Beechworth

Beechworth's many historical buildings are well preserved and the town has re-invented itself and evolved into a popular tourist destination and growing wine-producing centre.

Beechworth's many historical buildings are well preserved and the town has re-invented itself and evolved into a popular tourist destination and growing wine-producing centre.

History

Originally used for grazing by the settler David Reid, the area was known as Mayday Hills until 1853, when it was renamed Beechworth.

Gold

Beechworth was gold. In its golden heyday from 1852-1857, this was a fabulous gold region and centre of government; but its power, wealth and influence were short lived. At its wildest moments of gold discoveries, Woods related how an early party of prospectors retrieved a pan of gold weighing 14 lb (about 7 kg).(p. 10.) Another lucky party, said Woods, cleared some 50lb (approx. 25 kg) of gold in a week.(p. 16.) And so began a rush into this remote region. During the first election campaign in 1855, one candidate, Daniel Cameron, rode horse was shod with solid gold horseshoes. The extravagance of this event is still commemorated as the logo for Beechworth is a golden horseshoe.

At the time, Beechworth was far removed from the centre of colonial administration in Melbourne both in distance and time taken to travel. The railway arrived in September 1876, but by that stage the town and its gold production was waning.

Nevertheless, Beechworth town boasted a range of industries including, a tannery, jewellers, boot makers, a brewery, blacksmiths, livestock sale yards. It had schools, a convent, hotels, a prison with imposing stone walls, a hospital, a mental hospital, court house, police barracks, stage coach companies and a powder magazine.

In its golden days, men and women arrived from, the USA, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and China. At its peak, Beechworth town had some 3,100 residents. The Chinese were not allowed live in Beechworth town and resided on the outskirts. Numerous controls and enforced regulations and licence checks existed against the Chinese miners.(see: Woods; also McWaters; also O'Brien; and Cronin). Beechworth Cemetery has a large preserved section of early Chinese miners/pioneers. The presence of the Chinese goldminers around Beechworth and throughout northeastern region created social unrest and these are recorded in a variety of the book references below.

Colourful characters

Like many Australian country towns associated with the early goldfields, Beechworth had its share of colourful characters and villains. Among the infamous during the 1870s was, the one time, Livery Stable owner, later the 'Dog Officer', at some other time the 'Pound Officer' and another time shire revenue officer; John Phelan. (O'Brien, 'Awaiting Ned Kelly' & Jones, The Friendship, p. 29.) Phelan was a continual litigant, correspondent to the newspapers and advertiser. His official and officious escapades were mockingly reported in the local paper.(O'Brien)

Robert O'Hara Burke

Robert O'Hara Burke, leader of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition was stationed in Beechworth as Senior Inspector of Police from 1854 to 1857.([1]. Policeman John Sadleir one of the Kelly Gang pursuers was also stationed in Beechworth during its early days.(Harvey)

The Burke Museum is located in Loch Street and holds a rich source of primary materials on Beechworth and the surrounding districts golden past. Source materials include newspapers, photos, artefacts, clothings, paintings, exhibitions, published local histories and unpublished theses on the district and displays dating back to the gold discoveries, early Chinese miners and workings of the 1850s. For family and academic researchers this museum is a gold mine.

Ned Kelly

The outlaw Ned Kelly had many links to Beechworth - he spent time in HM Prison Beechworth and fought a famous boxing bout with Isaiah 'Wild" Wright in the back of a local hotel [2]. Aaron Sherritt and Joe Byrne of the Kelly Gang came from the Woolshed goldmining camp, outside of Beechworth town. It was in Beechworth gaol that twenty-one men, suspected Kelly Gang supporters, relatives and other sympathersiers were held without trial or evidence for over 3 months, by the Chief Commissioner of Police Captain Standish, under the Outlawry Act. [Jones, pp. 177-178]

George B. Kerferd

George B. Kerferd (1836-1889) a long time resident of Beechworth became a Premier of Victoria and was a major participant in ensuring Beechworth had a railway connection to Melbourne.

John Buckley Castieau

Castieau (1831-1885)was the Prison Governor at Beechworth from 1856 to 1869. The prison, famous for its huge granite walls was known as Castieau's castle. As the Governor of the Melbourne gaol in 1880 he was an official witness to the hanging of Ned Kelly. His diaries were later published (2004) as The Difficulties of My Position. In this book a drawing from the Australian Sketcher, 14 August 1880 shows Castieau sitting with Ned Kelly during his remand (p.278) and also a photo of his signature as one of the witnesses to the Kelly hanging (p. viii).

Newspapers

In its golden heyday Beechworth boasted two influential newspapers: The Ovens and Murray Advertiser and The Constitution and Mining Intelligencer. These papers engaged in fierce competition and for a while were daily issues. The papers circulated far and wide throughout the district and the colony of Victoria.(O'Brien) Both papers represented the views of their respective readerships sometimes to the exclusion of all others.(O'Brien) Even today, these old papers are an important historical research tool, as most editions from the early 1850 survive and are micro-filmed. These two local papers provided rich primary sources for many historians of Beechworth and its surrounds, plus the Kelly Gang historians.(See: Woods (1985); McMahon (2000); Lane (1978); McQuilton (1979); Jones (1995); McWaters (2002); O'Brien (2005); and Wild & McMahon (2006))

The Ovens and Murray Advertiser still survives as a local paper.

Tourism

Beechworth Accommodation

Beechworth Bed and Breakfasts

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