to me that this very ordinary woman had extraordinary courage and resilience and deserves to be better known.
wattle gully mine
A now abandoned mining site, with buildings and equipment dating to only a few decades ago. We would recommend spending some time trying to figure out how all it all worked.
the forest creek diggings site
This site is further along the audio guide route. It’s set up specifically as a tourist stop. It’s the remains of an old gold mine and processing plant. There was old equipment and infrastructure scattered about and fairly informative signage.
Niran was especially excited to learn all about the process of sluicing having visited the red knob lookout earlier in the day. Couldn’t stop talking about it for the rest of the trip…nerd….
garfield water wheel site
As it turned out, this was very close to our lodgings for the night so it ended up being our last stop. The audio guide account of an event that took place at the water wheel in the 1800’s was harrowing – don’t skip it under any circumstances!
The wheel must have been an incredible sight in its day! When built it was said to be the largest water wheel in the southern hemisphere.
If you have time on your hands there’s an opportunity to also take a number of walks from here.
our final take
just do it. lots of history, lots of emotion.
