Goldfields A5 x 12

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Extraordinary Landscapes of the Nineteenth Century Gold Rush Victoria, Australia

Extraordinary Landscapes of the nineteenth century Gold Rush

NEW IMAGE TO COME

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country also known today as the Victorian Goldfields.

We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We recognise your unbroken connection to Country and that your sovereignty has never been ceded.

THE VICTORIAN GOLDFIELDS

Murrup Laarr. Image by Yum Studios.

Outstanding Universal Value

The Victorian Goldfields represent the most extensive, coherent, and bestsurviving nineteenth century gold rush landscape anywhere in the world.

Diverse Geological Riches

Gold is widely distributed across an extensive area of Victoria, the result of tectonic events hundreds of millions of years ago. Subsequent erosion revealed easily worked outcrops and alluvial deposits. Mining found the distinctive “deep leads” - buried ancient river channels of gold and the gold veins in the deep quartz rocks.

A Transformative Global Phenomenon

The Victorian Goldfields represent one of the most significant gold rushes in world history. Beginning in 1851, it was part of a broader era of overlapping gold rushes that led to profound global consequences in terms of mass migration economic and social upheaval.

Opencut mine, Whroo, Victoria

Profound Impacts on Traditional Owners

The losses, dispossessions and displacement of Traditional Owners started with the arrival of Europeans. Colonial processes were accelerated in speed and scale because of the gold rush. The Aboriginal peoples called it “Upside-down Country.” However, their skills and deep knowledge of Country were vital to the migrant gold-seekers. Their continuing cultural custodianship of this area is a key part of managing the landscapes today.

63,000 BCE

Earliest evidence of Aboriginal people in Australia

40,000 BCE

Mungo Lady, Australia - oldest known human remains found anywhere in Australia.

10,000 BCE End of last Ice Age

3,300 BCE Otzi (Ice Man) mummy

3,000 BCE

Mesopotamian Cuneiform

2,500 BCE

Great Pyramid, Egypt

Chinese sluice-mining in creek bed, Ovens valley, nineteenth century

A Global Influx of Immigrants

Over 350,000 people from Great Britain, China, Europe, the Americas, and the Pacific Islands flocked to the Victorian Goldfields, including many women and children. This diverse immigrant population rapidly established new settlements and communities. Most stayed and formed today’s mosaic of towns, cities and rural settlements across the region.

Above: Bush scene, three women panning for gold [location unknown] c.1855-1910 State Library Victoria, H81.239

Victoria’s First Peoples

are part of the oldest living

culture on Earth

Top: Zealous gold diggers, Castlemaine Caption for image: Zealous gold diggers, Castlemaine 1852 S.T.G. [1872] Gill, S. T., 1818-1880 artist, State Library Victoria, H141536

1848 ACE

Gold Rush

1851 ACE

Victorian Gold Rush

1896 ACE

Californian
Klondike Gold Rush

‘Washing out a good prospect’ ca.1858 (detail) State Library of Victoria, H84.167/34

Technological Innovation and Transformation

The Victorian Goldfields showcase the evolution of mining techniques, from small-scale alluvial "diggings" to deep shaft mining - a remarkable engineering achievement, with the deepest gold mines in the southern hemisphere at the time.

Mine tunnel exit, Walhalla, Victoria
Malmsbury Coliban Viaduct, Malmsbury, Victoria

Remarkable Urban Development

The gold rush towns of Bendigo and Ballarat exemplify the rapid transformation of the landscape into architecturally distinguished cities. They represent outstanding examples of nineteenth century colonial urban planning that demonstrate the flow of wealth into the region, through the construction of banks with their own smelters, grand town halls and opulent theatres.

Ballarat Urban Landscape, Ballarat, Victoria
Bendigo Town Hall, Bendigo, Victoria

Conserving a Globally Significant Cultural Landscape

The Victorian Goldfields cultural landscape is a highly significant and remarkably intact representation of the global nineteenth century gold rush phenomenon, with exceptional technological, social, and environmental attributes that merit consideration for World Heritage inscription.

Beechworth, Victoria
Deep Leads, Creswick, Victoria

A Plan For Regional Regeneration

The Victorian Goldfields World Heritage Master Plan is designed to encourage deeper, more meaningful engagement with the region’s culture, heritage and environments. It ensures that the benefits of the bid are shared equitably with people and communities from across the 15 local government areas and encourages visitation to sites big and small across the region. It reflects the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, UNESCO’s Historic Urban Landscape approach, and the World Heritage Journeys and World Heritage Sustainable Tourism Programmes with the aim of creating Australia’s first World Heritage Journeys destination.

Walhalla, Victoria
Castlemaine Gallery-Museum
Image by Yum Studios for City of Ballarat

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Minister name

- Minister, Australian Government

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Minister name

- Minister, Victorian Government (tbc)

“The bid provides an opportunity to have the region’s Traditional Owners ‘put back into the landscape in a respectful way’, to tell who they are and who we all want to be going forward –choosing how we tell this story, together.”

Partnership vision

Fifteen local governments, supported by the Victorian and Australian governments, and Traditional Owners have partnered to develop the World Heritage nomination. They aim to share the extraordinary story of the Victorian Goldfields with people from across the globe and create social, cultural and economic opportunities for every community across the region.

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Goldfields A5 x 12 by dogwhistle creative - Issuu