McIvor Diggings,26th July 1853.
Drawn by Edward La Trobe Bateman.
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Mclvor, the shire in which Heathcote originally exisited, was the name
given to the creek in the district by Major Mitchell, after one of his
Survey staff members, hence the name of the Mclvor Shire originated
from this. (circa 1836)
Roadside accommodation houses such as Mathosson’s at Knowsley and
at Mclvor Inn, station homesteads and shepherd’s huts were the
only habitations of the district. Many years before gold had been discovered,
which led to the township settlement of Heathcote, the Mclvor district
had been occupied by pastoralists under the Laws of the Colony of New
South Wales. The site of the township of Heathcote was on the track
taken by carters in conveying produce to the stations in the North by
woolgrowers from those stations to Melbourne.
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Thomas Craven's Old Store,
now the Heathcote Winery.
The old gaol house.
The powder magazine.
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The Gold Rush is said to have first
started in 1851. The gullies first worked were: Long, Caledonian, Nuggety,
Big Possum and Little Possum.
The second rush was started when gold is said to have been found in
Golden Gully at the end of 1852 and was kept secret for several months.
Then in 1853, gold was struck in the deeper ground in the Mclvor Creek
and was still being worked in 1865. In the meantime gold was struck
in numerous smaller gullies, e.g.: Parson Gully, Thunderbolt, Sawpit,
German and Sailor’s Gullies and Commissioner’s Flat. The creek
leads were extensively worked and proved rich areas.
The reef mining started about 1855 onwards. Butlers & Alabama were
in the reports of 1859 and 1860. They were then at 80 metres [240 feet]
in depth so they had been working for a fair while.
The township grew to accommodate 22 hotels and 3 breweries. The hotels
started at Mclvor Inn, 6 kilometres [4 miles] south of Heathcote and
extended to the Black Swan at Hill’s turnoff at the North end.There
were two flourmills; one which is now a private residence owned by artist
Leonard French [next door to the chemist]. Note the tall chimney that
stands behind the building, the other mill was opposite the BP service
station. There were several vineyards and one bacon factory.
The township was named Heathcote by Lord Heathcote, because of the vast
areas of heath growing in the area. Heathcote’s population in ten
years dropped from 35,000 to 6,000. It stayed around 6,000 for about
twenty years to 1880. Costerfield had about six major mines working
and Redcastle had six to twelve mines working up to the turn of the
century. A few were worked until about 1910 and most of the miners then
worked in Costerfield until it closed down in 1925. Costerfield in its
best days employed 700 men on top and under ground.
Some of the populations in little settlements around Heathcote include:
Balmoral,
[later changed to Redcastle] which had a population of 17,000 in its
heyday;
Grey City, which
had a population of 60,000, but had a short life, later having its name
changed to Graytown; and
Wild Duck, which
had three hotels and a population of 7,000 people.
Over one hundred and twenty years ago, on a thin lonely bush track running
through Axedale and onto Bendigo, at least one famous " robbery
under arms" occurred when bushrangers bailed up the Mclvor Gold
Escort.
The Shire of Mclvor was proclaimed a District on the 26th June 1863,
and later proclaimed a Shire on the 23rd December 1864. This was altered
on the 27th May 1892, when the Heathcote Borough was annexed as the
Central Riding of the Shire of Mclvor. The area was re-defined on the
16th May 1956, when a portion of the Eastern Riding was annexed to the
Goulburn Shire.
This left the Shire of Mclvor with an area of 1,350 square kilometres
[521 square miles], containing a population of approximately 1,829 people.
This Shire of Mclvor had four Ridings: The Eastern, South Western, North
Western and Central Ridings. Within the Shire there were the hamlets
of Costerfield, Knowsley, Mia Mia and Tooborac.
In 1995, the Shire of Mclvor, including Heathcote became part of the
City of Greater Bendigo.
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- Source: Heathcote Town Visitors Guide,
c/o Visitor Information Centre.
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