Chiltern, Victoria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chiltern
Victoria

The Grape Vine Hotel
Population: 1063 (2006)[1]
Postcode: 3683
Location:
LGA: Shire of Indigo
State District: Benambra
Federal Division: Indi

Chiltern is a town in Victoria, Australia, located in the north east of the state between Wangaratta and Wodonga, in the Shire of Indigo. At the 2006 census, Chiltern had a population of 1063. The town is close to the Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park. Chiltern was once on the main road between Melbourne and Sydney but is now by-passed by the Hume Freeway running a few kilometres to the east.

Chiltern came into being as a direct result of local gold discoveries in 1858-59 during the greater Victorian Gold Rush period. Many of Chiltern's buildings are classified by the National Trust. In 1859, many shop-keepers and miners from around Beechworth and the Oven district followed the rush and re-located into Chiltern.

The Grape Vine Hotel, on the corners of Main St. and Conness St, boasts the largest grapevine in Australia, planted in 1867. The town hosts an antique fair in August and an art show in October. It is the birthplace of John McEwen, 18th Prime Minister of Australia. Chiltern was home to the Australian female writer who wrote under the nom de plume Henry Handel Richardson famous for her book The Getting of Wisdom.

Contents

[edit] Gold

Lake View House at Chiltern, the home of author Henry Handel Richardson from July 1876 for 1 1/2 years. Her early years at Chiltern featured in the novel The Fortunes of Richard Mahony.
Lake View House at Chiltern, the home of author Henry Handel Richardson from July 1876 for 1 1/2 years. Her early years at Chiltern featured in the novel The Fortunes of Richard Mahony.
View of the lake from Lake View House. It was a swamp, not a lake, at the time the Richardson family lived in Chiltern. [1]
View of the lake from Lake View House. It was a swamp, not a lake, at the time the Richardson family lived in Chiltern. [1]

The discovery of gold in the late 1858 early 1859, brought a huge shift in population into the Chiltern - Black Dog Creek area. Gold discoveries drew many miners away from the nearby Ovens goldfields; namely Beechworth, Nine Mile Creek and Stanley during the big drought of 1859. Unlike those surfaced based sluicing mining operations around Beechworth, the gold around Chiltern was extracted by sinking deep wet leads. These operations required a diffent type of miner and working groups, capable of sinking shafts to some 400 feet in depth. Miners with these skills and experiences came into the area, from Ballarat and Bendigo and joined with the sluicers from around Beechworth and the Ovens. Miners from the Ballarat goldfields were considered 'radical', because of their connections with the Eureka Rebellion (1854). Some of these miners were colourful characters and the most notable, a colourful and radical A.A. O'Connor, stood for parliament in 1859 as the would-be member for the Ovens; his escapades and the social tensions his candidature aroused appear in O'Brien's book cited below.

While Beechworth's gold production declined during 1859, due in part to the drought and lack of water for sluicing, Chiltern's gold production increased (O'Brien), to such an extend that Chiltern looked as if it would usurp the importance of Beechworth. Beechworth was the most important regional centre in North-eastern Victoria during the gold boom 1852-1859. Chiltern did overshadow Beechworth within a few years, especially when the main Melbourne-Albury rail by-passed Beechworth. Finally, when the gold dwindled during the early 1900s, so did Chiltern.

[edit] Transport

The railway station is serviced by VLine services running between Melbourne and Albury.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). Chiltern (State Suburb). 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
  • Robert W. P. Ashley, History of the Shire of Chiltern, Thompsons, Albury-Wodonga, 1974.
  • Antony O'Brien, Shenanigans on the Ovens Goldfields: the 1859 Election, Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2005. (a mining candidate from Chiltern, A. A. O'Connor, stood for this general election during 1859)
  • Jennifer Williams, Chiltern Standard Newspaper, 1859-60, M.A. Thesis, University of Melbourne, 1970. This is available in the Melbourne University Reading Room at the Baillieu Library.
  • DNRE, Victorian Goldfield Project: Historical Gold Mining Sites in the North East Region of Victoria, 1999.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Coordinates: 36°09′00″S 146°36′25″E / -36.150, 146.607

v • d • e
Towns in the Shire of Indigo Local Government Area