After leaving the Taradale Streamside Reserve on Saturday 25th November 2023, Marija and I drove a short distance to our next park activation at the Taradale Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2205.
Above:- Map showing the location of the Taradale NCR. Map c/o Google Maps.
We crossed the famous Todd’s Bridge built in 1870 over the Coliban River. The bridge is listed with the Victorian Heritage Database. The Coliban River is a tributary of the Campaspe River. The river takes its name after Coliban station which was taken up by overlander A.F. Mollison near the river in December 1837. (Blake 1978) (Vict Heritage Database 2024)
The reserve is located on the Metcalfe-Taradale Road.
Above:- An aerial view of the Taradale NCR. Image c/o Google Earth.
The reserve is about 184 hectares in size and was established on the 24th day of August 1982. (CAPAD 2022)
We ran the Yaesu FT857, 40 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole for this activation. I used the special callsign of VI10VKFF.
Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
VK3PF/p (Traralgon South Flora & Fauna Reserve VKFF-2464)
VK3KAI/p (Traralgon South Flora & Fauna Reserve VKFF-2464)
VK3SQ
VK2BD
VK5AAF/p (Cooltong Conservation Park VKFF-0823)
VK3MCA/p (Kurkuric Creek Streamside Reserve VKFF-3742)
After leaving the Harcourt Bushland Reserve on Saturday 25th November 2023, Marija and I headed south to our 3rd park activation for the day, the Taradale Streamside Reserve VKFF-3877.
On our way to Taradale, we stopped to look at Specimen Gully, the gully where the Victorian gold rush began. At the site, there is an old hut, a monument, and some information boards. The site is located on Specimen Gully Road, Barker’s Creek, about 8km from Castlemaine via the Midland Highway.
Prior to Mount Alexander, gold had been discovered in Victoria by European settlers at Clunes and Warrandyte. However the gold proved hard to extract and as a result, this did not lead to a large rush of hopeful gold prospectors. (Parks Victoria)
On the 20th day of July 1851, Christopher Peters discovered the first gold from the Mount Alexander goldfields near the site of the monument. The discovery took part on Dr William Barker’s pastoral run, where Peters was working as a shepherd and a hut keeper. He had been secretly panning for gold in ‘Whirleys Gulley’ at the head of Specimen Gully using a small soup tin. He found half-a-dozen pieces of gold about the size of grains of wheat. Upon the gold being shown in the men’s quarters, Peters was ridiculed as finding ‘fool’s gold’ (pyrite) and the gold was thrown away. It is believed that Barker did not want his workers to abandon the sheep on the run in search of gold. However, by August that is exactly what they did. John Worley, George Robinson, and Robert Keen who were also employed by Barker, resigned and told Barker they were heading to the goldfields at Clunes. In reality, they teamed up with Peters and commenced searching for gold in Specimen Gully. (Parks Victoria)
Above:- an engraving of ‘Whirley’s Gulley’ in 1851 by G.F. Sargent.
Barker found out what they were up to and was furious. He threatened to have them charged and prosecuted with trespass. As a result, one of the men, John Worley, penned a letter dated the 1st day of September 1851, that appeared in The Argus, Melbourne, on the 8th day of September 1851. The letter read as follows:
“I wish you to publish these four lines in your valuable paper, that the public may know that there is gold found in these ranges, about four miles from Dcotor Barker’s home station, and about a mile from the Melbourne road; at the southernmost point of Mount Alexander, where three men and myself are working. I do this to prevent parties from getting us into trouble, as we have been threatened to have the Constable fetched for being on the ground. If you will have the kindness ti insert this in your paper, that we are prepared to pay anything that is just when the Commissioner in the name of the party comes.” (Parks Victoria)
On the day that Worley’s letter was written, new regulations came into effect in Victoria which prohibited any person from digging without a monthly mining licence which cost thirty shillings (£1 10s) to be paid in advance. Captain Wright, the Chief Goldfields Commissioner, read Worley’s letter. He immediately instructed Commissioner Powlett to travel from Ballarat to issue a fine to the four men of £20 for digging without a licence. He also stipulated that a 10% royalty should be paid on the gold they had obtained. However, this did not occur and the four men continued to mine for gold in Specimen Gully. (Parks Victoria)
Above:- William Wright. Image c/o State Library Victoria.
Soon after the announcement of the finding of gold at Specimen Gully, trickles of people arrived in the area hoping that they too, would find gold. Within a month about 8,000 diggers were working the alluvial beds of the creeks. By the end of 1851 there were about 25,000 diggers on the goldfields. These people came from all across Australia including Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), New South Wales, South Australia. Others came from as far away as China, Britain and New Zealand. Charles La Trobe, the Governor of Victoria, described these arrivals as ‘adventurers’. (Parks Victoria)
By the year 1852, more ships had sailed into Melbourne Victoria than any other port in the world. About 88,00 paying passengers departed the British Isles for Australia. Of those, 9 out of 10 came to Victoria in their pursuit of gold. By 1853 another 61,000 gold prospectors had arrived, followed by 83,000 in 1854. By the 1860s, these gold seekers had trebled the population of Australia. About 33% of the world’s gold was being produced in Victoria, with most of it coming from the Mount Alexander Diggings. (Parks Victoria)
In 1864, the Victorian Government awarded the four men, Peters, Worley, Robinson and Keen, a total of £250 each for discovering the Mount Alexander Goldfield. In today’s terms, this would be the equivalent of around $60,000. (Parks Victoria)
Above:- Article from the Mount Alexander Mail, Mon 25 Jul 1864. Image c/o Trove.
What ever happened to the men?
Christopher Peters is referred to as Christopher John Peters on the monument at Specimen Gully. However, during my research, many old newspaper articles referred to him as Christopher Thomas Peters. I have not been able to find any further information on Peters.
William Barker was born in 1818 in Buckinghamshire England and studied medicine at University College Hospital. He emigrated to Australia and in July 1845 he acquired the Mount Alexander run. In 1852 he was appointed a Territorial Magistrate for Castlemaine. In 1862 he returned to medical practice and became the surgeon at the Beechworth Hospital. Between 1865 to 1871 he practised medicine at Echuca. He then moved to Melbourne and practised medicine at Albert Park. He died in June 1899. (Aust Dict of Biography 2024)
John Worley was born in c. 1811 in London, England. He emigrated to Australia. In 1848 he married Bridget Mulvaney. By 1850 he was living in the Mount Alexander district. John and Bridget had seven children. In 1854 John Worley and his wife Bridget were living in a shepherd’s hut only a short distance from the initial gold discovery site. They had initially lived in a tent at the time of the discovery. John initially extracted gold by chipping quartz off an outcrop by hand and pounding it with hammers. By 1858 he had dug a shaft down to the reef. By 1866 he had moved to Lancefield. At some point, he and Bridget separated and she remained at Specimen Gully. John Worley died in Melbourne in January 1889. (ancestry.com.au 2024) (Parks Victoria)
I have not been able to find any information about Robinson and Keen.
The ruins that are located at the site are the home of Bridget Worley nee Mulvaney, the wife of John Worley.
Above: Bridget Worley, c. 1870s.
The original home is the room with the large fireplace, built by her son Daniel Rielley in c. 1870. Bridget lived at this house until c. 1895. She spent her final years in the Castlemaine Benevolent Asylum, before her death in 1898 at age 78. (Parks Victoria)
We left Specimen Gully and headed to Taradale. Along the way, we had some nice views of Mount Alexander despite the very threatening black clouds.
We soon reached the town of Taradale. It took its name from Tarradale House in Scotland, the birthplace of geologist Sir Roderick Murchison.
Above:- Sir Roderick Murchison. Image c/o Wikipedia.
In 1852 gold deposits were found at Taradale. By 1855 a school was opened and in 1856 an Anglican church was opened. The Taradale Post Office was opened on the 1st day of March 1856. Mechanics Institute was opened in 1860. By 1862 the railway line from Kyneton to Bendigo was opened and this involved the construction of a viaduct bridge across Back Creek valley. I will talk about the viaduct a little later in this post. (Victorian Places 2024)
Above:- Map of the township of Taradale. Image c/o State Library Victoria.
Other than the town being named after a famous geologist, several of the town’s streets are named after famous people in the field of science and geology. This includes Charles Lyell, Michael Faraday and Humphry Davy.
The old Taradale Post Office was built c. 1861. It operated jointly as a Post and Telegraph Office, with 39,000 letters and 17,500 newspapers arriving in Taradale each year.
The Taradale Mechanics Institute was established in 1858. The Mechanics Institute movement commenced in British urban industrial centres in the early 1800s. A ‘mechanic’ was a person applying skills and technology. During the 19th century, most towns in Victoria established a Mechanics Institute or Athenaeum with a library and meeting hall.
In close proximity to the Taradale viaduct is a historic family home built in c. 1887 by William Legg.
The Taradale Viaduct is something you have to see in person to appreciate. It is an amazing structure. It was designed by William Edward Bryson (b. 1823. d. 1903), a British civil engineer, surveyor and architect. It was built between 1858 and 1862 and is 36 metres in height above Back Creek. (Wikipedia 2024)
Several men have died whilst working on the viaduct. This included the Gatekeeper, Dennis Kennedy in 1863.
Above:- part of an article from The Argus, Mon 15 Jun 1863. Image c/o Trove.
On the 25th day of October 1862, about 1,200 people gathered at the Taradale police paddock to celebrate the opening of the Melbourne & Murray River railway, with a children’s picnic and sports day. Workmen reportedly decorated the viaduct with three flag-festooned triumphal arches through which the official train slowly passed while the dignitaries inside acknowledged the cheers of the spectators.
Above:- Article from the Mount Alexander Mail, Fri 17 Oct 1862. Image c/o Trove.
Near the viaduct, you can find several oak trees that were planted in May 1863 to commemorate the marriage of Queen Victoria’s son, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward 7th) to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, which took place in March 1863.
We then activated the Taradale Streamside Reserve VKFF-3877, located on the Metcalfe-Taradale Road.
Above:- An aerial view of the Taradale Streamside Reserve. Image c/o Google Earth.
The reserve is about 17 hectares in size and was established on the 24th day of August 1982. Back Creek flows through the reserve which in turn runs into the Coliban River. (CAPAD 2022)
We ran the Yaesu FT857, 40 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole. I used the special call of VI10VKFF. The band conditions were quite good apart from loud static crashes on the 40m band.
Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
VK3APJ
VK1CHW/p (Gossan Hill Nature Reserve VKFF-0842)
VK3DCQ
VK3CLD/2
VK3DAC
VK4FE/3
VK5KKT
VK3CEO
VK3PF/p (Traralgon South Flora & Fauna Reserve VKFF-2464)
VK3KAI/p (Traralgon South Flora & Fauna Reserve VKFF-2464)
VK5AAF/p (Cooltong Conservation Park VKFF-0823)
VK3MCA/p (Molison Creek Streamside Reserve VKFF-3771)
I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
VK3APJ
VK1CHW/p (Gossan Hill Nature Reserve VKFF-0842)
VK3DCQ
VK3CLD/2
VK3DAC
VK4FE/3
VK5KKT
VK3CEO
VK3PF/p (Traralgon South Flora & Fauna Reserve VKFF-2464)
VK3KAI/p (Traralgon South Flora & Fauna Reserve VKFF-2464)
VK2EXA
VK5AAF/p (Cooltong Conservation Park VKFF-0823)
VK7MAT
VK7JFD
VK3MCA/p (Molison Creek Streamside Reserve VKFF-3771)
VK3CJN
VK3MTT
VK3HJW
VK3PI
VK3UAO
VK7IAN
VK3YV
VK3TNL
VK3ZZS
VK2MOP
VK1AAF
VK3AWA
VK3ARM/m
VK3SQ
VK2BD
VK3ABQ/p (Mount Wombat-Garden Range Flora & Fauna Reserve VKFF-2403)
VK5PAS 