Chewton (including Fryerstown and Vaughan)
Charming and important old goldmining town.
Chewton is a charming old goldmining village on the Pyrenees Highway in Victoria's Central Highlands. It is located 4 km south-east of Castlemaine and 115 km north-west of Melbourne. It is a settlement with a strong and definite sense of identity and residents are likely to resist the notion that they are a satellite of Castlemaine. It is indicative of their pride in the town's heritage and autonomy that, when the government recently developed plans to remove the old post office, the strength and heat of the protest caused a back-down and the building was instead sold to the community for $200. There are many interesting relics of the goldmining days in and around the village.

The first European in the area was Major Mitchell on his journey into 'Australia Felix' in 1836-37. The first white settler in the region was a Dr Barker whose sheep station, established in the late 1830s, incorporated the present townsite. A shepherd named John Worley found gold on this property in 1851 while panning in Forest Creek, thereby triggering an enormous goldrush which predated that at Bendigo. It is said that 30 000 had arrived in the area within three months.

The field, known as the Mt Alexander diggings, initially drew prospectors from Melbourne, so much so that the road from Melbourne was known as the Mt Alexander Rd (there are plans to re-enact the trek as part of the Federation centenary in 2001). However, hopefuls soon began to arrive from all over the globe. It is said that, at one time, there were four times as many diggers with an Asian background as there were prospectors with a European heritage. A hillside of what became Chewton was used as the site for the first government camp of the diggings. Thus it was to this very spot that the many thousands of prospectors first came before spanning out in search of a claim. Chewton itself would prove to be one of the state's richest goldmining localities and one of the most enduring.

Interestingly, 14 000 diggers met on a hill near the nascent townsite in December of 1851 to discuss grievances relating to a mooted increase in the price of the already costly gold licence. Anger was diminished when the increase was abandoned but the licence would prove one of the main causes of the Eureka Stockade rebellion in 1854.

Chewton was surveyed in 1854 with land sales commencing the following year. The very crooked course of the main street reflects the fact that it was based upon a bullock track which wound precariously around a quagmire of muddy claims in a landscape denuded of all vegetation.

Like so many Australian towns the first buildings were stores, churches and pubs. One of the early inns, The Red Hill Hotel (c.1854), is still standing. A Congregational Church was built in 1856, a town hall in 1860 and a Wesleyan church in 1861. A school was attached to the Wesleyan Church and the Anglicans also established a denominational school.

The railway arrived at Chewton in 1861. A census that year recorded 3353 residents. However, the population was already in decline as the alluvial gold had, by this time, all but disappeared. By the end of the 1860s the mining was carried out by a small number of companies sinking shafts in pursuit of gold-bearing quartz reefs. Some were quite successful. They ran their stamper batteries 24 hours a day, ceasing only between midnight on Saturday and midnight on Sunday.

The shift from the individual with a goldpan to the more complex underground mining of the company also saw a shift to a more skilled workforce and a number of Welsh and Cornish miners emigrated to meet that need.

Sluicing and dredging were aided when Expedition Pass Reservoir provided a reliable water source in the 1870s. The Wattle Gully Gold Mine opened in 1876 and is still in operation today, making it one of the country's longest-running goldmining endeavours.

By the late 19th century there were three major mines in the immediate vicinity: the Garfield Mine on the north side of town, the Francis Ormand Mine opposite the Red Hill Hotel and the Wattle Gully Mine just south of town. On New Year's Eve in 1889 the Francis Ormand was filled with water in a flash flood and two men were killed. The mineowners wanted to seal up the mine and leave it but the largely Cornish and very religious miners insisted the 360-metre shaft be pumped out and the bodies recovered for proper interment. This also meant that the mine was able to continue.

By 1891 the population had dropped to 1212. By 1933 it was 454 and it has not changed much from that time. The district hit the headlines in 1974 when six children and their teacher were kidnapped from Faraday School (just north-east of Chewton) and a one-million dollar ransom was demanded. However, the captives escaped and the kidnappers were caught.

Things to see:  

Tourist Information
Castlemaine Visitor Centre can be reached on (03) 5470 6200 but the best source of local knowledge is Mary Thompson who runs a local bed-and-breakfast, tel: (03) 5472 2118.

Historic Buildings
The town retains a number of historic buildings on Main St (the Pyrenees Highway). The Red Hill Hotel dates from around 1854 and retains an outbuilding which was used, until recently, as an entertainment hall (a common adjunct to a country pub at that time). The Francis Ormand Mine was once located on the other side of the road.

The old Mt Alexander Hotel (1864) is now a private residence. It is situated adjacent the old Wesleyan (now Uniting) Church (1861?). Behind it is a little stone cottage which is of uncertain origin. Some believe it was one of the shepherd's huts from the first pastoral station in the area (c. 1840), while others believe it to be an outbuilding associated with the hotel.

Halfway between the church and the pub is the old sandstone Congregational Church, built in 1856. It is now the Chapels of Chewton Restaurant.

The town hall (1860) now houses a couple of thousand photographs relating to the town's past. They are contained in some 25 albums which are organised thematically. The town hall was once used as a courthouse and retains some structural features relating to that function. It is open on weekends. The attractive post office, with its arches and polychrome brickwork dates from around 1877.

Next to the town hall is the portable police lock-up. An historic relic of the gold days this gaol is made of 5-cm thick oregon slabs which are essentially bolted together. It was constructed in such a way as to be readily dismantled, placed on a dray and moved to a new mining site when the old goldfield was exhausted and abandoned. It was probably made in the 1860s and was formerly behind the town hall on the police paddock. When that property passed into private hands recently, the lock-up was found disassembled on the local tip but it has been saved, restored and reconstructed by members of the local community.

The 'Park School' is located in the park at the corner of the highway and Fryers Rd. It was built in the 1870s when the Wesleyan and Anglican churches amalgamated their separate schools.

The Potager is a restored 1850s stone cottage located just north of Chewton on Golden Point Rd. Set amidst poplars and fruit trees it is now available as self-contained accommodation, tel: (03) 5472 3714.

Tranquil Valley Farm on Hoopers Rd (slightly south-east of town) is based upon an old mud-brick building which was probably either one of the shepherd's hut on the first station (c.1840) or a miner's hut. It has been extended to render it suitable for its current role as a bed-and-breakfast, tel: (03) 5472 2118.

Pennyweight Flat Cemetery
Probably established in 1851, Pennyweight Flat Children's Cemetery was one of the first cemeteries on the Forest Creek Goldfields. Despite its name it was a general cemetery. To get there follow the highway towards Castlemaine. Watch for the Albion Hotel on the left-hand side of the road. 200 metres past the hotel turn right into Dick St. At the end of that road turn left into Farran St then take the first right into Colles Rd which leads across Zeal Bridge and onto Moonlight Flat. The cemetery is 500 metres along this road on a little green knoll. 200 people were buried here from 1852 to 1857, many of them children. Further along this road is Donkey Gully which yielded 1000 kg of gold.

Expedition Pass Reservoir, the Welsh Village and Mt Alexander
Expedition Pass Reservoir is located about 3 km north-east of town, adjacent Golden Point Rd. It was established in the 1870s and is a good spot for swimming, fishing and picnicking.

The Welsh Village is located near the reservoir. Dry-stone walling, reflecting Welsh construction techniques, and other ruins remain. At the moment the site is fairly inaccessible but there are plans to improve this situation.

Golden Point Rd soon reaches a T-intersection at Faraday on the Calder Highway. Turn left and take the immediate right onto the Sutton Grange Rd. After about 3 km there is a left turn (signposted with a picture of a koala) which leads up Mt Alexander (see entry on Harcourt).

Garfield Waterwheel and Mine
1 km north of town, along North St (which starts adjacent the oval in the middle of town), is the stone base which once held the Garfield Waterwheel. Victoria's largest such wheel (and allegedly the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere) its diameter was 22 metres, it carried 222 wrought-iron buckets and it drove a 15-head stamper battery for crushing quartz ore at the Garfield Mine which opened in 1887 and closed in 1911.

A number of these wheels were constructed in the area once a reliable water supply was established in the form of Expedition Pass Reservoir. They were fed by a very large, elevated timber mill-race which drew water from the Expedition Pass Reservoir. A slow but steady decline of elevation was the means of conveyance. The mines had to pay for the usage of the water but it meant they were spared the increasingly lengthy trip to find timber to operate their boilers.

There is a signposted 1.2-km walking track which leads to the old Garfield minesite at German Gully.

Dingo Farm
The Dingo Farm (as seen on the television show 'Talk To The Animals') is open daily from 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. It offers visitors a chance to get beyond the bad publicity surrounding Australia's only native dog. Effectively a dingo stud, the farm is aimed at maintaining pure genetic strains. The pups are sold (for high prices). It is located in Eureka St which heads off Main St, tel: (03) 5472 3266.

Eureka Village
The Dingo Farm is very near the ruins of the Eureka Village and a walk through the ruins is currently being prepared.

Bush Grave
There are numerous heritage sites along picturesque Fryers Rd which heads south from Chewton to Vaughan Springs. About 1.5 km along this road the Alanmore Track heads off to the left. A short distance along is a little grave surrounded by a wrought-iron fence It belongs to Mrs Elizabeth Escott who emigrated from England, with her eight children, when her husband died. Her eldest daughter, Fanny, lies beside her.

Heron's Reef Gold Diggings
Further south, on the eastern side of the road, are the old Heron's Reef Gold Diggings, worked between 1851 and the 1930s. Award-winning tours of the relics (as seen on Channel 10's Healthy, Wealthy and Wise show) are conducted at 2.00 p.m. on Saturdays, at 10.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. on Sundays, and on weekdays by appointment, tel: (03) 5473 4387. The Heron Nugget, weighing 28.5 kg, was found here in 1855 by two men who had only been on the field a matter of hours.

Duke of Cornwall
A little further along, on the right-hand side of the road, is the old engine house (1865) which drove a crushing battery and pump at the Duke of Cornwall Mine. Built mostly of coursed rubble to a Cornish design it has a stone chimney with a brick top and Roman arches with brick dressings.

Almost opposite the engine house, and slightly up the hill, is a small powder magazine built of 30-cm-thick random rubble in the vernacular style. This circular structure with its beehive roof may date from the early 1850s. These structures were intended for the storage of explosives and were designed to contain an explosion.

Nearby, on the same side of the road and just up the hill, is a sandstone cottage which was originally the home of the mine manager.

Despite the quality of the buildings the mine was not very successful and it folded in 1880. The relics are on private property.

Fryerstown
Further south is Fryerstown, a little village with fine trees lining the main street. It is nearly a ghost town despite the fact that there were allegedly 15 000 miners, 25 hotels, 3 schools, 5 breweries and 37 quartz reefs at the height of the goldrush. By 1888 the numbers were down to 542 residents and 2000 within a radius of 3.2 km, including 334 Chinese diggers. At that time there were four hotels and three state schools.

On the roadside to the left, at the crossroads, is a little cottage which once belonged to the mining registrar. The stone building at the rear was the office. On the hillside, to the west, is the weatherboard Methodist Church (imported as a prefabricated building).

Passing through 'town', to the right, is a large weatherboard building which was once a Carter's Boot Factory.

Cross the bridge over Fryers Creek. The red-brick courthouse, now a private residence, dates from 1880. The remainder of the allotment was once the town square (the town hall has been demolished). The few remaining box trees between it and the Burke and Wills Memorial Hall (1863) give some idea of how the countryside looked before it was devastated by mining activity. On the other side of the road is a post office which is a much-altered version of what was originally a large store.

To the left, on a rise, are the old Anglican Church, now a private residence, and the parsonage to its rear (also a private home).

Sage Cottage is an old two-bedroom miner's cottage which has been converted into a bed-and-breakfast. It is surrounded by crown land and situated on Castlemaine St, tel: (03) 5473 4322 or (03) 9874 3780.

The town hosts an antique fair in January.

Vaughan
Between Fryerstown and Vaughan the road leads past the old Irishtown site (a former suburb of Fryerstown). From Ridge Rd you overlook a valley which contains 'Chokem Flat', 'Grogshop Gully' and 'Murdering Flat', where three breweries once operated. 3 km from Fryerstown there is a Y-intersection. Keep to the right. The road soon drops down from the ridge known as Bald Hill into Vaughan which was originally known as The Junction.

It is said there were 13 000 prospectors in the area in the heyday of the goldrush, including large Chinese collectives. With the end of the alluvial gold the numbers quickly dwindled (by 1887 the population was down to 200). Sluicing and dredging were carried out in later years. Bald Hill was at the junction of two very rich gold leads which were extensively mined and sluiced into the 1950s.

There is a caravan park at Vaughan Mineral Springs Reserve (100 ha), tel: (03) 5473 4282. This was one of 14 mineral springs discovered by goldminers in 1852 (people still fill their containers here). The reserve was declared in 1878. It contains a swimming hole, mining relics, walking tracks along the banks of the Loddon River, native forest, an historic rotunda, a miniature railway, a camping ground and the caravan park. The silver poplars date from the 1920s when they were planted to revegetate the devastated mining landscape. Swimming, bushwalking, fishing and camping can all be enjoyed though metal detectors are forbidden. Just outside the reserve, at the top of the hill, is an 1850s burial ground known as the Chinese Cemetery due to the number of Chinese interments. The fence and memorial stone were added more recently by the Bendigo Chinese Society. A Joss House has been demolished.

Charter Farmhouse, dating from the 1840s, offers self-contained luxury accommodation set amidst 480 acres of scenic countryside at Glenluce on the Vaughan-Drummond Rd, tel: (03) 5473 4386.

Dry Diggings Track
The Dry Diggings Track is a 55-km walking route which winds its way around the old goldfields between Castlemaine and Daylesford, taking in Fryerstown, Vaughan, Mt Franklin and Hepburn Springs. It takes in many of the area's goldmining relics, as well as its plant communities and fauna types. A comprehensive guide map has been drawn up. Ring the Castlemaine Visitors' Centre for details, tel: (03) 5470 6200.

This track represents one section of Victoria's Great Dividing Trail, a series of co-ordinated walks across the ranges and Central Highlands.

Diggings Heritage Project
A project which is being developed locally, and which will be ready to operate in the near future, is the Diggings Heritage Project. It is based upon a comprehensive guidebook to the region's goldmining heritage which outlines a network of four drive-walk heritage trails. They will incorporate historic buildings, goldmining gullies, bush graves, old miner's huts, rusting relics and a number of sites that are otherwise inaccessible to the public, including the Forest Creek Goldmine (1850s) and the old poppet head, shaft, winding house, changing rooms and crushers of the Wattle Gully Mine. Essentially a carload of people will pay a fee for the passbook, a quality souvenir brochure and the keys to various sealed attractions. Ring (03) 5472 3222 or (03) 5472 1110 for more information or an update on its readiness.

Rainbow Trout Farm
At the intersection of the Calder Highway and Bubbs Lane in Elphinstone (13 km south-east of Chewton) is the Rainbow Trout Farm where you can catch or buy trout and yabbies (bait supplied). There are barbecue facilities, rods for hire (or bring your own), fly fishing lessons and bed-and-breakfast accommodation, tel: (03) 5473 3481 or (03) 9741 3790.

	Hotels
	Red Hill Hotel Main Rd Chewton VIC 3451 Telephone: (03) 5472 2541
	Farm & Eco Holidays
	Tranquil Valley Farm Hoopers Rd Chewton VIC 3451 Telephone: (03) 5472 2118 Rating: **
	Restaurants
	Chapels of Chewton Restaurant Main Rd Chewton VIC 3451 Telephone: (03) 5472 2004