Making tracks - Hiscock's Gully at last!

For those very first gold seekers who had arrived wet, tired and hungry at "Mother Jamieson's" Buninyong Hotel in the tiny township of Buninyong, there was only one place they really wanted to be: Hiscock's Gully. It was there in August, 1851 that Buninyong blacksmith Thomas Hiscock first found gold.

Plaque erected by the Buninyong and District Historical Society, marking the
site where Thomas Hiscock first discovered gold

Within days of the news of his find reaching Geelong, a stream of diggers began flowing into Buninyong. Whether they stopped or merely passed through, their course took them past the front door of Mother Jamieson's Buninyong Hotel and onto the bullock track which headed west towards Portland Bay.
As discussed in a previous post, the Portland Bay Road was an important route which was already well-established and regularly travelled by 1851. Originally established by squatters as they moved stock between their runs and the markets in Geelong and Melbourne during the early 1840s, this was also the route which had been used by the mail coach from Portland to Melbourne since 1844. A little later, a route via The Leigh (Shelford) and Linton to Buninyong was established as part of a postal route from Portland to Geelong, followed by a private mail service between Geelong and Buninyong using the Geelong-Buninyong Track in 1846. Both tracks joined the one from Melbourne to Portland Bay at Buninyong, so it was there that traffic from Portland, Melbourne, Geelong and the outlying stations would converge on its way between various parts of the colony.

The view looking east from the western outskirts of Buninyong today. At the
time the first diggers walked the road, it was an irregular dirt track and
Mother Jamieson's Hotel would have obstructed this view, standing in the
middle of what is now Learmonth Street (the Midland Highway)

In August, 1851 however, with the outbreak of the gold rush, Buninyong itself became a destination and the gold diggers of course used any available road to get there.
According to the 1850 survey map, having arrived in Buninyong, they followed the track in a westerly direction. Once out of town however, the track veered south of today's Midland Highway, passing through what is now Buninyong Golf Course. Then, before the diggers reached their objective, after more than 50 exhausting miles from Geelong, they faced one last hurdle - Buninyong Creek, a tributary of the Yarrowee River and like all the other creeks and rivers they had crossed, a part of the wider Barwon catchment.
If the maps are to be believed, this final creek crossing stood a little to the east of Macs Road, being also, a few hundred metres from the current creek crossing on the highway. Once over the creek, the track again followed a similar course to the modern road, a route also confirmed by Skene's 1845 map which also follows much the same path to this point. Then, about a kilometre further along the track, the diggers finally reached their goal. A few hundred metres up what is now Hiscock Gully Road, was the site of the region's first diggings.

Hiscock's Gully today is littered with mullock heaps from later deep lead mining
and non-native plantings of pine trees. Traffic can also be clearly heard from the
nearby highway - a far cry from the stands of stringybark  and sounds of nature
which greeted the first diggers to arrive in 1851

 Now the hard work really began. In those first days after the announcement, Hiscock's Gully was a flurry of activity.   By 15th August, the Geelong Advertiser was reporting that there were between 40 to 50 people - men, women and children - pitching tents at Hiscock's Gully. There were already 8 cradles washing the extracted dirt and the remainder were using pans, pots and whatever else they could find. Not even weather conditions described at the time as "severe" (by 25th August there was flooding reported on the Barwon) could dampen their enthusiasm.
On 26th August however, came an announcement from the government which opponents claimed, would do just that. It was declared that a mining tax of 30 shillings per month (£18 per year) would be introduced from the 1st September for those wishing to dig for gold. The fixed cost of the license would apply regardless of how much - if any - gold was found. This was at a time when even highly sought after shepherds only earned around 70 shillings per month. By comparison, a squatter's license, entitling the holder to thousands of acres of land cost only £10 per annum. Furthermore the miners argued, this was taxation without representation! Not only were they being heavily taxed, but in an era when voting was tied to land ownership, they had no land and no control over the process by which taxes such as the miner's license were set. They wanted land and they wanted the vote!
So, at Hiscock's Gully on the evening of the 26th August, only ten days after the governor's announcement, a protest was held. It was the first act in a growing movement of dissent which culminated on 3rd December, 1854 with the rebellion at Eureka. There were believed to have been about 40 - 50 miners present as well as representatives from the Geelong Advertiser. An unnamed reporter described the scene as men emerged from their tents in darkness lit only by firelight, to express their views and resolve upon a course of action. The quote on the plaque below which was originally penned by a reporter from the Advertiser and published on 29th August more fully reads:

Here, a month ago, was but bush and forest; and tonight, for the first time since Australia rose from the bosom of the ocean, were men strong in their sense of right, lifting up a protest against an impending wrong, and protesting against the government. Human progress in Port Phillip - like her vegetation is rapid - let the government beware, lest like her timber, it prove rotten at the core, whilst it carries a healthy exterior.

Plaque erected by the Ballarat Reform League Inc marking the location of the
first protest against the miner's license imposed by the government

The article immediately following however, indicates that the proclamation, combined with bad weather had the effect of sending some diggers home, whilst others thought to look further afield, in the hope of finding claims which would still turn a profit even after the license fee had been paid, for it quickly became apparent that the alluvial gold finds at Hiscock's Gully were not going to be great.

A monument commemorating Thomas Hiscock's discovery,
placed in 1897, coinciding with Queen Victoria's diamond
jubilee year, located on the corner of Hiscock's Gully Road
and the Midland Highway

With this in mind, some chose to head for the town of Clunes, over 40km further north, where gold had been discovered a few weeks before the find at Hiscock's Gully. Other prospectors however, decided to investigate the creeks and gullies closer to Buninyong. On the 27th August a party set off through the bush for Black Hill on the Ballaarat Station of William Cross Yuille, but even before the protest encouraged diggers to look elsewhere, John Dunlop and James Regan, having found the Hiscock Gully diggings too crowded for their liking and decided to look elsewhere. So it was that on 21st August they discovered one of the richest goldfields ever found at the ironically-named Poverty Point in what is now Ballarat.
This of course resulted in a new rush and even more hopeful diggers arriving on the field. Now however, instead of following the bullock track to Buninyong and Hiscock's Gully, the diggers were passing through in their thousands, as they headed for the new El Dorado - Ballarat.

Making tracks - reaching Buninyong

...and so, after many long, weary miles traipsing over hills, wading across creeks and ploughing through the slough of despond, the weary travellers faced a final uphill trudge, crossing the foothills formed over a million years before by the volcanic eruptions of Mt Buninyong. For many miles they would have seen its profile rising before them as they walked or rode, slowly drawing closer. Even for those lucky enough - or rich enough - to travel by coach, the foothills of the mount could pose a problem as it was not unheard of for the coach driver to ask his passengers to get out and walk up the steeper sections of the track.

Looking towards Mt Buninyong from the approximate location of Scott's Swamp

A look at an 1855 survey map (see composite image below) shows the track at this point splitting in two just before the crest of the final rise. The two tracks were less than 150m apart and converged again after about a kilometre, near where Mt Buninyong Rd joins the Midland Highway today. Whether this reflected a need for different tracks in varying weather conditions or had some other purpose I do not know.
Reaching the top of the final rise, the diggers would no doubt have been very relieved to see the land falling away before them with the track meandering down the slope, roughly along the course of today's Learmonth St, joined along its length by a number of other tracks from outlying areas, all converging on the little collection of buildings which at that time constituted Buninyong township.
Prior to August, 1851 the town was already set to become a thriving hub. For ten years it had supplied the squatting runs of the district, provided a gathering place for sawyers working in the area and of course, was a postal town (the first in inland Victoria) and staging point on the mail route from Portland Bay to Melbourne and Geelong. It boasted a blacksmith (Thomas Hiscock), a doctor, a Presbyterian church with associated school, a couple of stores and of course, a post office.
With the announcement in early July that gold had been discovered at Clunes, followed only a month later by news of a much closer find at  Hiscock's Gully (one of the many creeks and gullies which fed into the Yarrowee River), Buninyong took on a new significance.
For a short time at least, it became the destination of hundreds of diggers. It is possible to imagine the sense of anticipation as they topped the rise and caught their first glimpse of their goal, however things around Buninyong were somewhat different to what they had been only a few months earlier. At this time, the newly-declared state of Victoria was still recovering from the devastating Black Thursday Bushfire of 6th February, 1851 in which about one quarter of the state (around five million hectares) was burnt. Amongst the areas to feel the effects of the fires was the Buninyong Forest which is reported to have burnt for days. Some six months on, the impact of the flames would still have been evident, even as the surrounding vegetation began to spring back to life. The fire is said to have burnt right up to the Geelong-Buninyong track, coming from the north which would presumably also have impacted a number of the other tracks leading to and from the town.

Fire damage in the region of the old "Burnt Bridge" settlement on the Midland
Highway following the recent (December, 2015) bushfire at Scotsburn

As was the way prior to the surveyors mapping out the roads and townships of the colony, there were often many different paths which sprang up as a matter of convenience. Buninyong was no exception. As the main path crossed what became Lal Lal St, a branch diverged to the left, travelling roughly along the line of Scott St, before meeting with a track running north-south a little to the west of Warrenheip St. (The latter track lead from Buninyong to the station of that name held by the Learmonth brothers.) At around the same point as the first branch, the main track branched again. This track ran north west, meeting another heading north towards the Ballarat Run of William Cross Yuille on the shores of "Yuille's Swamp", known today as Lake Wendouree.

Google Earth image overlaid with an 1855 survey map. Red lines show tracks
marked on the map. Blue lines indicate those marked on an 1856 map. Areas of
overlap may indicate the same track. Click to enlarge

The following blog post by local historian Robert Bell from 2006 gives a good description of  some of the tracks and buildings of Buninyong as they existed at the time of the original survey in 1850.
Whilst none of the sources I have located mention it, the direct track down Learmonth St may not have been the only approach to Buninyong from Geelong. The above survey map also shows a second track, branching off the main route to the left near the intersection of the Highway and Yendon Number 2 Rd, well before the branches near Lal Lal St. This alternate track followed a lower line, crossing the southern end of Lal Lal St before swinging north west and travelling roughly along today's Caffrey and then Herriott Streets before joining the track from the south.
Ultimately, which ever track the diggers followed, they reached an important intersection, situated on the site of what would become Buninyong's first permanent post office and telegraph building in 1873.

Old Buninyong post office, closed 2000

This old intersection which must have pre-dated the survey of 1850, was the point at which the track from the south met the main track from Geelong coming from the east. Also joining at this same point was the track from the west which lead to several nearby squatting runs, including Yuille's Ballarat Run and further on to the Pyrenees.
It was at this intersection, strategically located to take in the passing trade, that the town's only hotel was located: the place the diggers had been told lay at the end of their journey, where they could have a hot meal and - if they were lucky - a bed for the night. Here then, was the fabled "Mother Jamieson's".

Branching out - silting up

On 1st July, 1851 two things occurred which changed the face of the Barwon catchment forever. On that date, Victoria was declared a separate colony from New South Wales and gold was discovered at Clunes on Creswick Creek, a tributary of the Lodden River. Five days later, James Esmond arrived in Geelong with samples of the gold found by himself and his two companions. Two days after that, the Geelong Advertiser published the news. By the end of the month, the Victorian gold rush had begun.

The first gold discovery in the Barwon catchment occurred only weeks after the initial discovery at Clunes on 8th August.

Information board near the site of Hiscock's first gold
discovery, situated roughly opposite the Buninyong Cemetery.

On that day, Thomas Hiscock - a blacksmith who had migrated from England ten years before - discovered gold in a gully which now bears his name, in the Buninyong Ranges west of the town.
Like the many creeks and gullies in the area, Hiscock's Gully ultimately drains into the Yarrowee/Leigh River and empties into the Barwon River at Inverleigh.

A memorial erected some distance to the east of the above
sign and which commemorates Hiscock's discovery

Ten days later, gold was also discovered at Poverty Point, Ballarat, on the banks of Canadian Creek only a few hundred metres from its confluence with the Yarrowee River. Within a matter of months around 20,000 hopeful prospectors had flocked to the region to work the easily accessible alluvial deposits.

Sign describing the first Ballarat gold discovery and
subsequent events

This initial rush was followed in subsequent years by the arrival of the big mining companies with the heavy equipment used to mine the deeper quartz reefs of the district. This saw excavation along the Leigh/Yarrowee, extend downstream past Garibaldi to the Leigh Grand Junction and beyond. 

The impact on the river and the creeks and gullies which flow into it was profound. The initial alluvial mining saw a significant reduction in the native vegetation as trees were cleared to make way for mining exploits or harvested for use in construction of the necessary infrastructure. Across the upper part of the catchment, the miners dug into the banks of the waterways, diverted water flows and turned over the soils of the creeks and river flats of the catchment. As they worked, large piles of discarded timber from felled trees washed downstream, causing logjams and impeding water flow. At the same time tonnes of rock and soil were displaced, leaving huge piles of tailings or mullock heaps littering the landscape.
Consequently, as early as the 1860s, the finer sediments from these deposits began to wash into the waterways and make their way into the Yarrowee River before working their way downstream towards the Barwon. On 29th October, 1869 a correspondent to the Geelong Advertiser wrote that:

For a number of years residents on and near the banks of the [Leigh River], and also those on that part of the Barwon below Inverleigh, have quietly looked upon their lands becoming impoverished by the settlement of silt upon them. The effect of the late flood, however, places the matter in a very serious light, and calls for immediate action. Beautiful flats of rich black soil have been converted into beds of clay, and that of the very worst description. Farms that a few years ago would have been suitable for the most exhaustive crops, are now rendered by the accumulation of sludge unfit for the production of grass....The bed of the river is rapidly filling up, consequently such floods must be more frequent and more disastrous.

By 1906 a Sludge Abatement Board had been established to monitor the water quality of rivers and was being called upon to address the complaints of the shires downstream on the Leigh which continued to bear the brunt of the problem. The sludge could be anywhere from about 45 - 180cm thick, with the largest deposits occurring on river bends. As the sediment flowed downstream and filled in pools and hollows, the rate of flow and the volume of the channel would also have decreased.

This image of the Yarrowee Dredging Co mine, 1889 (possibly the Yarrowee
Creek No 1 Gold Dredging Co) shows the degree of deforestation and erosion
caused by mining activity along the river. Image held by the
State Library of Victoria

In recent years, reports commissioned by the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority have confirmed what was evident 150 years ago. Modern understanding of the way vegetation affects hydrology, has also revealed the role deforestation must have played in increasing the quantity and rate at which runoff water entered the river. Today, the silts which were deposited after the beginning of the gold rush are referred to as Post Mining Alluvium and form the surface layer of soil in the area around Shelford and Inverleigh.
Meanwhile over on the Moorabool River, gold was also the order of the day, although the discovery and subsequent mining boom was a little later in coming. Gold was first discovered on the Durdidwarrah property of Augustus von Stieglitz in 1851, however the quantities were not considered workable. Some activity ensued in 1853 when Andrew Love and George Morton discovered alluvial gold on Sutherland's Creek, however, it was not until 1855 when William Hooley and Joseph Davis discovered a gold reef on Sutherland's Creek near Steiglitz that the rush really began.
From 1855 onwards, alluvial gold was extracted at various creeks and gullies along the Moorabool River including Sutherland's Creek, Dolly's Creek, Tea Tree Creek, Mt Doran, the Stony Rises (Elaine) and from the banks of the Moorabool itself at Morrison's however it was not until the 1860s that the large companies moved in and reef mining began in earnest.

The remaining brick footings of the United Albion Mine near Steiglitz

It seems however that the threat of a sludge deluge such as that seen on the Leigh, was not as much of an issue for the Moorabool River. Perhaps this is a reflection of the relatively greater proportion of reef mining in comparison to alluvial activity on the Moorabool.
It is interesting to note that a 2006 report commissioned for the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority showed that despite the greater water flow of the Barwon and the historic issues of increased sedimentation due to mining activities along the Leigh, it is the Moorabool which makes the greatest contribution to sediment deposited downstream at Lake Connewarre. There is no indication that this is related to earlier mining activities, instead it is postulated that the greater overall change in gradient along its length (by comparison with the Barwon and the Leigh) may account for the difference.