The Welsh Village re-populated for a day!
After the town hall opening on Saturday a google search for articles related to the Mount Alexander Heritage Advisory Committee’s offer of the opportunity to visit current and former municipal buildings led, obscurely, to an intriguing site called Hiking Fiasco. Amid the many stories of successful hikes and epic failures on the site a visit to the Welsh Village on October 15, 2011 was detailed. In the “History of The Welsh Village” Valerie Hill describes the Welsh Village as “located in Golden Gully, which is one of a series of small gullies near Castlemaine that yielded large quantities of gold during the Australian gold rush.” She goes on to say the Welsh Village appears to be a recent title given to the settlement, although the Welsh nationality of its early inhabitants is supported by contemporary documentation. An 1859 Department of Mines map shows that a number of claims were included within twenty acres held by the Nimrod Reef Mining Company in Golden Gully and the structural remains of the village are located within this area. The 1864 rate book for the Borough of Chewton contains 17 entries for Golden Gully, indicating that the
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gully was inhabited at this time. The stone from which the village remains are made appears to have come from subterranean mining, so their construction would probably coincide with these operations. The Welsh settlers who established this settlement arrived in Australia from southern Wales in the early years of the gold rush. Glorified reports of easily gained earnings were featured in the Welsh press and these encouraged significant numbers of Welsh people to come to Australia. The Welsh-born population of Victoria in 1851 was 377, and rose to 6614 in 1871. The whole Valerie Hill article is available at http://www.ashadocs. org/aha/16/16_04_Hill.pdf Thus, on a recent sunny Sunday morning, the Welsh Village was calling. The walk into Golden Gully from Donkey Gully (Welsh Street) is over the ridge between the gullies, past evidence of early mining activities. Mines and piles of excavated rock are all around, along with a few open tunnels. There’s also a sheer slate face that is occasionally used for abseiling activities. And the remains of a “chimney pot” sitting on top of a “hill chimney”. The view from this rise is a bonus but is now being reduced by an invasion of pine trees. Down into Golden Gully past more shafts, some fenced, others open, some showing evidence of failing capping, some holding water – imagine living and raising children in a landscape like this! In Golden Gully the residential remains invite both exploration and imagination. Housing, paths, tracks, landscaping and the occasional garden remnants are easily accessible – one popular feature is a huge rosemary bush. A quiet deserted village in the bush? Not on this Sunday! Like Bourke Street someone remarked. Four or five groups wandering around – families, children, cameras, conversations and a largish group from the Victorian Mountain Tramping Club who chose this spot for a morning tea break. They’d walked in from the Garfield Wheel, and as they agreed to a photo one of their members assured me they were the Junior Division of their club! The Welsh Village is full of surprises (and holes!) – and the Hiking Fiasco’s description and photos of the 2011 visit are worth a look at http://www.hikingfiasco. com/search/label/Castlemaine From time to time the fear of pine tree fire hazards is raised in Chewton. The Welsh Village is only a few kilometres to the north of Chewton and thousands upon thousands of pine trees are now populating the landscape. Perhaps this is where Chewton’s real fire hazard is emerging?