VICTORIA'S
GREATEST DRIVING TOURS AND HERITAGE TOWNS
Historic...
TALBOT
In the heady days of the 1850s Victoria’s goldfields held the majority of the colony’s population. By 1855 - just four years after the first recognised discovery at Clunes - over 100,00 people were on the diggings. The haphazard seeds of settlement were cast upon every significant find, then just as quickly uprooted as the rush passed by.
A hamlet grew on the wealth of gold in Daisy Hill Creek, simple canvas and wood humpies spread along the diggings before a grid-pattern survey laid out the town of Amherst in 1859. Soon, the earthen streets were lined with wooden stores, shops and houses. Soon, it became a lively municipality of thousands which boasted a substantial hospital - the equal of nearby Maryborough’s and a fine school built by the newly formed Education Department in 1874.
But the town’s golden years lasted scant decades. The creek was lined with gold and miners had followed it to a confluence with Back Creek where another town, Talbot, had become established. Today, abandonment and bushfires have taken a toll of Amherst; only overgrown streets, the rebuilt 1870s school, and deep stone culverts remain to show of the neat town survey on Daisy Hill Creek.
The Talbot region was first grazed in 1839 by Alexander McCallum, and but only hit colonial maps when mining spread five kilometres from Amherst along Back Creek to the incredibly rich Scandinavian Lead. In 1861 Back Creek was considered an unflattering name for a town of 15,000 diggers and 49 hotels, so its name was changed to Talbot. The population soon stabilised to several thousand, and timber and brick buildings soon replaced canvas and wood shanties. A second wave of buildings erected in the 1860s forms the bulk of the town’s heritage seen today, though much has been lost to bushfires in the last century. One fire, in January 1985, razed many buildings within the township.
A walking tour of Talbot reveals a visual goldmine of Gold Rush history, and a tour leaflet is available in town. Numbered and overlaid upon a copy of the original town survey, historic buildings listed include the Fire Brigade Engine House built in 1873 and in use until 1988, the former Bull and Mouth hotel constructed of local basalt in 1866 and some early cottages.
Perhaps the most distinctive building in town is the Town Hall, erected privately as an Oddfellows Hall in the early 1860s and purchased in 1865 by the borough council. A two storey facade was added in 1871 for offices and library. An intact example of the architectural style on the Ballarat-Maryborough line, Talbot Railway Station was opened in 1875 and its platform overlooks the site of the Scandinavian gold lead.
Gas was first produced in Talbot late in 1859, one of only five Victorian gas works operating in the 1850s and the old gas holder is probably the earliest surviving relic of the industry in the State. On pleasantly curved Scandinavian Crescent the offices of the closed Talbot Leader survive along with many back issues of the newspaper, giving an insight of life during and after, Victoria’s golden era.
The last few years have seen many of the old buildings restored and some rebuilt, however the town retains it's grip on heritage. Some say the pub is worth a visit - the food is supposedly very good. Your dedicate scribe must visit Talbot again, with a hunger.
Talbot and Amherst are located 14km south of Maryborough off the Pyrenees Highway, 170 km north west of Melbourne and about two hours drive.
COPYRIGHT PETER ROBINSON 2007
