108-777: The Yarra Track is the former name of the gold fields road from Healesville to the Woods Point and Jordan Goldfields , in Victoria , Australia. A direct route via the Yarra River and the Great Divide was discovered by Reick in September 1862 and became known as the Yarra Track. Early in 1863, the Victorian Government decided to construct a 193-kilometre (120 mi) road along
216-553: A servant , a cow, four bushels [141 litres] of wheat, an allotment in the new town, and to receive into the King's Store at Bathurst all the Wheat they can grow for the first 12 months. In the early years of settlement, Bathurst was a base for many of the early explorers of the NSW inland, including George Evans in 1815, John Oxley in 1817–1818, Allan Cunningham in 1823, and Thomas Mitchell during
324-651: A sewage treatment system. Town gas had arrived in Bathurst courtesy of a private venture in 1872, with the Council providing a competing network from 1888. On 30 June 1914, the Council purchased the Wark Bros gas system and combined the gas networks. The old gasworks plant on Russell Street (now out of use) was built in 1960. In 1987 natural gas arrived via a new 240 km spur pipeline off the Moomba to Sydney pipeline. The early part of
432-654: A Land Convention in Melbourne during 1857 recorded demands for land reform. By 1854, Chinese people were contributing to the gold rushes. Their presence on the goldfields of Bendigo, Beechworth and the Bright district resulted in riots , entry taxes, killings, and segregation in the short term, and became the foundations of the White Australia policy . In short, the gold rush was a revolutionary event and reshaped Victoria, its society and politics. There were rumours abroad about
540-537: A daily newspaper in Melbourne, described the growing Chinese population within Victoria as an "invading army" whose presence will "subject the community to the demoralizing influence of their ideas". In June 1855, the Victorian government passed 'an act to make provision for certain immigrants'. The act sought to limit the number of Chinese immigrants that a vessel could carry to one for every ten tons of shipping and required
648-559: A downturn in Victoria's mining population. The increasing presence of Chinese miners on Victorian goldfields eventually resulted in anti-Chinese riots taking place on several Victorian goldfields. On 8 July 1854, an estimated 1500 European miners meeting at a hotel in Bendigo planned a riot to drive the Chinese out of Bendigo. This riot was however brought to a stop by the arrival of police. The worst attack on Victoria's Chinese miners occurred at
756-622: A gold rush town—as well as the Gold Museum. Bendigo has a large operating gold mine system which also functions as a tourist attraction. The rushes left Victorian architecture in towns in the Goldfields region such as Maldon , Beechworth , Clunes , Heathcote , Maryborough , Daylesford , Stawell , Beaufort , Creswick , St Arnaud , Dunolly , Inglewood , Wedderburn and Buninyong whose economy has differing emphases on home working, tourism, farming, modern industrial and retired sectors. With
864-674: A hobby in Victoria for decades mainly because of the depth and cost of pumping. The First World War also drained Australia of the labour needed to work the mines. More significantly, the prohibition on the export of gold from Australia in 1915 and the abolition of the gold standard, winding down stockpiling of gold and production of sovereigns throughout the Empire saw Australian gold towns shrink, in some cases, being totally abandoned. The slump in gold production never recovered. Gold mining ceased in Stawell in 1920, but recommenced in 1982 and continued into
972-526: A major problem for the authorities. Ben Hall , one of the period's most notorious bushrangers, was married in St Michael's Church at Bathurst in 1856. In October 1863, Hall and four other members of his gang raided Bathurst, robbing a jeweller's shop, bailing up the Sportsmans Arms Hotel, and engaging the police in a shootout. They returned three days later and held up more businesses. A few members of
1080-544: A new Hudson ambulance. A new ambulance station was opened 2 March 1929 and is still used by the NSW Ambulance Service. Motor cars were becoming common in the early 20th century and the need for road service patrols commenced in 1927, provided by the NRMA using a motorcycle/sidecar response vehicle. The early electronic media age arrived with the opening of commercial radio station 2BS on 1 January 1937. Bathurst Aerodrome
1188-589: A new concrete single track rail bridge structure alongside and brought into use in 2011); the four lane Evans Bridge which opened in 1995; the Denison Bridge opened in 1870 (closed to road traffic and now a pedestrian bridge); the Gordon Edgell Bridge, a low−level bridge located on George Street; and Rankens Bridge at Eglinton . Two physical components comprise the Bathurst region; the Bathurst Basin and
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#17328447477771296-487: A northern latitude. On 5 July 1900, Bathurst received a freak snowfall measuring at 68 centimetres (27 in) in the main street. Bathurst is relatively dry year round, as it lay in a rain shadow on account of its sheltered valley location flanked by hills and ranges on all sides. On 11 February 2017, Bathurst Ag recorded a new record high temperature of 41.5 °C (106.7 °F), although temperatures of 40 °C (104 °F) are exceedingly rare for Bathurst. There
1404-523: A number of heritage-listed sites, including: Bathurst's place in Australia's history is evidenced by the large number of landmark monuments, buildings, and parks. In the centre of the city is a square known as Kings Parade. Originally a market area from 1849 to 1906 , it was redesignated as a public recreation ground and site for a soldiers memorial. Kings Parade now contains three memorials, an open space park and gardens. The Bathurst War Memorial Carillon
1512-653: A number or small bridges and culverts including the Wilks Creek Bridge , on the Marysville Road, and the Big Culvert . Two main construction camps were established in new localities on the Yarra Track at Healesville and Marysville. These were surveyed as towns to serve as base camps for construction teams and as staging towns when the coach route was completed. Marysville was founded and surveyed in August, 1864. Healesville
1620-668: A range of reforms gave miners a greater say in resolving disputes via Mining Courts, and extended electoral franchise to them. As gold-rush immigrants flooded into Victoria in 1852, a tent city, known as Canvas Town , was established at South Melbourne . The area soon became a massive slum, home to tens of thousands of migrants from around the world who arrived to seek their fortunes in the goldfields. Significant Chinatowns became established in Melbourne , Bendigo and Castlemaine. At Walhalla alone, Cohens Reef produced over 50 tonnes (1.6 million tr oz) of gold in 40 years of mining. News of
1728-559: A regional centre (the state median is 38), and is related to the large education sector in the community. The city has had a moderate population growth of 1.29% year-on-year averaged over the five years until 2019, making Bathurst the tenth fastest-growing urban area in New South Wales outside Sydney. This growth over recent years has resulted in increased urban development, including retail precincts, sporting facilities, housing estates and expanding industrial areas. The area around what
1836-478: A rush to the Mount Alexander or Forest Creek diggings, centred on present-day Castlemaine , claimed as the richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world. These discoveries were soon surpassed by Ballarat and Bendigo . Further discoveries including Beechworth in 1852, Bright, Omeo , Chiltern (1858–59) and Walhalla followed. The population of Melbourne grew swiftly as the gold fever took hold, as did
1944-413: A small cannery in 1926. In 1930, he formed the company Gordon Edgell & Sons which became, and still is, a famous Australian food brand, now owned by Simplot . Many attempts were made to start a university college, the earliest attempts were 1912 through to 1947 when real progress was made with plans for a state teachers college. The first intake of teacher students came at the beginning of 1951 with
2052-433: A total of around 100,000 migrants before its closure in 1952, when Villawood Migrant Centre was opened. Officially Bathurst Migrant Reception and Training Centre, it was usually referred to as Bathurst Migrant Camp. Bathurst's population has had rapid growth periods throughout its history; during the mid to late 19th century gold rush period, then post World War 2 when migrants from the war ravaged countries were settled in
2160-451: A waterworks was built to the south of the town on the river with the water pumped through piping laid progressively to the businesses and private dwellings. In 1931, work started on the 1,700 ML Winburndale Dam project to gravity feed water through a wood stave pipe laid to the town. The scheme was opened by the Premier of New South Wales on 7 October 1933. Later, a new larger water supply dam
2268-416: A well-educated Englishman, as prominent members. A deputation of three men waited on Governor Hotham to demand the release of the prisoners, but he refused and had already sent additional troops to Ballarat, which gave considerable offence by marching through the town with fixed bayonets and by other exasperating conduct. On 29 November, Black, Humffray, and Kennedy reported to a mass meeting held at Bakery Hill
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#17328447477772376-411: Is a 30.5 metres (100 ft) tall tower structure located in the centre of Kings Parade. The Parade is located in the centre of Bathurst's CBD. The Carillon is a memorial to the soldiers who died in the two World Wars. The bell tower contains 49 bronze bells cast by John Taylor & Co in 1928 that are rung daily at lunchtime, and an eternal flame on the platform level of the structure. The Carillon
2484-635: Is a city in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales , Australia. Bathurst is about 200 kilometres (120 mi) west-northwest of Sydney and is the seat of the Bathurst Regional Council . Founded in 1815, Bathurst is the oldest inland settlement in Australia and had a population of 37,396 in 2021. Bathurst is often referred to as the Gold Country, as the area was the site of Australia's first discovery of payable gold in 1851, and where
2592-453: Is a reading of 44.7 °C (112.5 °F) on 12 January 1878 at the Gaol, however such a reading may have been subject to overexposure. The highest minimum temperatures on record are 28.1 °C (82.6 °F) on 14 January 1939, and 27.8 °C (82.0 °F) on 20 November 1904. The lowest recorded temperature was −10.6 °C (12.9 °F) on 31 July 1873; and the lowest maximum temperature
2700-424: Is likely due to a decrease in the number of new gold discoveries in Victoria during this period. Like European gold diggers, the majority of Chinese miners in Victoria worked either independently or with a partner upon arrival. As gold however became harder to find in Victoria's goldfields the Chinese population of Victoria began to form their own mining cooperatives and companies. An unofficial 1868 census on
2808-522: Is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is about 25 hectares (62 acres) in area and covers two city blocks. Banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park (shown) and monuments are in this area. Bathurst has retained a mix of main street shopping along with enclosed shopping centres within the CBD, unlike other towns where the CBD focus has split between main street and new shopping centre developments located in
2916-593: Is now called Bathurst was originally occupied by the Muurrai clan of the Wiradjuri people. It was known as dalman or place of plenty. Yam fields were cultivated on the fertile floodplain and fire-stick farming was utilised to maintain grassy pasture for wild game. The Wiradjuri were noted by early colonists for their neat mandiyaba or possum-skin cloaks which were decorated with artistic etchings known as burwurr . British colonial settlement into this area began in 1815 and
3024-559: Is the dominant feature of Bathurst granite (intruded in the Devonian period) and at Mount Panorama and Mount Stewart basalt occurs. Topography of the region ranges from slightly undulating to rough and very steep country, about 30 km to the east of Bathurst is the folded and faulted sedimentary and metamorphosed formations of the Great Dividing Range which runs roughly north–south. Bathurst's central business district (CBD)
3132-570: The Buckland Riot . The conditions which led up to the Eureka Stockade arose mainly from the actions taken by the Government in supervising the various goldfields. To meet the expense of securing order and to restrain unauthorised mining on Crown land, a local Act of January 1852 imposed on all diggers a licence fee of 30 shillings per month, the penalty for mining without a licence being £6 for
3240-521: The California Gold Rush . At its peak, some two tonnes of gold per week flowed into the Treasury Building in Melbourne . The gold exported to Britain in the 1850s paid off all of Britain's foreign debts and helped lay the foundation of her enormous commercial expansion in the latter half of the century. Melbourne was a major boomtown during the gold rush. The city became the centre of
3348-520: The Great Dividing Range in the Macquarie River plain ; also known as the Bathurst plains. The Macquarie River, which is part of the Murray-Darling basin , the largest river system in Australia, runs through the centre of the city. A number of levee banks have been erected in Bathurst to protect the region from occasional flood events. Mount Panorama is located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from
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3456-565: The Hunter Region . Bathurst is also on the Main Western railway line that starts at Sydney Central and proceeds for 242 kilometres (150 mi) by rail to Bathurst. The Macquarie River divides Bathurst with the CBD located on the western side of the river. Four road bridges and two rail bridges span the river within the city area. From the upstream side they are: Macquarie River Railway Bridge (built in 1876 ) closed in 2011 (replaced with
3564-496: The Second Australian Imperial Force 's 1st Armoured Division ; however, it was later converted to an infantry training centre due to the unsuitability of the closely settled area to armoured training. Following World War II , the camp was converted to a migrant reception and training centre , with the first group of migrants arriving in 1948. At times the centre had up to 10,000 residents at one time, taking in
3672-564: The 'Beyers-Holtermann Specimen', this being the world's largest specimen of native gold ever discovered, a record that still stands today. One illustration of the prosperity gold brought to Bathurst is the growth and status of hotels and inns . The first licensed inn within the township was opened in 1835, the Highland Laddie . At the peak of hotel activity in 1875, coinciding with the gold rush period, there were 61 operating concurrently. A total of 89 hotel locations have been identified in
3780-555: The 1830s. In 1819, frontier conflicts between local Wiradjuri groups and encroaching settlers began when Aboriginal people were shot and others mauled by the colonists' dogs. When Governor Brisbane opened the Bathurst area to wider colonisation from 1822, the subsequent large influx of graziers led to a more intense conflict over land and resources known as the Bathurst War . The Wiradjuri, led by leaders such as Windradyne , continued to resist settler encroachment until martial law
3888-475: The 21st century. However, as of 2005 the recent increase in the gold price has seen a resurgence in commercial mining activity with mining resuming in both of the major fields of Bendigo and Ballarat. Exploration also proceeds elsewhere, for example, in Glen Wills , an isolated mountain area near Mitta Mitta in north-eastern Victoria. Bathurst, New South Wales Bathurst ( / ˈ b æ θ ɜːr s t / )
3996-624: The British flag at the Grand Depot, ordered a ceremonial volley to be fired and named the military outpost as Bathurst after the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies , Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst . Bathurst thereby became the oldest inland British settlement in Australia. William Cox, who was appointed the first Commandant of Bathurst, and William Lawson were promised large grants of land in
4104-638: The CBD and effectively within the city limits; it is 877 metres (2,877 ft) AMSL and rises 215 metres (705 ft) above the Bathurst CBD. The Great Western Highway , which begins in the centre of the city of Sydney, ends at Bathurst. Two main state highways start at Bathurst: the Mitchell Highway to Bourke and the Mid-Western Highway to Hay . Bathurst is about mid-way along a regional road route from Canberra and Goulburn to Mudgee and
4212-518: The Chinese population in Victorian gold districts suggests that 660 out of the 765 Chinese miners in Daylesford and half of the 4000 Chinese miners in the Oven District had "form[ed] themselves into small companies" by 1868. A minority of Chinese miners in Victoria were also employed by European mining companies. The 1868 census on the Chinese population in Victoria suggests that 700 Chinese miners in
4320-455: The Commissioner of the situation and about 4.30 a.m. on Sunday morning (3 December) a troop of 276 men was marched silently to the stockade. Inside the stockade only 50 diggers had rifles; there was also a troop of Californian diggers armed with revolvers and another of Irishmen with pikes. Many of them were asleep when the signal gun was fired and a storming party of 64 'rushed' the stockade. In
4428-553: The NSW Parliament. Prior to 1856, Bathurst was a part of the Electoral district of Western Boroughs . Before the 1920s, Bathurst was a single member constituency , in the 1920s it became a multimember district with proportional representation . During the middle part of the 20th century the seat was marginal between Labor and Country Parties, from 1981 when the strong Labor town of Lithgow moved from Blue Mountains to Bathurst,
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4536-526: The Oven District were working for European companies which were paying their employees £1 to £2 per week. Smaller numbers of Chinese miners were also reported to be working for European companies in Maryborough , Ballarat and Daylesford . The rapid influx of Chinese migrants into the Colony of Victoria aroused large amounts of anxiety within Victoria's European population. On April the 14th 1855, The Argus ,
4644-557: The Ribbon Boys were hanged in Bathurst for their crimes. The site of the first and largest public hanging in Bathurst is still marked by the laneway sign Ribbon Gang Lane in the CBD. Bathurst became the first gold centre of Australia. Flecks of gold were first discovered in the Fish River in February 1823, but it was on 12 February 1851 in a Bathurst Hotel that Edward Hargraves announced
4752-461: The Southern Cross the assembled diggers swore 'to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties.' An area of about an acre on the present Eureka site was hastily enclosed with a pallisade and a deputation was sent to the military camp demanding the release of the morning's prisoners and the cessation of licence-hunting. The Commissioner flatly refused the request, saying that
4860-651: The Tablelands areas. They are drained by the Macquarie, Turon , Fish and Campbells Rivers to the north and Abercrombie and Isabella Rivers to the south. The central basin area of the Bathurst area is mainly granite soils while in the north area sandstone , conglomerates , greywacke , siltstones , limestones and minor volcanos predominate. The south is more complex geology with siltstones, sandstones, greywacke, shales and chert , basalt and granite intrusions and embedded volcanic and limestones. Underlying Bathurst
4968-489: The Victorian Goldfields has converted a remote dependency into a country of worldwide fame; it has attracted a population, extraordinary in number, with unprecedented rapidity; it has enhanced the value of property to an enormous extent; it has made this the richest country in the world; and, in less than three years, it has done for this colony the work of an age, and made its impulses felt in the most distant regions of
5076-561: The Victorian government passed 'an act to regulate the residence of the Chinese Population in Victoria'. This act required all Chinese residing in Victoria to obtain a £1 license which had to be renewed every two months for an additional £1 in order to remain in the Colony of Victoria. The residence tax was however reduced in February 1859 and repealed in 1862 due to Chinese protests against the legislation, increasing levels of tax evasion, and
5184-559: The Yarra Track, but they could only get through during the summer months. The Yarra Track shortened the trip to Woods Point from Melbourne to a little over 161 kilometres (100 mi), compared with 354 kilometres (220 mi) via Jamieson . Clement Wilks , an engineer with the Victorian Department of Roads and Bridges, was a member of the Yarra Track Committee responsible for building this coach and dray road, designing
5292-400: The agitation was 'only a cloak to cover a democratic revolution.' On 1 December the occupants of the stockade were hard at work by 5 a.m. drilling and improving the barrier, and a German blacksmith was fashioning pike-heads. But neither food nor ammunition was available within the stockade, so that by the evening of the 2nd after a very hot day, not more than 200 remained within. Spies informed
5400-511: The apprehension of Vern, and £200 each for Black and Lalor. Australia's population changed dramatically as a result of the rushes. In 1851 the Australian population was 437,655, of which 77,345, or just under 18%, were Victorians. A decade later the Australian population had grown to 1,151,947 and the Victorian population had increased to 538,628; just under 47% of the Australian total and a seven-fold increase. In some small country towns where gold
5508-407: The area and returning soldiers were offered farming land, and at the start of this century has been another fast growth period corresponding in part to Sydney's congestion. Other periods have seen a slightly declining population, including the decade around the 1900s and during the 1960s. The following chart illustrates the growth from 1856 to recent times. Bathurst is located on the western edge of
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#17328447477775616-581: The area and soon sent herds of their livestock to the region. The Bathurst region was opened up to wider British settlement in 1818 when Macquarie granted ten men 20 hectares (50 acres) of land each. These men were William Lee , Richard Mills, Thomas Kite, Thomas Swanbrooke, George Cheshire, John Abbott, John and James Blackman, John Neville and John Godden. These grants were located at what is now White Rock and Kelso . In 1818, Governor Macquarie stated in his diary: This morning I inspected 10 new settlers for Bathurst. I have agreed to grant each 50 acres of land,
5724-487: The century saw electricity arrive initially for street lighting ; the city converted from gas street lighting to electric lighting on 22 December 1924, when 370 electric lights at a cost of £40,000 were switched on. Lighting spread along streets through to 1935, over time to businesses and finally private houses. Sewage treatment was an early infrastructure project funded by the state government and built in 1915. Water supply started with private wells in backyards. Eventually
5832-571: The coaching workshops located in Bathurst and the Bathurst Information Centre contains a restored Cobb & Co. coach. Bathurst later became the centre of an important coal-mining and manufacturing region. The Main Western railway line from Sydney reached Bathurst in 1876. From that time, the town became an important railway centre with workshops, crew base with locomotive depot and track and signal engineering offices. It remains today as
5940-553: The colony with rail networks radiating to the regional towns and ports. Politically, Victoria's gold miners sped up the introduction of greater parliamentary democracy in Victoria, based on British Chartist principles adopted to some extent by the miners' activist bodies such as Bendigo's Anti-Gold Licence Association and the Ballarat Reform League . As the alluvial gold dwindled, pressures for land reform, protectionism and political reform generated social struggles, and
6048-502: The colony's total population: from 1851 to 1861, it grew from 75,000 to 500,000. Surface alluvial gold was the first to be exploited. It is reported that in 1851, when the first miners arrived on the Mount Alexander goldfield, near Castlemaine , nuggets could be picked up without digging. Then followed the exploitation of alluvial gold in creeks and rivers, or deposited in silt on river banks and flats. The gold-seekers used pans , sluice boxes and cradles to separate this gold from
6156-470: The continent's first gold rush occurred. Today education, tourism and manufacturing drive the economy. The internationally known racetrack Mount Panorama is a landmark of the city. Bathurst has a historic city centre with many ornate buildings remaining from the New South Wales gold rush in the mid to late 19th century. The median age of the city's population is 35 years; which is particularly young for
6264-401: The dirt. As surface alluvial gold ran out, gold seekers were forced to look further underground. Miners discovered so-called deep leads, which were gold-bearing watercourses that had been buried at various depths by centuries of silting and, in some Victorian goldfields such as Ballarat, volcanic action . They also began to exploit the underground gold reefs which were the original sources of
6372-451: The discovery of payable gold 26 miles (42km) north-west at the confluence of two creeks, a spot soon named Ophir . Further discoveries followed quickly nearby in Sofala and Hill End , and by the 1860s Bathurst's economy was transformed by the discovery of the region's gold and began to boom. The area's fame grew even more in 1872 when Hill End became famous for Bernhardt Holtermann 's finding of
6480-509: The district. The town in 1885 was a hub for stores such as E.G. Webb & Co. with supplies and distribution occurring throughout large parts of western NSW and into Queensland and South Australia. This period is characterised by periods of slow to moderate population growth, with industrial and education industries developing and technology and services delivered to the town. Several major infrastructure developments arrive such as distributed town gas , electricity , town water supplies, and
6588-516: The earth. With the exception of the more extensive fields of California, for a number of years the gold output from Victoria was greater than in any other country in the world. Victoria's greatest yield for one year was in 1856, when 3,053,744 troy ounces (94,982 kg) of gold were extracted from the diggings. From 1851 to 1896 the Victorian Mines Department reported that a total of 61,034,682 oz (1,898,391 kg) of gold
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#17328447477776696-445: The exception of Ballarat and Bendigo, many of these towns were substantially larger than they are today. Most populations moved to other districts when gold played out in a given locality. At the other end of the spectrum ghost towns, such as Walhalla , Mafeking and Steiglitz exist. The last major gold rush in Victoria was at Berringa , south of Ballarat, in the first decade of the 20th century. Gold mining became nothing more than
6804-461: The federal committees key requirements for the capital to have: "centrality and accessibility of situation, salubrity, and capacity for impregnable defence". The proposed site for the capital city would have been slightly north-west of Bathurst, straddling the Macquarie River, at the locality known as Elrington. An Australian Army camp was established at Bathurst in early 1940, intended for
6912-452: The first offence and afterwards imprisonment for terms up to six months. Clause 7 of this Act also appropriated half the fine to the use of the informer or prosecutor, a provocative and irritating provision. In December, 1853, an amending Act reduced the fee to £1 per month, but did not alter the diggers' greatest grievance, that they could be imprisoned for not having the actual licence on them, though their possession of one could be proved from
7020-569: The first volleys several men fell on both sides, but the line of advancing bayonets, flanked on both sides by cavalry and mounted police, was too much for the diggers. They turned to seek shelter and all was over. Of the military force Captain Wise and four private soldiers were killed, and about a dozen injured. Sixteen miners were killed, and at least eight others died of their wounds, 114 prisoners were taken, and Lalor, badly wounded, managed to escape; so did Black and Vern. The Government then offered £500 for
7128-502: The gang spent time in Bathrust Gaol, including Fred Lowry and John Peisley , who was hanged there for murder in 1862. The Cobb & Co business was a horse drawn coaching transport business originally established in Victoria but relocated to Bathurst in 1862 to follow the gold rush. The business provided gold escorts, mail services and passenger services to the towns and rural settlements. Cobb & Co. coaches were constructed in
7236-670: The gold discoveries in the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria in 1851 quickly arrived in the provinces of Southern China. By the end of 1855, more than 19,000 Chinese immigrants , particularly from the Guangdong province of China, were estimated to be working on the Victorian goldfields of Ararat , Ballarat , Ovens , Bendigo , Castlemaine and Maryborough . By 1858 this number increased to roughly 33,000 and Chinese miners were estimated to have made up approximately one fifth of Victoria's miner population. Figures suggest that Victoria's Chinese population began to dwindle after 1858. This
7344-544: The gold. Deep mining was more difficult and dangerous. Places such as Bendigo and Ballarat saw great concentrations of miners, who were forming partnerships and syndicates to enable them to sink ever-deeper shafts. Coupled with erratic and vexatious policing and licence checks, tensions flared around Beechworth, Bendigo and Ballarat. These frictions culminated in the Eureka Rebellion in Ballarat in 1854. Following that uprising,
7452-423: The goldfields of Buckland River on 4 July 1857. Following a group meeting at the Buckland Hotel, an estimated 100 European miners sought to expel all 2500 Chinese miners that occupied the goldfields of the Buckland River through the use of tent and store burning, robbery and beatings. Drowning and severe beatings are believed to have resulted in the death of several Chinese miners. This event has come to be known as
7560-564: The gully of the Buninyong ranges now bearing his name, on 8 August 1851, and he communicated the fact, with its precise locality, to the editor of the Geelong Advertiser on the 10th of that month. Dr. George H. Bruhn, a German physician, in the month of January, 1851, (i.e. before Mr. Hargraves' discovery at Summerhill) started from Melbourne to explore "the mineral resources of this colony'. During his lengthened tour, he found, in April, indications of gold in quartz about two miles from Mr. Barker's station, and on arriving at Mr. Cameron's station
7668-429: The most domestic of the goldfields, was renowned for its peaceful progressiveness and quietness. On the night of 6 October, however, a Scottish miner named James Scobie was killed at the Eureka Hotel, near Ballarat, and the murdered man's associate blamed the murder on the proprietor, Bentley, a Tasmanian ex-convict. Bentley was brought up before a magistrate, who was alleged to be financially under Bentleys' thumb, and he
7776-439: The mountainous nature of the country around Bathurst and assisting the development of storm cells. These storms do not often strike the city and instead move either in a south-east or north-east direction away from Bathurst. Bathurst gets 106.9 clear days annually. In winter, light to moderate snowfalls occur each year on the high country around Bathurst, while snow is relatively rare in the city itself due to its low elevation at
7884-502: The newer suburbs is Marsden Estate, in Kelso. Due to its elevation, Bathurst has an oceanic climate ( Cfb ), according to the Köppen climate classification . Bathurst is in Australia's cool temperate zone, having warm summers and cool to cold winters with four distinct seasons. Regular spring and summer thunderstorms are common, resulting from the flat plains country to the west, leading into
7992-640: The official opening on 9 November 1951. The college has transformed over time into the Mitchell College of Advanced Education on 1 January 1970. The college grew and ultimately became the Charles Sturt University on 19 July 1989. Bathurst was one of the locations to campaign to be the site of the new federal capital. In an essay prepared by a journalist with the Bathurst Times , Price Warung, in 1901 to promote Bathurst's candidacy, he responds to
8100-558: The official record. They were also unrepresented in Parliament, and in 1854 the population on the Ballarat goldfields was estimated at 20,000. Charles Hotham , who arrived in Victoria in June 1854, was alarmed at the depleted state of the Treasury and the growing expense of goldfields administration. He ordered the police to redouble their exertions in collecting the fees. To miners just scraping by,
8208-405: The payment of £12 per annum was impossible, and there is no doubt that hundreds did endeavour to evade payment, but the innocent suffered with the guilty. The police, too, had been largely recruited from Tasmania, and many were ex-convicts. These grievances were common to all the Victorian fields, and had under Latrobe's administration produced riots at Beechworth and Castlemaine, but Ballarat, always
8316-568: The presence of gold in Australia, but Government officials kept all findings secret for fear of disorganising the young colony. However the Colonial Secretary, Edward Deas Thomson , saw a great future for the country when Edward Hargraves proved his theory that Australia was a vast storehouse of gold. Hargraves had been in the California gold rush and knew gold country, when he first saw it, round Bathurst. The news spread like wildfire, and soon
8424-405: The race was on from coast to gold fields. Flocks were left untended, drovers deserted their teams, merchants and lawyers rushed from their desks and entire ships' crews, captains included, marched off to seek their fortunes. In March 1850, William Campbell of Strath Loddon, found on the station of his brother-in-law, Donald Cameron, of Clunes several minute pieces of native gold in quartz. This
8532-488: The railway regional engineering headquarters with a large rail component manufacturing facility. The heritage listed Bathurst Courthouse , a predominant landmark of the city centre, was constructed in 1880 based on designs by the New South Wales Colonial and Government architects , James Barnet and Walter Liberty Vernon . In 1885, Bathurst had a population of about 8,000 and an additional 20,000 people in
8640-502: The remaining Wiradjuri were forced to make peace with the colonial authorities. The Bathurst Rebellion occurred in late September 1830, when a large group of over 80 escaped convicts known as the Ribbon Gang roamed the Bathurst district, ransacking villages and engaging in shootouts over the course of three weeks. They were eventually captured and charged with murder, bushranging and horse-thieving. On 2 November 1830, ten members of
8748-512: The result of their deputation to the Governor, and Vern proposed a burning of the hated licences, which was then carried out. Next day the police carried out a specially vicious and vigorous licence-hunt, and when the troops marched back to camp, the diggers hastened to a conference with the leaders of the Reform League. Peter Lalor was elected leader, and under a blue flag adorned with the stars of
8856-466: The riot, and they were sentenced to three, four, and six months' imprisonment. At an indignation meeting held on 11 November on Bakery Hill, the Ballarat Reform League was formed, with John Basson Humffray (a Welshman) as its first secretary, and Peter Lalor , Frederic Vern (a Hanoverian), Raffaello Carboni (an Italian teacher, of languages), Timothy Hayes (an Irishman), and George Black,
8964-506: The road at the Bathurst Plains. These were the first non-Indigenous residents of what was to become Bathurst but was simply referred to until May 7 of that year as the Grand Depot. Governor Macquarie surveyed the finished road in April 1815, travelling along it to the Grand Depot with his wife and an entourage of 50 officials, soldiers and servants. On 7 May 1815, Governor Macquarie raised
9072-412: The road. The Black Spur section became a popular tourist destination and sought after location for notable early photographers in Victoria, such as Nicholas Caire and J. W. Lindt . In 1916 a bus service was introduced, taking travellers over the route in two twelve-seater Buick charabancs . The journey from Melbourne took four and a half hours. Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush
9180-606: The route. Its original width varied between 4 and 6 metres (12 and 20 ft), and was designed to accommodate horse-drawn vehicles. This Track involved the climbing of the Black Spur , descent into the Acheron Valley , and then through Marysville to the Cumberland where it followed the existing route. The old route through Paradise Plains subsequently dropped out of vogue. In 1865, the first drays and wagons reached Woods Point via
9288-734: The same day as Sydney was declared a city. Bathurst Regional Council was formed on 26 May 2004 following the amalgamation of the Bathurst City Council, most of Evans Shire and a small amount of land formerly included in Oberon Shire . The Electoral district of Bathurst is the state seat in the NSW Parliament . This seat covers the major centres of Bathurst and Lithgow , and all or part of Bathurst, Blayney , Cabonne , Lithgow, Mid-Western and Oberon local government areas. Since 1859, Bathurst has existed as an electoral district in
9396-509: The same year. In 1814, Governor Lachlan Macquarie approved an offer by William Cox to build a road crossing the Blue Mountains , from Emu Plains to the Bathurst Plains. This road was 3.7 metres (12 ft) wide and 163.3 kilometres ( 101 + 1 ⁄ 2 mi) long, built between 18 July 1814 and 14 January 1815 using 5 freemen, 30 convict labourers and 8 soldiers as guards. Twenty convicts and soldiers remained stationed at terminus of
9504-517: The seat was dominated by Labor, except for 1988 when it was won by the Liberal Party for one 3-year term, and the 2011 election when Paul Toole of the National Party won the seat. Bathurst is currently within the federal electoral district of Calare which includes a large part of western NSW from Lithgow in the east to Tullamore in the west. Prior to the 2010 election , Bathurst was within
9612-440: The ship's master to pay a £10 poll tax for each Chinese passenger it carried. The act however failed to reduce the number of Chinese arriving on Victorian Gold Fields. By landing at the port of Robe in the colony of South Australia and travelling more than 400 km across country to the Victorian goldfields, Chinese gold seekers were able to successfully evade the restrictions of Victoria's immigration act. In November 1857,
9720-423: The southern end of Kings Parade. This memorial was unveiled in 1910 by Lord Kitchener . In 2021, there were 37,396 people in Bathurst. Local government was trialled in the new Colony with a 'Bathurst and Carcoar District Council' established on 12 August 1843, Bathurst was proclaimed a town in 1852 and incorporated as a borough in 1862, next a municipality in 1883, then gazetted a city in on 20 March 1885.
9828-563: The spot to Dr. Webb Richmond, on behalf of the Gold Discovery Committee on 5 July. The third discovery was by Mr. Thomas Hiscock , a resident at Buninyong ; induced by the writings of the Rev. W. B. Clarke, and by the discovery of Brentani's nugget in the Pyrenees district two years before, he had kept a constant lookout for gold in his neighbourhood. He discovered an auriferous deposit in
9936-504: The substantial discoverer of the Ballarat deposits; £1000 to Campbell as the original discoverer of Clunes; £1000 to Esmond as the first active producer of alluvial gold for the market and £500 to Dr. Bruhn. On 20 July 1851 Thomas Peters, a hut-keeper on William Barker's Mount Alexander station, found specks of gold at what is now known as Specimen Gully. This find was published in the Melbourne Argus on 8 September 1851, leading to
10044-506: The suburbs. Within the CBD lies Kings Parade; this is a park setting with several memorials of people and events in history. It is a popular location for locals to meet. Keppel Street is Bathurst's second commercial shopping area, removed from the CBD by two blocks to the south. This area developed once the railway arrived in 1876. The main suburbs of Bathurst are: Kelso, Eglinton, West Bathurst, Llanarth, South Bathurst, Gormans Hill, Windradyne, Windradyne Heights and Abercrombie Estate. One of
10152-411: The town of Bathurst, with 112 operating in the immediate district during the course of the history in Bathurst. Initially many pubs were simply a cottage with stables. As prosperity increased during the gold rush, the hotels became typical of architecture of pubs known today. Bathurst's position as a key transit point for transporting gold to Sydney made it an attractive target for bushrangers , causing
10260-402: Was a period in the history of Victoria , Australia, approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony and an influx of population growth and financial capital for Melbourne , which was dubbed " Marvellous Melbourne " as a result of the procurement of wealth. The Victorian Gold Discovery Committee wrote in 1854: The discovery of
10368-498: Was an extraordinary −0.8 °C (30.6 °F) on 18 June 1877, which is the only known daily maximum below 0 °C (32 °F) to have occurred in a major Australian city. Bathurst is one of only a handful of Australian towns to have recorded a sub-freezing maximum (others include Guyra and Nimmitabel ), while at least one month has remained entirely free of air-frosts, a trait common in broadly-temperate Laurasian ( European , Asian , and North American ) climates. Bathurst has
10476-732: Was built on the Campbells River . Originally known as the Campbell River Dam scheme and later renamed the Ben Chifley Dam after the late Prime Minister Ben Chifley of Bathurst. It was opened in November 1956. The Ben Chifley Dam received a major storage upgrade designed to meet the cities needs to 2050; the work was completed in 2001 increasing the capacity by 30% to 30,800 megalitres (6.8 × 10 imp gal; 8.1 × 10 US gal). An ambulance service commenced on 6 June 1925 with
10584-458: Was concealed at the time but on 10 January 1851, Campbell disclosed it. Others had found indications of gold. Dr. George H. Bruhn, a German physician, whose services as an analyst were in great demand, had been shown specimens of gold from what afterwards became the Clunes diggings. In spite of these and other discoveries, however, it was impracticable to market the gold, and James Esmond 's "find" which
10692-452: Was declared in August 1824, after which settlers conducted several raids against Wiradjuri settlements; colonists such as Theophilus Chamberlain, the superintendent for William Cox , perpetrated several massacres . In response, Major James Thomas Morisset was appointed commandant of Bathurst to restore order, conducting several sweeps across the landscape. Martial law ended in December 1824 as
10800-498: Was discharged. The miners were indignant; a meeting was called and a demand made for a fresh prosecution. The meeting itself was orderly, but towards the end of proceedings a cry was raised that the police (who had been ordered to protect the hotel) were trying to disperse the meeting, and the miners, becoming furious, swept aside the police, smashed the windows and furniture, and burned the building. The police arrested three men- who could not be proved to have been ringleaders or active in
10908-528: Was expanded in 1818 when Governor Lachlan Macquarie removed restrictions that limited colonial settlements. Once these restrictions were removed the Wiradjuri people suffered major dislocation, death and disruption to their way of life. The government surveyor, George Evans , was the first European to sight the Bathurst Plains in 1813, following the first successful British crossing of the Blue Mountains in
11016-480: Was found abundantly, the population could grow by over 1000% in a decade (e.g. Rutherglen had a population of about 2,000. Ten years later, it had approximately 60,000 which is a 3000% increase). The rapid growth was predominantly a result of the gold rushes. The gold rush is reflected in the architecture of Victorian gold-boom cities like Melbourne, Castlemaine , Ballarat , Bendigo and Ararat . Ballarat today has Sovereign Hill —a 60-acre (24 ha) recreation of
11124-540: Was made on Creswick's Creek, a tributary of the Loddon River , at Clunes on 1 July 1851, was the first marketable gold field. A party formed by Mr. Louis John Michel, consisting of himself, Mr. William Haberlin, James Furnival, James Melville, James Headon, and B. Groenig, discovered the existence of gold in the quartz rocks of the Yarra ranges, at Andersons Creek , near Warrandyte , in the latter part of June, and showed it on
11232-536: Was mined in Victoria. Gold was first discovered in Australia on 15 February 1823, by assistant surveyor James McBrien, at Fish River, between Rydal and Bathurst (in New South Wales). The find was considered unimportant at the time and was not pursued for policy reasons. In the 1850s gold discoveries in Victoria, in Beechworth , Castlemaine , Daylesford , Ballarat and Bendigo sparked gold rushes similar to
11340-460: Was officially completed on Armistice Day , 11 November 1933 at a cost of £8,000. It was upgraded in 2020 to World Carillon Federation [ nl ] standards, making it only the third such carillon in Australia. The Evans memorial stands at the northern end of Kings Parade. Completed in 1920, the memorial commemorates the discovery of the Bathurst Plains in 1813 by George Evans , Assistant Surveyor of Lands. The Boer War memorial stands at
11448-468: Was opened in 1942, initially to benefit the war effort providing parking for aircraft overflowing from Richmond air force base . The first commercial airline service departed for Sydney on 16 December 1946. A famous Australian brand name of frozen foods began in Bathurst. Robert Gordon Edgell arrived in Bathurst in 1902. By 1906, he was growing pears, apples and asparagus and experimenting with canning and preserving fruit and vegetables, eventually opening
11556-485: Was shown by that gentleman specimens of gold at what are now called the Clunes diggings. This information he made widely known through the country in the course of his journey, and communicated to Mr. James Esmond, at that time engaged in erecting a building at Mr. James Hodgkinson's station. Dr. Bruhn forwarded specimens, which were received by the Gold Discovery Committee on 30 June 1851. The Gold Discovery Committee awarded £1000 to Michel and his party; £1000 to Hiscock, as
11664-399: Was surveyed in September 1864, which resulted in the deviation of the settlement at New Chum. Healesville was at the furthest point coaches could travel along the route from Melbourne. From there, a packhorse track climbed through the mountains to the diggings. Shanties were built every five or six miles from New Chum to the diggings. Accommodation houses and stores were strung along the rest of
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