VICTORIA'S
DRIVING TOURS & HERITAGE TOWNS
Historic...
RUTHERGLEN
Rutherglen is famous today for its expansive vineyards and premium wines. More than a dozen wineries stud the gentle hills and valleys, and it seems the wealth of the region was built on decades of abundant grape harvests and the expansive grazing country south of the Murray River. The town, though, has its roots in an entirely different harvest.
In the far north-east of Victoria, flocks of sheep were grazing and shepherds were busy panning the creek gravels for a few specks of gold. For a while in the 1850s it was good pocket money.
In September 1860 five prospectors followed their luck from Chiltern along the Indigo Creek valley past Cornishtown. Before the decade was over, great gold rushes had brought thousands of diggers to north-east Victoria’s auriferous gullies, and soon the shepherd’s days of solitude were over: a party of five prospectors - buoyed by success on the Chiltern diggings - finally struck it rich in the gentle hills on which present-day Rutherglen stands.
Discoverers Thomas and James Keen, the Mitchell brothers and a Scotsman promptly marked their first claim with a large mullock heap in the gully near Rutherglen’s main street. It was another sensational rush. Within a few months over 15,000 men were working the field, known as the Wahgunyah Lead, and by the end of 1860 there were seventeen new gold leads being worked.
Two townships developed midst the mullock heaps and diggings: mining identity John Wallace named one of them Rutherglen after his Scottish birthplace, the western end of town being named Barkly, after Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria. Gradually, Rutherglen grew to absorb Barkly.
Deep lead mining proved to be the most profitable - though difficult - gold recovery method. The Homeward Bound lead was mined by the Great Southern company which sank a shaft to 300 metres, necessitating a substantial amount of water pumping by the most powerful machinery in the district. Over 400,000 litres of water were pumped from the shaft each hour, and the yield of gold in 1897 was 61,480 ounces. In 1904 twelve hundred men were employed in district mines.
A few kilometres out of Rutherglen, Mount Ophir winery was established in 1891. It was intended to be the wine centre of the world, purveyor to the King. At its peak it exported over 3 million litres of wine per year. In 1955 the estate closed and the property fell to the ravages of time and vine disease, leaving the French Provincial style winery building standing imposingly atop a hill. Today there’s no trace of Mt Ophir’s 300ha vineyard, though it’s rumoured a gold mine exists on the property.
Since the 1970s, the resurgence of Australia’s wine industry has allowed Rutherglen’s heritage to achieve a fine vintage. The town’s origins still resemble those of the more recognised gold rush towns; its prosperous main street boasts exquisitely ornate hotels and quaint verandahed shops, the contrasting ostentatious and functional styles commonly found in goldfield towns west of Melbourne.
Rutherglen is located 275km north-east of Melbourne via the Hume Freeway, a comfortable four-hour drive with a stop for coffee at Euroa.
STAY THE WEEKEND AT:
Tuileries - marvellous themed ensuite rooms with vine outlook, restaurant and cafe.
