The History of Ballarat, etc

Front matter

■ ■ ■ m J&WrTVtven. Sre^Af.l/mo. KEY TO THE GENERAL VIEW OF BALLARAT 1 Black Hill. 2. Railway Terminus. Black Hill Company. 3. 4. Black Hill Flat : Sources of the Bakery Hill and Gravel Pits Leads. 5. Little Bendigo : Source of the Eureka Lead. Bakery Hill. 6. 7. St. Andrew's Church. St. Paul's Church. Mount Warrenheip. Sturt Street. 8. 9. 10, 11. Theatre Royal. 12. Explorers' Monument. Eastern Town Hall. Eureka Stockade Site. Christ Church. 13. 14. 15. 16. St. Patrick's Church. Baptist Church. 17. 18. Golden Point. 19. Old Post Office Hill. Wesley Church. 20. 21. Canadian Gully. 22. Northern Spur of Mount Buninyono. 23. Track of the White Horse Ranges and Magpis. THE HISTORY OF BALLARAT, FROM THE FIRST PASTORAL SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME. BY WILLIAM BEAMWELL WITHERS, SOMETIME OF THE NATAL "STANDARD," THE MELBOURNE "ARGUS" AND "HERALD," " T.ALLARAT TIMES," AND NOW OF THE "BALLARAT STAR."

WITH PLANS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND" ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. BALLABAT : THE "BALLARAT STAR" OFFICE, STURT STREET. 1 8 PRINTED AT THE "BALLARAT STAR" OFFICE, STURT STREET. L. N. TO YOUR MEMORY, WHOSE FRAGRANCE "HO TIME CAN CHANGE,' I REVERENTLY DEDICATE THIS RECORD OF CHANGE.

Preface

. This little History, m eight chapters, only touches a few of the more prominent incidents connected with pastoral settlement and the gold discovery in the Ballarat district. The compiler has seen the growth of the town from a mere collection of canvas tents among the trees and on the grassy slopes and flats of the wild bush to its present condition. Less than twenty years ago there was not a house where now stands this wealthy mine and farm-girdled city, whose population is nearly equal to the united populations of Oxford and Cambridge, and exceeding by several thousands the united populations of the cities of Winchester, Canterbury, Salis bury, and Lichfield at the time of the gold discovery. This is one of the truths which are niagnificentl}* stranger than fiction. Some of the first workers in this mighty creation are still here.

Of the pastoral pioneers there are still with us the Messrs. Lear month, Bettett, Waldie, Winter, Fisken, Coghill, and Bacchus; and the Rev. Thomas Hastie is still living at the Manse at Buninyong. Down the valley of the Leigh, where the Sebastopol streets and fences run over the eastern escarpment of the table land, may still be seen the sandstone foundations of a station begun by the Messrs. Yuille, whom the coming of the first hosts of gold-hunters scared away from a place no longer fit, in their opinion, for pastoral occupation. Those unfinished walls are in a paddock overlooking a little carse of some four or five acres by the creek side, owned by an Italian farmer, and close to the junction of the Woolshed Creek with the main stream in the valley. On the other side of the larger stream rise basaltic mounds, marked with the pits and banks of the earlier miners.

Like the trenches of an old battle-field, these works of the digging armies of the past are now grass-grown and spotted with wild flowers. All around, the open lands of fifteen years ago are turned into streets and fields and gardens. A little way lower down the valley, where the ground has a broad

PREFACE.

. VI slope up from the left bank of the Leigh to the foot of the ranges, was the Magpie rush of 1855-6. For a mile nearly every inch of frontage was fought for then, and a town of over four thousand inhabitants sprang up. Gold was found plentifully, and ware house, hotel, and saloon crowded close with dwelling and church along the thoroughfare. A summer flood surprised the dwellers on the lowland and carried off lives as well as property, mingling a tragic sorrow with the losses of the unsuccessful. Time, less sudden than the midsummer freshet, but more sweeping, has cleared the ground of almost every vestige of the busy but fragile life of fifteen years ago. But the eternal sense of the Infinite survives "our little lives" and all their fitful pidsations of varying passion. Yonder, where, by the bush track side, the rounding slope swells upon the south, stands a church, sombre, lonely, and silent as the Roman sentinel at Pompeii when all around him had fled or fallen.

This is all, save here and there heaps of broken bottles and sardine tins half hidden by the grass, and a few faint trench and building lines, softened by the rains, and bright at thia time with the young verdure of the turning season. The most curious eye could now discover no other traces of the rush if it were not for the broader and deeper marks left where the first miners fought their industrial way, and where, for years, their followers retraced the golden trail. On going up the Yarrowee banks northward a space, as one looks up the valley he seesr beyond the city, the bare top, the white artificial chasms and banks and mounds, where Black Hill raised its dark dense head of forest trees before the digger rent the hill in twain, and half disembowelled the swelling headland. Besides the pastoral settlers already mentioned, there are yet with us some of the first discoverers.

Esmond is still here. Woodward and Turner, of the Golden Point discoverers, are still here in Ballarat, and Merrick and some others of that band remain in the district. Others who followed them within the first week or two are also amongst our busy townsfolk of to-day. While these remained it was thought desirable to gather some of the honey of fact from fugitive opportunity, that it might be garnered for the historian of the future. Nearly all the persons whose names have been mentioned above have assisted in the pre-

PREFACE.

. VII paration of this narrative by furnishing valuable contributions from their own recollections, and the compiler takes this occasion to thank them and others, including legal managers of mines, whose ready courtesy has enabled him to do what he has done to rescue from forgetfulness the brief details here chronicled touching the history of this gold-field. He has borrowed some facts and figures, too, from Mr. Harrie Wood's ably compiled notes, published in Mr. Brough Smyth's " Gold-fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria." To the officers of most of the public institutions referred to he also owes the acknowledgment of much courtesy; and to Mr. Huyghue, a gentleman still holding office in Ballarat, and who was in the public service here at the time of the Eureka Stockade, thanks are due, both by the publisher and compiler, for notes of that period, and for the extremely interesting illustrations of the Stockade, the Camp, and other spots, copied from original drawings.

The publisher also acknowledges the courtesy of Mr. Ferres, the Government printer, in supplying original documents, and of Mr. Noone in giving valuable assistance in connection with their re-pro duction by the photo-lithographic process. The contributions of newspaper correspondents during the Eureka Stockade troubles have also assisted the compiler, and notably the letters of the correspondent of the Geelong Advertiser in 1854-5. But to Mr. John Noble Wilson, the commercial manager of the Ballarat Star, is due, on the part of all concerned, the recognition of his suggesting the narrative, of his constant cordial co-operation, and his untiring ingenuity in making suggestions and collecting materials both for the text and the illustrations. The re-produced proclamations by the Government, which the reader will find at intervals, as well as many of the original documents, are the fruit of that gentleman's assiduity in collecting materials of interest and pertinence.

It has been necessary to record the fact that the tragic issue of the license agitation was mainly due to the mistakes of the governing authorities, even as the unrighteous rigors of the digger hunting processes were made more poignant by the haughty indis cretions and brutal excesses of commissioners and troopers. But it is equally incumbent on the recorder to recognise the more agreeable fact that there were officers in both grades who did their harsh duties differently. Some of these are still in the service, LREFACE. and retain the respect they won in the more troublous times by their judicious and humane administration of an obnoxious law, for the existence of which they were in no way responsible. In the matter of gold statistics there has been found great difficulty, for the early records were imperfect, and the later ones are little, if in anywise, superior ; while searches for the first news paper accounts of the gold discovery have shown that, both in Melbourne and Geelong, the public files have been rifled of in valuable portions by the miserable meanness of some unknown thieves.

The future we have not essayed to divine. What the past and the present of our local history may do to enable the reader to speculate upon the future, each one must for himself determine, though the faith of the Ballarat of to-day in the Ballarat of the future may, we think, be more accurately inferred from the stable monuments of civic enterprise, and the many signs of mining, manufacturing, and rural industry around, than from the occasional forebodings of fear in seasons of depression. In less than two decades we have created a large city, built up great fortunes, laid the foundations of many commercial successes, and sown the seeds of yet undeveloped industries ; and those who have seen so much should not readily think that we are near the exhaustion of our resources, either in the precious minerals, or the still more precious spirit of enterprise and industry necessary for the development of the wealth of nature around us.

For the good done, and for the doers of the good, we may all be thankful, if not proud ; and, in proportion as we are thus moved, we may look with confident hope towards the future, whose uncertain years are lit up with the radiance of the past, and shaped to our vision by the promise of the present. Among modest writers it is the fashion not only to write pre faces, but to excite attention to wonderful merit by apologies for defects. The present writer burns to be in the fashion. He craves the indulgence of the reader in informing that important personage that the ordinary duties of a reporter on a daily morning paper are not luxuriously light, and that the compilation of the following narrative has been a refreshing appendage to the daily discharge of such ordinary duties, pilus a bracing exercise of sub-editorial func-

PREFACE.

. IX tion. He has, no doubt, amply vindicated Bolingbroke's accurate apothegm, and especially in this preface. Both preface and narrative may be regarded as a verbose exaggeration of the importance of the subject. The answer to that is, that the writer has written mainly for those who know the place, and, knowing it, are proud of it ; for those who believe in the future in reserve for it, for the colony to which it belongs to-day, and for the empire of which it some day may be a not altogether unimportant portion. In the City of York, where memory and fancy, busy with the records and the remains of the past, make of the softened lights and shadows and many-colored figures of mediæval English history an inexpressible charm, the glorious Minster rises over all supreme in its solemn and saintly beauty.

Whatever pilgrim there has studiously perused that marvellous "poem in stone " may have seen over one of the doorways the work of some loving and pious egotist in the following inscription :—" Ut rosa flos floruni, sic tu es domus domoiiim." Let us be permitted, with similar egotism, if not with equal piety, to inscribe here, as over one of the portals of approach to one of the golden fields and cities of Victoria : — Ut aurum metallorum pretiosissimum, sic tu es camporum aureorum princeps, urbiumque opulentissima. W. B. W. Ballarat, 22nd June, 1870. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, PLANS, &c. TO FACE PAGE Ballarat : Looking East from Lyons street. — General View from Black Hill to Mount Buninyong, embracing all the sources of the early gold discoveries .. . ... ... ... ... (Frontispiece). The Gravel Pits, 1854 46 Vern's " Plan of Organisation for the Diggers " 56 The Government Camp, 1854 — Troops arriving from Melbourne ... 64 The Governor's Proclamation of the 2nd of December, 1S54 72 The French Consul's Notice to French residents ... ... ... ... 73- Plan of Attack on the Eureka Stockade, 1854 ... ... ... ... 80 Plan Showing the Site of the Eureka Stockade in 1870 81.

Proclamation issued by " Robert Rede " on the morning of Sunday, after the attack . . ... ... ... ... • - • ■ • ■ ... 84 Proclamation of Martial Law ... ... ... ... ... ... 86 Requisition to the Mayor of Melbourne to call a public meeting " for taking measures for the better protection of the city, &c." ... 88 Proclamation calling upon " all faithful subjects" to enrol themselves as Special Constables in Melbourne and Geelong .. 88 The Mayor of Melbourne's Notice to Special Constables 88 £500 Reward offered for the apprehension of "a man known by the name of Vern" 90 £400 Reward offered for the apprehension of " two persons of the names of Lawlor and Black" ... ... ... ... ... ••• ... 91 Section of the Shaft of an Alluvial mine (The Nelson and Wellington Company, Frenchman's Lead) ... ... ... ... ... 130 Section of Quartz Reef workings, Old Post-office Hill 140 "View of Ballarat, 1858," showing what at that time was a tolerably correct representation of the western part of the town — fae simile of an old Lithograph 150 Plan of Ballarat, 1870 152- APPENDICES.

Appendix A. Appendix B. Appendix C. Appendix D. Appendix E. Rewards to Gold Discoverers. Elections for the Legislative Assembly. Journalism Under Difficulties. First Sales of Ballarat Land. The Insurgent Flag and some other Eureka Stockade Matters. Appendix F. Appendix G. Appendix H. Appendix I. Appendix J. Appendix K. Appendix L. Appendix M. Appendix N. Appendix 0. Appendix P. Appendix Q. Appendix R. Appendix S. Agricultural and Pastoral Statistics. Esmond Still a Working Man. Floods in Ballarat East. Magpie Rush. Local Court Obituary. Letters by Vern. Old and New Graveyards. Mining Timber, Gutter Fossils, Early Facts. Population Returns. Murder of Mr. Francis. Character of the Miners. Chinese in Ballarat. Official Agent's Winding-up Returns. The Diggers' Ten Commendments. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Ballarat Before The Gold Discovery

First Exploring Parties. — Mount Buninyong. — Mount Aitkin. — Ercildoun. — Ballarat. — Lake Burmmbeet Dry. — Settling throughout the District. — First Wheat Grown.— First Flour Mill.— Founding of Buninyong.— A "Wide Diocese.— Appearance of Ballarat. — The Natives. — Aboriginal Names. — The Squatters. — Premonitions of the Gold Discovery 1—13

Chapter II. The Gold Discovery

California and the Ural. — Predictions of Australian Gold —Discoveries of Old Bushmen.— Hargreaves and others in New South Wales.— Effects of Discovery at Bathurst.— Sir C. A. Fitz Roy's Despatches.— First Assay.— Esmond and Hargreaves. — Esmond's Discovery at Clunes.— Previous Victorian Discoveries. — Esmond's the First Made Effectively Public— Hiscock.— Golden Point, Ballarat. — Claims of Discoverers as to Priority.— Effects of the Discovery. — Mr. Latrobe's Despatches. — His Visit to Ballarat. — The Licenses. — Change of Scene at Ballarat.— Mount Alexander Rush.— Fresh Excitements. — Rise in Prices M— 31

Chapter III. From The Gold Discovery To The Year Of The Eureka

STOCKADE. Great Aggregations of Population.— Opening up of Golden Grounds.— Character of the Population.— Dates of Local Discoveries. — Ballarat Township Proclaimed. — First Sales of Land.— Bath's Hotel. —First Public Clock.— Primitive Stores, Offices, and Conveyances. Woman a Phenomenon. — First Women at Ballarat. — Curious Monetary Devices. — First Religious Services. —Churches. —Newspapers. — Theatres. — Lawyers. — First Courts. — Nuggets.— Golden Gutters.— Thirty or Forty Thousand Persons Located. ... 32— lb'

Chapter IV. Digger Hunting

The GolTl License. — Taxation Without Representation.— Unequal incidence erf the Tax.— Episodes of Digger Hunting.— Irritating Method of Enforcing the Tax.— Suspicions of Corruption among the Magistrates and Police.— Viait of Sir Chailes and Lad-y Hothans. — Big Larry.— Reform League.— Murder of Scobie.— Acqimttal of Bentley.— Dewes TABLE OF CONTENTS. Suspected.— Mass Meetings.— Burning of Bentley's Hotel.— Irwin's Narrative.— Arrest of Fletcher, M'lntyre, and Westerby. —Re-arrest of Bentley.— Conviction of Bentley.— Conviction of Fletcher, M'lntyre, and Westerby. — Demand for their Liberation.— Increased Excitement.— Fete to the American Consul.— Foster.— Sir Charles Hotham. —Arrival of Troops. —Troops Assaulted.— Bakery Hill Meeting.— Southern Cross Flag.— Burning the Licenses 47—64

Chapter V. The Eureka Stockade

The Last Digger Hunt.— Collision between the Diggers and Military and Police.— Southern Cross Flag again.— Lalor and his Companions Armed, kneel, and swear mutual Defence. — Irwin's Account. — Carboni Raffaello. — His Pictures of the Times and the Men. — More Troops Arrive.— The Diggers Extend their Organisation Under Arms.— Lalor "Commander in-Chief." — Forage and Impressment Parties. — Original Documents.- Shots Fired from the Camp. — The Stockade Formed. — Narrative of a Government Officer in the Camp. — Attack by the Military and Taking of the Stockade. — Various Accounts of the Time.— Raffaello's Description. — Another Tragic Picture.— List of the Killed.— Burials. —Rewards Offered for the Insurgent Leaders. —Their Hiding and Escape. — Charge Against A. P. Akehurst. — Proclamation of Martial Law. — Feeling in Melbourne. — Foster's Resignation. — Deputation of Diggers. — Humffray Arrested.— Vote of Thanks to the Troops. — Legislative Council's Address to the Governor. — His Reply. — Prisoners at the Ballarat Police-court. — Royal Commission of Enquiry. — Trial and Acquittal of the State Prisoners. — Humffray. — Lalor and his Captain. — Cost of the Struggle. — Subsequent Celebrations. — Monument.— The Burial Places. — Death of Sir Charles Hotham. 65 — 107

Chapter VI. Political Development

Ballarat Politically Active and Influential. — New Constitution.— Humffray and Lalor Elected.— Their Addresses.— Humffray in Trouble. — Lalor on Democracy.— Petition for a Private Property Mining Law.— Neglect by the Parliaments of Mining Interests.— Probable Causes. — New Political Demands. — Votes of Lalor and Humffray. —Burial Expenses of Governor Hotham. — O'Shanassy Chief Secretary.— Haines Succeeds with M'Culloch as Commissioner of Customs— O'Shanassy in Power Again. — Nicholson Cabinet. — Succeeded by Heales with Humffray as First Minister of Mines.— O'Shanassy in Power Again. — Succeeded by M'Culloch. — The Tariff. — Re-call of Governor Darling.— Darling Grant Crisis.— Death of Governor Darling. —Grant to his Widow and Family. — Sladen Ministry. —M'Culloch in Power Again.— Representative Charges. —Jones Declared Corrupt- Defeats Vale. — The Macpherson Ministry.— Its Resignation.— Macgregor's Failure. — M'Culloch and Macpherson in Office together.— Michie Elected for Ballarat West. — Local Court.— Mining Board.— Court of Mines. — Local Courts Wrongly Constituted. —Mining Boards Not Now Necessaiy . — One Code of Mining Law Required. — Valuable Services of the Earlier Courts and Boards 10S— 125

Chapter VII

, DEVELOPMENT OF MINING. Block and Frontage Claims.— Election Excitements.— White Flat Company.— Opposition to Extended Areas.— Such Opposition a Mistake.— Present Areas.— Progress of Mining TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV Discoveries.— Increased Operative Difficulties.— Introduction of Machinery.— The Corner. —Wide Operations of Ballarat Capital and Enterprise.— Occasional Excesses.— Koh-i-Noor, Band and Albion Consols, Prince of Wales, and St. George Companies. — Transitions.— Great Depression. — Fall of Two Millions sterling in Mining Stocks. — Equal to Fifty Years' Purchase of the Annual Revenue of the City.— Or Two-thirds of the Annual Revenue of Victoria.— Projects for Co-operation of Labor and Capital.— Old Mining Institute.— School of Mines.— Mining Reform Association.— Miners' Association.— Mr. .Serjeant's Sabbath Observance Bill.— Tables of Gold Returns and Mining Statistics.— Pre-eminence of the Ballarat District.— Westgarth on the Purity of Ballarat Gold.— Assays of Ballarat Nuggets. — Table of Nugget Dates, Weights, and Localities.— Increasing pro portion of Quartz Gold.— The Future to be Chiefly Quartz Mining.— The Black Hill Quartz Company 126—150

Chapter VIII. The Town Of Ballarat

Area and Population of the Town.— Borough Statistics of Ballarat West, Ballarat East, and Sebastopol. — Water Supply.— Hospital.— Benevolent Asylum. — Orphan Asylum. — Churches. — Eistedfodd. — Schools. —Recreation Grounds. — Ballarat Cricket Club — Mechanics' Institute. —Public Library. — Chamber of Commerce.— Theatre Royal- Musical Societies. — Fire Brigades. — Ballarat Rangers and Cavalry. — Gas Company. — Horticultural Society.— Agricultural and Pastoral Society.— Statistics of Produce and Stock. — Meat Preserving Company. — Banks. —Mining Exchange. —The Gaol. —The Camp.— Last of the Military.— Post Offices and Treasury.— Electric Telegraph.— Explorers' Memorial.— Caledonian Society.— Hibernian Society.— Prince Alfred's Visit. Magdalen Refuge.— Ladies' Benevolent Society. —Temperance Hall.— Alfred Hall.— Railway.— Shire Councils and Road Boards.— Ballarat, Sandhurst, and Geelong.— Past and Present Contrasts. 151— 1S5

Chapter I. Ballarat Befoee The Gold Discoveey

First Exploring Parties.— Mount Buninyong.— Mount Aitkin.— Ercildoun.— Ballarat.— Lake Burrambeet Dry.— Settling throughout the District— First Wheat Grown.— First Flour Mill.— Founding of Buninyong.— A Wide Diocese. —Appearance of Ballarat.— The Natives.— Aboriginal Names. —The Squatters.— Premonitions of the Gold Discovery. A L L A R A T is one of the wonders of this century. Young in years its mutations have been many and rapid, and its marvellous progress has given to it a seeming antiquity beyond its urban years. Our task is to trace an outline of the rise and progress of this golden city. This task takes us back to days that seem, in the swift march of colonial events, to belong already to a remote antiquity. While the sailor-King William IV. was but newly buried, and Queen Victoria was still an uncrowned maiden ; while only a few rude huts, sprinkled about the still uncleared slopes and gullies, failed to scare away the native animals that haunted the bush where the City of Melbourne now stands ; while the pleasant borders of the Bay of Corio, where Geelong is to-day, were not graced by a single house, but only bore on their silent slopes a few scattered tents, a small band of settlers started from the Corio shore to explore the unknown country to the north west.

This was in the month of August, 1837. The party com prised Mr Thomas Livingstone Learmonth ; Mr DArcy, a surveyor* Dr. Thompson, late of Geelong • Mr David Fisher, then manager of the Derwent Company, Tasmania ; Captain Hutton, of the East B India Company's Service • and Mr Henry Anderson. With them they took suitable equipment and provisions. From Bellpost Hill they saw in the distance, north-westward, a mount, to which they directed their course, steering their way by compass, and thus they arrived at and ascended Mount Buninyong. From the Mount the explorers saw fine country to the north-westward, Lake Burrumbeet, and the distant ranges of the Pyrenees and the Grampians. An ocean of forest, with island hills, was all around them, but not a speck visible that spoke to them of civilisation.

But the promising landscape drew the explorers on westward and north-westward. They descended the Mount, the party divided, their compass-bearings were not well kept, the provision-cart failed to be at the appointed rendezvous, and thus, broken into sections, the explorers found their way back to the coast, some of them unable to find their provisions, and therefore fasting by the way. In January of the next year explorers set out again. The party this time consisted of Messrs J. Aitken, Henry Anderson, Thomas L. Learmonth, Somerville L. Learmonth, and William Yuille. The starting point was Mr Aitken's house, at Mount Aitken, and thence the explorers went towards Mount Alexander, which at that time had just been occupied by a party of overlanders from Sydney, consisting of Messrs C. H. Ebden, Yaldwin, and Mollison.

From Mount Alexander they followed the course of the Loddon, passed over what has since been proved to be a rich auriferous country, and bore down on a prominent peak, which the explorers subsequently called Ercildoun, from the old keep on the Scottish border, with which the name of the Learmonths" ancestor, Thomas the Rhymer, was associated. Their course brought them to the lake district of Burrumbeet and its rich natural pastures. The days were hot but the nights cold, and the party, camping at night on an eminence near Ercildoun, suffered so much from cold that they gave the camping place the name Mount Misery. There was water then in Burrumbeet, but it was intensely salt and very shallow. Next year, 1839, Lake Burrumbeet was quite dry, and it remained dry for several succeeding summers.

It was covered with rank vegetation, and the ground afforded excellent pasture after the ranker growth had been burnt off. The country thus discovered was occupied during the year 1838, and other settlers, pushing on in the same EARLY SETTLEMENT. direction, in a couple of years completed the occupation of all the fine pastoral country as far westward as the Hopkins River. The brothers Learmonth, Mr Henry Anderson, Messrs Archibald and W. C. Yuille, and Mr Waldie settled on the subsequently revealed gold-fields of Ballarat, Buninyong, Sebastopol, and their immediate vicinities. Some members of the Clyde Company, of Tasmania, visited the Western district in 1838, that company giving the name to the Clyde Inn, of the old Geelong coach road. They settled upon the Moorabool and the Leigh, Mr George Russell being the manager.

Major Mercer, who gave the name to Mount Mercer, and Mr D. Fisher, were of that company. The Narmbool run, near Meredith, was taken by Mr Neville in 1839. Ross' Creek was named from Capt. Ross, who in those early days used to perform the feat of walking in Highland costume all the way to Melbourne. But in those times travelling was a more serious matter than in these days of railroads, coaches, cabs, and other vehicles, with good roads and a generally settled country. Then there were no roads, few people, and a thick forest, encumbered about Ballarat, too, with the native hop. Mr Archibald Fisken, of Lai Lai, was the first person to drive a vehicle through the then roadless forest of Warrenheip and Bullarook. In 1846 he drove a dog-cart tandem with Mr W. Taylor through the bush to Longerenong, on the Wimmera.

Messrs T. L. and S. L. Learmonth, whose father was then in Hobarton, settled their homestead on what is now known as the Buninyong Gold Mining Company's ground at Buninyong. Mr Henry Anderson, who was the earliest pioneer in what is now known as Winter's Flat, planted his homestead near the delta formed by the confluence of the Woolshed Creek and the Yarrowee, Messrs Yuille subsequently taking that homestead and all the country now known as Ballarat West and East and Sebastopol. These settlers gave the name to Yuille's Swamp, more recently called Lake Wendouree. The Bonshaw run was taken up by Mr Anderson, who named it Waverley Park, and Mr John Winter coming into possession shortly afterwards gave to it the present name, after his wife's home in Scotland. Messrs Pettett and Francis, in 1838 (as managers for Mr W. H. T. Clarke), took up the country at Dowling Forest, so called after Mrs Clarke's maiden name.

Shortly after they had settled there Mr Francis was killed by one of his own b2 men with a shear-blade, at one of the stations on the run. Before Mr Pettett took up the Dowling Forest run he was living at the Little River, and a native chief named Balliang offered to show him the country about Lai Lai. The chief in speaking of it distinguished between it and the Little River by describing the water as La-al La-al — the a long— and by gesture indicating the water-fall now so well known, the name signifying falling water. Mr Waldie subsequently took up country north-west of Ballarat, and called his place Wyndholm, where he has resided ever since. Messrs Yuille had settled originally on the Barwon, near Inverleigh, but finding the natives troublesome they retired to Ballarat. Mr Smythe, who with Mr Prentice held the run, gave the name to Smythe's Creek, as Messrs Baillie had to the creek at Carngham, their run there being afterwards transferred to Messrs Russell and_ Simson.

Mr Darlot also occupied a run there. Creswick Creek has. its name from Henry Creswick, who settled upon a small run there- Two brothers Creswick had previously held country close to. Warrenheip. The Messrs Baillie were sons of Sir William Baillie, Bart., of Polkemmet, Scotland. Mr Andrew Scott settled with his family at the foot of Mount Buninyong, where he had a snug run in which the mount and its rich surrounding soil were included. Mrs Andrew Scott was the first lady who travelled through this district. She drove across the dry bed of Lake Burrumbeet in the year 1840. The country about Smeaton and Coghill's Creek was taken up in the year 1838 by Captain Hepburn and Mr David Coghill who came overland from New South Wales with sheep and cattle, following the route of Sir Thomas Mitchell in his expedition of exploration in Port Phillip in 1836.

With them came Mr Bowman, who also brought stock. He took up a run on the Campaspe, while his companions came on further south. The Murray was very low when they crossed, and the stock was easily passed over. At the Ovens they found a dry river-bed ; Lake Burrumbeet was also dry that year. When Messrs Hepburn and Coghill had left sheep at the Campaspe and Brown's Creek on their way, they pushed on, and from Mount Alexander they descried the Smeaton Hills, and, continuing their journey, found and took up the unoccupied country there. Smeaton Hill was called Quai atwong by the natives, and the hill between the Glenlyon road and Smeaton THE FIRST FARM. Hill was called Moorakoil. Captain Hepburn, a seafaring man originally, was one of the Hepburns of East Lothian, Scotland, and Smeaton was named by him after the East Lothian estate held by his relative, Sir Thomas Hepburn.