HERITAGE PLACE REPORT - City of Greater Bendigo...HERITAGE PLACE REPORT Greater Bendigo City Type of...

HERITAGE PLACE REPORT Greater Bendigo City

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Hermes Number Heritage Place Report

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HERITAGE CITATION REPORT�

Name Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street Heritage

Precinct

Heritage Overlay

Address Roeder, Prout, Thomas, Arms, Casley, Curtis, Bell, Duncan, Jebb, Quick, Truscott, Victoria and

Hayes Streets in Ironbark, Bendigo VIC

Property No: Multiple see property lists

VHR Number N/ABuilding Type

Residential buildings private HI Number N/A

Heritage Status Recommended Ironbark

Hill/Roeder Street Heritage Precinct to be

included within the heritage overlay of the

Greater Bendigo planning scheme

File Number N/A

Precinct Recommended significant and

contributory places within the Ironbark

Hill/Roeder Street Heritage Precinct

Hermes Number

Heritage Study

Ironbark Heritage Study

Author

Mandy Jean Year

2010

Grading

Local significance

Designer/Architect

unknown Architectural Style

Vernacular, multiple styles

from 19th C to mid 20

th C.

Maker/Builder unknown Year 1860s to 1950s


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History and Historical Context

History of the Area

Bendigo gold field commenced in 1851 and continued over the next 153 years through times of boom,

decline, revival and stagnation. The last underground historic mine closed in 1954 with continued

production locally. The Bendigo Goldfields is Australia's second largest in terms of historical

production after Western Australia's Golden Mile (Boulder, Kalgoorlie).1 It produced the largest

amount of gold of any field in Eastern Australia and retains the largest evidence of its mining past

within the inner city area. The history of mining shaped and created Bendigo. It left a chaotic

industrial landscape which was in a state of perpetual flux with seemingly random, scattered, small

and often very isolated settlements of people across a wide area.2

The Bendigo goldfields, about 12 kilometres wide, extend 30 kilometres from north to south. It is

made up of folded beds of sedimentary rock, eroded sandstone and shale ridges which formed

anticline and syncline folds that run approximately 300 metres apart in parallel formation, north-south

towards Eaglehawk. The close association of all types of gold reefs with the anticline axis was

recognised early in the development of the field. This early breakthrough in the predictability of ore

gave mine management and investors confidence in the practice of deep shaft sinking on productive

anticlines as the main exploration tool. The Bendigo Goldfield represents the largest concentration of

deep shafts anywhere in the world. Deep, often speculative, shaft sinking remained the pre-eminent

exploration tool throughout the early productive life of the field (1851 to 1954).3

The majority of the Bendigo goldfields mines were worked from the 38 north-south anticline lines of

reef that lay from Bendigo East to Kangaroo Flat. Gullies and dry creeks cut across the ridges in a

west to easterly direction, flowing into the Bendigo Creek, which flows across the gravel plains of

Epsom, a former shallow sea in the north, and thence into the Campaspe River, a tributary of the

Murray River. The area was covered by dense Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands and was the

traditional lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung Indigenous people who had managed the lands for thousands

of years. In 1848 the Mount Alexander North, known later as Ravenswood pastoral lease, a

government lease for grazing stock over Crown Land, was granted over this area, acquired by Stewart

and Gibson.4 With the discovery of gold and the thousands of gold diggers, who rushed to the area,

the Government managed access to land through the issue of mining leases. Mining leases, pastoral

leases and Indigenous native title rights co-exist over Crown Land, but at the time the Indigenous

Australians were pushed to the margins of society and their rights were not considered as legitimate. �

In 1854 the character of the city of Bendigo (Sandhurst) changed from a collection of irregular

diggings on Crown Land to a town when the area was surveyed by government surveyor, Richard

Larritt. A government camp was established and the geometric grid layout of the town was laid out,

streets surveyed and land auctioned for sale under Torrens Title. The primary factor governing

settlement in the area was mining. It was to the outer gullies and creeks within the watershed of

�� 1 Bendigo Mining for a summary of the history of mining to the present see website for Bendigo Mining

http://www.bmnl.com.au/safety_environment/community_relations/gold_mining/bendigo_goldfield_history.htm 2 Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Vol 2, Thematic History 1993 3 Quoted from Bendigo Mining, op cit.

4 Ravenswood Homestead, Heritage Victoria, http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/heritage/967


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Bendigo Creek where the alluvial miners first worked.5 By mid 1852 more than 4,000 diggers were

arriving each week, until over 40,000 miners had arrived in the space of a few years. Tent settlements

were established in 1851-2 by ‘diggers’ intent on finding the available alluvial gold.6 By 1861 the

entire Sandhurst mining district had 41,000 people spread through a score of small mining

settlements. But majority of the goldfields remained temporary and transitional in nature with

haphazard settlements and roads. Other times, lack of water drove the miners on, leaving behind

Crown Land that had been dug up, trees cleared, dry gullies clogged up and a wasteland created.7 It

left a legacy of large tracts of Crown Land former mine sites that encircle the city and penetrate deep

within it. It is these Crown Lands and National parks in which the Dja Dja Wurrung native title

interests are now recognized.

With the published discovery of gold late in 1851, the name Bendigo became synonymous with gold.

By the end of 1850s miners were experimenting with steam powered mills as well as crushers and

open cut mining. More extensively than elsewhere, Bendigo miners used puddling machines. By mid

1854 there were 1,500 machines. Attention was also turning to the mining of quartz reefs and steam

powered machinery for mining was being set up as early as 1855. Supporting the miners were small

foundries and accompanying this phase of mining came the building of more substantial buildings.

Towards the end of the 1860s the dominance of the alluvial miner was drawing to a close and by 1868

there were 4,000 alluvial miners and 3,000 quartz reef miners in Bendigo. The success of the deep

shafts had grown on Hustlers Reef and Victoria Reef with associated small crushing works. The reef

miners turned to steam driven crushing machines, larger mining companies were employing bigger

work forces.

In the early 1860s Bendigo experienced its first mining boom with the formation of hundreds of

companies. As technology and mine administration improved, so did the confidence of investors.

Larger steam plants and winding engines were installed so the mines could be worked at greater depth

and also control ground water inflow. Another mining boom was in full swing in 1871 and boosted

the establishment of foundries and engineering works. In a two-year period, over one thousand new

mining companies were floated with thousands of small mining leases. A frenzy of buying and selling

shares occurred at the Beehive Mining Exchange. The boom soon burst, but some mines continued to

operate by digging deeper into the reefs. In the early 1870s companies built up a paid work force and

mining became the staple form of male employment in Bendigo. With capitalized works, the floating

population of diggers diminished. Company mining altered the social structure of Bendigo. It

established a new class of investors. Mining had created distinctly working class areas in town that

housed the waged miners, which was separated from the wealthy socially as well as geographically.8

The boom of the late 1860s and early 1870s was over by 1873 but until the early 1890s mining

remained central to the Bendigo economy. The town was untidy, disordered, brash and with

conflicting land uses right in the heart of the city.9 The early ethnic mining groups were overlaid by

new social divisions of wealth and power. 10

A wider range of housing appeared during the 1870-80s.

On some hills an elite suburbia emerged. The pattern of segregation was often a product of

�� 5 Butler, et al, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Vol 2, Thematic History.

6 Ballinger, Robyn, Ironbark Hill Precinct Report, City of Greater Bendigo, October 2005

7 Ibid

8 Butler, et al, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Vol 2, Thematic History

9 Ibid p 30 10 Ibid p. 34


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topography, between high and low land. The elite found on hill tops and the cottages in low lying

gullies. Public streets were planted with trees. There were a few well known mine investors and

owners, who built alongside their mines such as Lazarus and Lansell.

At the beginning of the 20th century mines were still a major employer in Bendigo but the self-image

of Bendigo was changing to one of a garden city with a fine climate.11

By the 1890s architects who

had reaped lucrative public contracts in the 1870s and 1880s turned to working for private clients

bringing their own international style to Bendigo.

Mining declined from the early years of the twentieth century. In 1917 the majority of surviving

mines were amalgamated with operations ceasing in 1923. Gold mining revived in 1930s when as

many as 1,500 men worked in hard rock, alluvial mining and cyaniding. The old tailings and battery

sands were re-worked by about thirty cyanide plants, employing 300 men.12

Bendigo Mines Ltd

began an extensive mining program on the Nell Gwynne, Napoleon and Carshalton lines of reef.

Mines such as Royal George, Moonta and Central Nell Gwynne operated throughout this period but

with little success. In contrast, the Central Deborah Mine started production in 1939 and continued

until 1954.13

The capitalised mining boom rose and fell in a cycle like that of the digging rushes of the 1850s.A

sudden find attracted a rush of investors who put money into new leases. Many mines sunk proved

uneconomic, investors withdrew, returned after rumours of new wealth and over the decades a small

number of profitable companies survived from hundreds formed in the excitement of the richest

discovers. But by that time the traditional manufacturing industries of the 19th century such as black

smithing, brick making, tanners, coach building, confectioneries, cordial manufacturers, flour milling

and foundries had also declined. Increasingly, local primary industries converted to manufacturing

foodstuff to marketable commodities. Growth occurred in motor vehicles, electrical engineering,

housing construction and railway workshop trades. 14

Bendigo began to present itself as the

Sanatorium of the South a pleasant, healthy resort. 15

History of Long Gully and Ironbark Gully

Shaping Victoria’s Environment: The Natural Landscape

The cultural landscape of Long Gully and Ironbark Gully contains some of the richest gold bearing

reefs on the Bendigo goldfields and had the highest concentration of quartz mines in Bendigo. Eleven

gold bearing lines of reef spread across the area. These include, starting from the head of Long Gully

at Specimen Hill in the west and running parallel eastwards, Thistle, Lancashire, Napoleon, Nell

Gywnne, New Chum, Sheepshead, Garden Gully, the smaller Paddy Gully’s, Derby’s, Miller’s to

Hustlers line of reef in the extreme east, the point where Ironbark Gully and Long Gully merge

together before entering Bendigo Creek.16

�� 11 Ibid p.48 12

Cusack, F. Bendigo a history, revised edition, 2002, Lerk & McClure, 2002, p.244 13

Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study Significant Mining Areas and Sites Repo, Vol 3 pp.123-235 14 Ibid Vol 4 p.1 Appendix 1 15 Ibid p. 49 16

Birrell, R.W. and James A. Lerk, Bendigo’s Gold Story, pub Lerk 2001 p 4


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The thickly forested gullies of Ironbark Gully and Long Gully were well known to alluvial miners

from the early 1850s. Gold finds by Shanahan & Glen & Thompson in 1852 paralleled with many

others across the Bendigo field gullies.17

At Ironbark, J. Harris & party discovered the famous

Hustler’s Reef in 1853 between Iron Bark and Commissioner’s gullies. 18

One story of the earliest

reefers in the area was of two boys, who discovered the Victoria Reef near Ironbark Gully and sold

their claim to Christopher Ballerstedt. The ‘eccentric German’ Ballerstedt, an old soldier of Blucher’s

army, with his son Theodore, brought a puddler for £60 after seeing specimens on the surface at the

end of 1853. He soon had a half-ton of gold at the Bendigo treasury.19

The Hustler’s line was

discovered in 1853 by an African American named Jonathan Harris, who found gold on the northern

slope of Mac’s or Hustler’s Hill in the lease held later by the Great Extended Hustler’s Company. In

1854, J. Hustler, Jonathan Latham and John Watson bought Harris’s ground (12 foot by 12 foot), and

purchased several of the adjacent claims. These, by amalgamation, became the famous Great

Extended Hustler’s mine. Rich gold started at the surface - the first crushing yielded 26 ounces to the

ton - and was worked down the northern slope of the hill to Ironbark Gully.

The area became one of the earliest quartz reef mines with early but unsuccessful open cut mines

replaced later by more successful deep shafts that operated from 1861. The mines at first were small

and worked by local miners who lived in the area. Large scale mining became more feasible than

small claims which were amalgamated. By 1871, a number of mines were operating in the area

including the Victory and Pandora. The Eastern Victorian Consols mine (associated with Victoria

Hill) was sunk on the Sheepshead Reef in 1865 on Rae’s Hill (Ironbark Hill) in 186520

and was still in

operation as the Ironbark South mine in 1940. ‘The number of shafts sunk on the reef from its outcrop

to the Ironbark Gully gave it more the appearance of shallow alluvial mining than of vein mining,’

says William Nicholas in one of his letters on ‘The Golden Quartz Reefs of Australia’, contributed to

the London Mining Journal in 1884.21

Local stories tell of the rush to clear the local Ironbark forest

for use in the mines. The name of Ironbark and the iron like characteristics of the tree have become a

symbol of history of the place.22

Building Victoria’s Industries and Workforce: Mining labour force and technological achievements

By the late 1860s the successful quartz reef mining industry necessitated sinking much deeper shafts

making production dependent upon highly capitalised mines with massive machinery and a large

work force. The earliest successful ore crusher was Ballerstedt’s works in Long Gully, where he

employed a large workforce. Shares in mines on Victoria Hill and in Garden Gully line of reef were

later purchased by George Lansell, who became a leader in quartz mining in Bendigo.�The New Chum

and Nell Gwynne lines of reef are central elements to the Victoria Hill and include Adventure &

Advance, Ballerstedt, Central Nell Gwynne, Great Central Victoria, Lansell’s 180, New Chum

Syncline, Old Chum, William Rae and Victoria Quartz mines.23

William Rae found large quantities of

�� 17 Ibid Vol 3 p 23 18 Mining Chronology Vol 3�19

Age, 11 Jan 1856, in Gazetteer of Historic Mining Sites, Heritage Victoria 20

A. V. Palmer, Gold Mines of Bendigo, Book Two, p. 52; Mines Department map Bendigo 1923, reissued 1936 21

Gazetteer of Historic Mining Sites, Heritage Victoria 22

See press clippings of the 1998 ‘The Save Ironbark Campaign’ supported by over 1000 local community

members. 23 Ibid Vol 2 p. 34


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gold from his open cut mine on Victoria Hill, where he later built a 35 head battery in Happy Valley. 24

The reef miners, Carl Roeder and Carl Mueller, were also prominent figures in Happy Valley Road,

Victoria Hill. The Carshalton, Lancashire, Napoleon and Nell Gwynne lines of reef were mined by the

mining magnate, Barnet Lazarus. The mines were located near Harveytown comprising the Prince of

Wales and Saxby group and had connections to the mines around Lazarus and Harvey Streets in Long

Gully. Well known investors were B.D. Lazarus and George Lansell, both of whom massed a fortune.

Beneath these men, was an echelon of mining investors who speculated successful on mines as well as

taking part in other aspects of commercial life such as for example Darnton Watson, who lived in

Ironbark, a dealer in hay and corn but made more money from mining as well as Truscott.25

For years mines on the Garden Gully line of reef and Hustler’s line of reef proved exceedingly rich

investments. Mines that operated in this area include the Victory & Pandora Shaft, Victory and

Pandora Amalgamated (which was continuously occupied between 1857 and 1914); Victory Shaft,

Bells, Old Carlisle, North Garden Gully United, Pass-by and Unity (which was continuously occupied

between1870-192); Garden Gully United site (which was continuously occupied between 1857 and

1921). Other mining operations included, Golden Fleece, Central Garden Gully/North/Kent, Watson’s

Kentish/Carlisle United and Carlisle site (which were continuously occupied from 1860s onwards

through to 1927 and is now representative of the 1890s mining revival on the Garden Gully line). JB

Watson was credited with taking 13 tons of gold on the Garden Gully line of reef leases which he

consolidated into the Kentish Mine. He amassed a fortune and became one of the richest men in the

colony.26

Henry Koch’s Long Gully pyrites treatment works opened in 1869 and he later pioneered

the use of the diamond drill in the Koch’s Long Gully Pioneer Gold Mine. Many small black smithies

and large iron foundries serviced the local mines. The earliest foundry was Wellington Ironbark

foundry-Swalling Briggs & Delaney engineers now Central Foundry and nearby W. Gradling

blacksmith.27

In Long Gully to the north on Eaglehawk Road was Horsfield, engineers and Dennis,

blacksmiths.

Transforming the land: Mining Wastelands

The depths of mineralisation at Bendigo placed some of the field at the leading edge of mining

technology with shafts being the deepest in the world at that time. 28

Throughout the mining history of

the Bendigo goldfields in excess of 5,000 shafts were sunk (90 km of shaft sinking in total). Despite

this amount of shaft sinking the vast majority of the field is tested to depths of less than 200 m due to

the physical and technical constraints on mining and exploration in the 19th Century.29

The

combination of small leases and the great depths of mineralisation created problems in raising capital,

limited the utilisation of expensive assets, reduced the chances of developing economies of scale and

limited geological knowledge to a small fraction of the whole field. Massive problems were caused by

mining with resultant sludge, silt and flooding contaminating the water supplies. Lack of water, severe

drought, wind blown contaminated dust caused severe outbreak of diseases, blindness, cholera,

typhoid which was a major problem.30

�� 24 Ellis, G. E., A Brief History and Reminiscence of Long Gully, City of Greater Bendigo, 2000, p 45 25 Ibid p 32 26 Ibid p 31 27 Eaglehawk and Bendigo Thematic History Vol 2 p 24 28

Ibid 29

Bendigo Mining history http://www.bmnl.com.au/about_us/goldfield_history.htm 30

Butler, et al, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Vol 2, Thematic History


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The disused mine sites became contaminated industrial wastelands creating a physical barrier that

separated early residential areas into small isolated pockets of scattered miners’ cottages from the rest

of the growing suburbs of Bendigo. After the major decline in mining in the early to mid 20th

century,

these large areas of mining wastelands of sand heaps, old sludge dams and cyanide tailing dams

remained un-developed, ‘a dry slum’.31

These factors resulted in the creation of a poor working class

suburb that remained under resourced and largely intact until the mid to late 20th century. Attempts at

dust mitigation by planting of peppercorn trees was minimal, the land remained a source of dust and

contamination until the 1950s and 1960s when some parcels of land were cleaned up for low cost

housing and state government commission housing.32

Peopling Victoria’s Places and Landscapes: Transnational Migration

Ironbark was noted for its high percentage of early residents, who were skilled Cornish and German

miners. They came in large affiliated family groups from Europe and America and from Burra Burra,

Kapunda and Moonta in South Australia as well as California. The early German miners, who

established early mining claims, are associated with Ironbark Hill settlement. They came with skills

and experience. They frequently formed mining partnerships amongst themselves such as and

included C. Ballerstedt and his son, Carl Roeder (Harz miner), Carl Mueller, Carl Schier (Harz

miner), C. Schroeder, F. Schilling, Carl Weber, H. Waswo and others like the Pole, Barnet Lazarus

who mined nearby on Nell Gywnne, Napoleon and Lanchashire line of reef. The skills of the German

quartz miners and speculators had a significant influence on the development of quartz mining in

Bendigo. They were noted for their introduction of German mining equipment and skill in

underground tunneling, examples of which have World Heritage listing in the Harz mining area of

Germany, from where many Bendigo German miners came. German mining development and

machinery has had a continuing influence on mining in Australia. Unlike the Cornish miners in the

area, the majority of the German miners left as soon as they could and established orchards,

viticulture and other agricultural businesses.

Another large ethnic group in the area was the Chinese, numbering 400-500 in 1868. There were

several large Chinese villages in the Bendigo district of which one was located in Long Gully, near

the junction with Sparrowhawk Gully.33

Chinese miners worked the mullock heaps and discarded ore

bodies in Long Gully and Ironbark Gully, in spite of concerted political agitation to discourage them.

It was John Quick, former resident of Ironbark, who introduced the first bill into Parliament in 1888

for the disenfranchisement of Chinese holding a Miner’s Right.34

Chinese herbalists and shop keepers

continued to operate businesses in Ironbark well into the 20th century.

35

Cornish mining technology was essential in Victoria mining in the years after 1860 and the influence

of the Cornish permeated into other aspects of social and cultural life in the Victorian central gold

fields.36

Cornish mining practice and managers became prominent in the quartz mines of Victoria. It

�� 31

Ellis, G. E., A Brief History and Reminiscence of Long Gully, City of Greater Bendigo, 2000, p 47. 32

Ibid . 33

The largest historic Chinese settlement was located in Bridge Street to Finn and Thunder Streets, an area

which was once regarded as part of Ironbark. 34

Bendigo Chinese Association Museum, publication Chinese Footsteps, 2000 p. 36 35

Ibid. p. 40 Quinn store in Milroy Street, also evidence from Bendigo rates books. 36

Fahey, Charles, From St Just to St Just Point, Cornish migration to Victoria, Cornish Studies, 2nd

Series Vol

15, University of Exeter, UK pp117-140 for survey of Cornish migration to Bendigo and Ironbark.


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was the Cornishman's traditional skills of shaft sinking and stoping and the tribute system, which was

well known in Cornwall that were in immediate demand. This historical process relates the area and

Victoria to an international context that had its beginning with the collapse in the summer of 1866 of

the Cornish copper mining industry. It resulted in a massive exodus of Cornish miners and their

families, who introduced their mining labour practices, tributing system, technology and culture to

new areas around the world.

Governing Victorians: Government and Surveillance

The cultural landscape of Long Gully/Ironbark area of Bendigo clearly demonstrates the impact of the

particular mining leasing system associated with deep quartz mining and the way in which it was

administered and interpreted by the Mining Board in Bendigo. An important consequence of this was

the establishment of large company mining in the area, which led to the highest concentration of

working miners living within one location in Bendigo. But despite the numbers and size of mining

companies operating in the area, lack of capital meant that operations were often intermittent,

necessitating miners to work in several different mines each year. This in turn led to what became a

chronic oversupply of local miners as the mines stopped operating whenever they were not paying and

miners were laid off. To avoid making calls on their shareholders to raise capital the mine companies

and owners let in the tributors. The introduction of tributing, was based on an ancient Cornish mining

tradition, whereby miners formed tribute parties, self employed groups, that leased a mine or part of it

from a larger company in order to receive a percentage of the gold mined. They were contracted to

pay for haulage and crushing ore, timber for propping new underground workings and use of tools,

despite the often irregular or non existent returns. The labour system was highly inefficient and

subject to abuse by mine owners. The practice was hierarchical, hereditary and in some view

rudimentary. Despite this, some of the biggest mining companies such as those owned by Lansell,

would only employ Cornish miners because of the favourable options for tributing, when operations

in the mines slowed due to lack of finance or equipment. This symbiotic relationship between mine

owner, company and workers meant that union agitation for better working conditions was low in

comparison with other fields.

The operations of drilling, blasting and shovelling created excessive dust, which together with poorly

ventilated mine workings, led to very high mortality rates amongst the miners in the Ironbark and

Long Gully areas. Deaths by phthisis and tuberculosis in Bendigo were the highest in the state. 37

Miners unions were formed in 1870s. Industrial conflicts occurred in 1872, 74 and 79 by which time

organized working class had spread to those employed in bakeries and other factories.

Building Towns, Cities and the Garden State: Buildings Towns and Cities

When quartz mining expanded into these gullies, they took on the character of small villages. In 1857,

Ironbark Hill featured forty two frame tenements38

, one brick house, two slab huts, one wood house

and one store. Ironbark was home to a large Chinese camp in the 1850s and a German colony of

miners settled in the gully in the 1850s-1860s.39

In 1861 there were 260 residences in all with 71 one

room tent/huts, 83 two room structures and 85 three room structures. Individual houses began to

emerge in the 1860s replacing tents. Nonetheless miners and their families still lived in small wooden

�� 37

Dingle, Tony, The Victorians, Setting, Farifax, Syme & Weldon & Ass, 1984, p 99 38

Framed tenements are tents made more permanent by additions such as slab timbers or weatherboards. ��Frank Cusack, Bendigo: A History, pp. 58 & 103


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cottages that had first been settled in the 1850s.40

Hotels appeared quickly on the goldfields, along

with sporting clubs, band halls and churches. There were many small hotels and hostelries such as

Gold Mines Hotel located along the main roads such as Mt Korong (then Alley Street) and the British

& American Hotel, Ironbark Hotel, Fifeshire Arms, Danaher’s and Quartz Miner’s Arms Hotels,

Manchester Arms, Silver Mines and Rose of Australia Hotels, all in Eaglehawk Roads that serviced

the community, along with suppliers, butchers operated by specialized German butchers, grocers, boot

makers, watchmakers and confectionery shops. The quartz mining town functioned with a labour

force living close to the mine head.

History of Ironbark Hill Area

The early Ironbark township developed at the junction of the then Eaglehawk and Mount Korong

(Marong) Roads. However, the Ironbark Hill residential area is centred on Quick, Rae, Roeder,

Truscott, Casley, Curtis, Bell, Duncan, Hayes, Jebb Thomas, Prout and Victoria Streets. The area, at a

time well before any survey of roads and allotments was undertaken, was referred to in the rate books

of the period 1857-1878 variously as Ironbark Ranges, Ironbark Hill, Ironbark Gully, Ironbark Gully,

Northern Bank, and Iron Bark Southern foot of the Redan and Comet Company.

The Ironbark Hill area was a former working class mining residential area associated with the Garden

Gully line of reef, a wide strip of Crown Land, formerly containing extensive mining works, shaft

spill dams and mullock heaps, moving north from Ironbark creek. The working class miners cottages

associated with these deep quartz mining operations could be regarded as one of the first mining

company towns of Australia. The buildings were built by miners, themselves, on Miners’ Residency

Areas, which was usually subject to the approval by the local mine owner as well as the Mine

Warden. For the first 25 years or so, these cottages were occupied almost exclusively by miners who

worked locally. Their homes were connected by a system of informal pathways to the mines, battery

stamps, ore crushing and pyrite refining complexes where they worked. The framework of this early

settlement remains largely intact. Only the original quarter acre blocks, the Miners Residency Areas,

have subsequently been subdivided and developed with in-fill housing of the 1920s and 1950s/60s.

The ad hoc settlement of the area is reflected in the way data was gathered for the rating of blocks in

the Ironbark Hill area - every year over the period 1857-1862 the property details between the gully

and the hill are recorded in a completely different order, and in one year only a few of the occupiers of

properties could even be found by the erstwhile valuator.

It was this reef mining and the opportunity of paid, although often intermittent employment that

encouraged people to settle and make homes, providing the impetus for the formation and

development of the community of Ironbark Hill. From 1862 the rate books note with increasing

regularity the same family names indicating a permanent settlement of miners and their families. One

miner who settled in the area in 1862 was Carl Roeder who, by 1871, was described in the rate books

as a ‘mine manager’. The Annals of Bendigo recorded his death in 1891 and noted his interests in the

Victoria Reef.41

By 1862 Ironbark had formed a view of itself as an entity - in this year it sought

annexation to the Municipality of Sandhurst.42

�� 40 Eaglehawk and Bendigo Thematic History Vol 2 p 24�41

George Mackay, editor, Annals of Bendigo Volume Two 1868-1891, p.239 42

Gazetteer of Historic Mining Sites, Heritage Victoria


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By 1871, allotments in Eaglehawk Road and what were to later become Rae, Quick and Victoria

Streets, had been built upon. In later years, streets were named after local residents, Rae, Thomas,

Prout and Roeder.43

The summit of Ironbark Hill was for along time dominated by Rae’s School. In

1861 John Rae built a second brick school on Ironbark Hill and was the first head teacher. The

original school building and site of approximately one acre were taken over by the Victorian

Department of Education under the Education Act in 1872 and leased from Rae for £150 per annum.

In 1875 the school began operation as Ironbark State School No. 323 after the Department purchased

the building and site for £2,500. More land was purchased in 1911. In 1915-16 sugar gums, a cypress

hedge and Macropcarpa cypress tress were planted in the school grounds. It was closed in 1931

because of the poor condition of its buildings and the site subdivided in 1940 into twelve allotments

which were auctioned. Lots were purchased by the Roman Catholic Trusts Corporation, the Ironbark

South Gold Mining Company, and Paul Penrose. The school was demolished in 1967.44

One of the

stores which operated in the Ironbark Hill area was a business at 15 Victoria Street. By the 1920s the

building housed a haberdashery store. In c1930 the building was sold and moved across the road. The

associated cottage still stands at 15 Victoria Street.45

Most occupiers of homes in the Ironbark Hill area in the period 1866-1882 listed their occupations as

miners and many of the houses were built on Miners’ Residence Areas. The Miner’s Right was

enacted in 1855 in response to the 1854 Eureka rebellion and, for the sum of £1 per year, gave the

holder the right to dig for gold, to vote at parliamentary elections, and to reside on land claimed for

mining purposes. By 1857 the residence could be quarter of an acre, incorporating room for a garden.

After 1865, the residence area could be registered and sold together with any improvements (house,

garden, sheds, fencing) on it.46

The government made successive attempts to encourage conversion of

residence areas to freehold title, and in 1884 all who had held a Residence Area continuously for at

least two and a half years were entitled to apply for the exclusive right to purchase the land. The

historian, Charles Fahey, estimates that by the end of the nineteenth century a third of all Bendigo’s

residences were on Miners’ Rights, and one half of all miners in the city had their homes on this form

of leasehold. The land on which many of the cottages in the heritage precinct are built, were not held

freehold until the following years: 4 Quick Street 1979; 12 Quick Street 1981; 4 Roeder Street 1958;

13 Roeder Street 1984; 15 Roeder Street 1983; 2 Prout Street 1973; 6 Prout Street 1931?; 2 Thomas

Street 1958; 7 Thomas Street 1977; 13 Victoria Street 1958; 15 Victoria Street 1930.

There was a high level of intergenerational stability in the area. The reason for the population stability

was that mining occupations were often inherited and mine work, albeit often part time, was

continuous over almost a hundred year period. It was not until the 1920s that the area shows some

demographic change in employment patterns. Even then, parish maps and rates demonstrate that

family members retained ownership of the original Miners Residency Areas until well into the 20th

century with some being converted to Torrens Title as late as the early 21st century.

�� 43

The original Rae Street is no longer in existence. It was originally located on the Long Gully side of Ironbark

Hill and ran between Quick Street and the present day Rae Street. The present day Rae Street was originally

named Bon Accord Street (George A. Ellis, A Brief History and Reminiscence of Long Gully, p. 52). 44

PROV, VPRS 795/P0, unit 1985 323 Ironbark Hill Sandhurst; George A. Ellis, A Brief History and

Reminiscence of Long Gully, p. 2245

Bendigo Advertiser, 6 September 2004 46

Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart MacIntyre, The Oxford Companion to Australian History, p. 430, and

Tony Dingle, Miners and their Cottages, presented at ‘Bendigo: Nothing But Gold’ conference, October 2001,

p.25


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Building Communities: New Roads to Self Improvement

The labour pattern of mining had a long term influence over the development of the area. The low

wages, under employment and excessively high mortality rates amongst miners contributed to

persistently poor living conditions. It handicapped development in the area for a longer time than was

the case elsewhere in Bendigo. The stigma of being a working class suburb was emphasized by the

spatial barriers of large areas of unused mine land, left idle, waiting for the next favourable upturn in

the commodity market. It meant that the contaminated wastelands of dust and pollutants were not

cleaned up until the 1950s Housing Commission projects commenced in the area. The character of the

cultural landscape remained impermanent, on edge, underdeveloped and in partial transition for a

hundred years. The majority of land within the area remained Crown Land until the mid 20th century

when all mining ceased. Roads remained unmade and irregular tracks until the mid 20th

to early 21st

century.

In spite of the many disadvantages of the area there is evidence of progressive self-improvement

amongst the miners from one generation to the next. Self- betterment and adult education was an

important means by which local miners could improve their situation in life. Workers became highly

specialised for example the blacksmith became the engine driver then the mining engineer, who often

sought employment in other mining areas throughout Australia.

In the early days of mining, blacksmiths provided the rudimentary metal workings needs of the

alluvial miners working with simple forges. The profession evolved during the booms years of 1860-

1870s when the growth of local iron foundries and demands of the later mechanised quartz-mining

industry required the skills of trained boilermakers, blacksmiths, engine drivers and engineers. The

area was particularly important as a location of blacksmiths, major local foundries and engineering

companies, which serviced the large company mines of the area. For example Horsfield, Ironbark and

Central Golden City foundries and other blacksmith shops manufactured large scale mining

equipment, battery stamps, compressors and other machinery which was sold throughout Australia.

The industry became a major employer and made a significant contribution to the development of

Bendigo. After the mid 1880s the school of mines movement in the Australian colonies flourished

with the result that mining education in Bendigo underwent a period of significant growth. The

Sandhurst School of Mines commenced in 1872 and by 1875 was offering courses for Engine Drivers,

Shift Captains, Mine Managers, and Underground Managers as well as programs in telegraphy,

metallurgy, geology, mineralogy.

The changes brought by greater specialisation in mining and metal industries affected attitudes

towards living standards and led to the construction of larger architectural styled homes in the area.

For example the former miner’s cottage at 9 Roeder Street clearly demonstrates the way in which the

design, fabric and decorative embellishments reflected the evolving wealth and status of the owners

from miner, blacksmith, engine driver to engineer. The first documented owner was George Briggs,

whose occupation is described in the Rates books in 1873 as a ‘Smith’ and by the 1880s as a

‘Blacksmith’. The property was rented to John Jones, a miner in the late 1880s, and then rented to

Benjamin Freestone, an engine driver. Later, Freestone’s occupation changes to blacksmith in 1888

and again engineer in 1890 and remains in the family name until 1944.


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In contrast to those mining families who became wealthier, other families struggled to make a living.

The high mortality rate amongst miners meant that their widows were left managing large families

often relying on neighbourly help for survival. The high numbers of widows resulted in a local

community that tended to be inward looking, self supporting, providing their own social life with

localised social activities and small scale industries that were often home based such as the black

smith at 9 Roeder Street, the small private hospital opposite and the small shop selling bootlaces to

miners that operated out of the Hilderbrandt residence in Victoria Street. Self sufficiency was made

possible by the size of the Miners Residency Area, which could accommodate chickens, goats and

other animals, vegetable gardens, large trees, outbuildings, wells and fences. Remnant fabric

associated with life on the Miners Residency Areas forms an important component of the heritage

precinct.

Bibliography

References:

Primary Sources


George Mackay, editor, Annals of Bendigo Volume Two 1868-1891, p.239


Index to Residence Areas, PROV, VPRS 149/P0, unit 1

Ironbark Hill Sandhurst, PROV, VPRS 795/P0, unit 1985, item 323

John Neill Macartney, The Bendigo Goldfields Registry, Melbourne, Charles F. Maxwell, 1871

Register of Residence Area 1876-1885, Sandhurst District Waranga North Division, PROV, VPRS/P0, unit 1

VA 4862 Sandhurst- VPRS 16267 Rate Books 1856-1958, Bendigo Regional Archives Centre (BRAC).

Maps Bendigo Sewerage Authority Detail Plan No. 94, 15 April, 1930

City of Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme maps 2005

City of Sandhurst Plan Showing Roads and Streets to be Proclaimed 1871, Roll Plan 74, Map Collection, SLV

Hart, G. W., Plan of Mining Tenements on the Garden Gully Johnsons and Other Reefs Sandhurst, in

Mines Department map Bendigo 1923, reissued 1936

Parish of Sandhurst map 1961

Secondary Sources

Ballinger, Robyn, History of Ironbark Hill 2005, City of Greater Bendigo

Bendigo Advertiser, 6 September 2004

Bendigo Library, A Vision Splendid, image database

Bendigo Mining for a summary of the history of mining see website for Bendigo Mining

http://www.bmnl.com.au/safety_environment/community_relations/gold_mining/bendigo_goldfield_history.htm

Caire, N. J., Views of Bendigo, Bendigo, Bendigo Trust, c1979

Cusack, Frank, Bendigo: A History. Lerk & McClure, Bendigo, 2002 (rev. ed.) Cusack, Frank, Bendigo the German Chapter, German Heritage Society, 1998

Davison, Graeme, John Hirst and Stuart MacIntyre, The Oxford Companion to Australian History, Melbourne,

Oxford University Press, 1999 Dingle, Tony , Miner’s Cottages, in Australian Economic History Review, Blackwell Publishing, 2010

Dingle, Tony, ‘Miners and their Cottages’, Nothing But Gold Conference, October 2001, Bendigo

Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, 1993, Butler, Significant Mining Areas and Sites Report, Vol 3

pp.123-235


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Ellis, George A., A Brief History and Reminiscence of Long Gully, Bendigo, George A. Ellis, 2000

Gazetteer of Historic Mining Sites, Heritage Victoria http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/page.asp?ID=124

Fahey, Charles, Senior Lecturer in History, La Trobe University Bendigo, personal communication

Fahey, Charles, From St Just to St Just Point, Cornish migration to Victoria, Cornish Studies, 2nd

Series Vol 15,

University of Exeter, UK pp 117-140 for survey of Cornish migration to Bendigo and IronbarkIbid based on

Rates Book information 1865-1920 Fahey, Charles, Cornish Miner’s in Bendigo: An Examination of their Standard of Living, Department of History Monash

University n.d.

Hopkins, Ruth, Where no Cousin Jack?, Bendigo Bicentenniel Committee, Bendigo 1988

Hopkins, Ruth, Cousin Jack, man for the times:” A History of the Cornish People in Victoria, Ruth Hopkins, Bendigo 1994

James Lerk and Carol Holdsworth pers. communication regarding the work of the Chinese mine contractors on

the tailings

Lerk, James, personal communication

Lerk, James, ‘Discover Bendigo: Ironbark Hill School of John Rae’, Bendigo Weekly, 21.1.2000

Mackay, George, History of Bendigo. Lerk & McClure, Bendigo, 2000 (rev. ed.)

Mackay, George, editor, Annals of Bendigo Volume Two 1868-1920

Palmer, A.V., Gold Mines of Bendigo, Book Two, Hawthorn, Craftsman Press, 1979

PROV, VPRS 795/P0, unit 1985 323 Ironbark Hill Sandhurst; George A. Ellis, A Brief History and

Reminiscence of Long Gully, p. 22

Ravenswood Homestead, Heritage Victoria, http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/heritage/967

Relevant Historical Australian Themes

• Shaping Victoria’s Environment: The Natural Landscape

• Peopling Victoria’s Places And Landscapes: Transnational Migration

• Governing Victorians: Government and Surveillance

• Transforming the land: Mining Wastelands

• Building Victoria’s Industries And Workforce: Mining labour force and technological

achievements

• Building Towns, Cities And The Garden State: Buildings towns and cities

• Building Communities: New roads to self improvement

Description of the Precinct

The heritage precinct of Ironbark Hill lies between Victoria Street to the south and Havilah Street to

the north; and Quick Street to the west and Bell Street to the east. It is located on the highest point of

the undulating Ironbark Hill ranges between Long Gully and Ironbark Gully. The area is traversed by

eleven gold bearing lines of reef that spread across the whole area. These include, starting from the

head of Long Gully at Specimen Hill in the west and running parallel eastwards, Thistle, Lancashire,

Napoleon, Nell Gywnne, New Chum, Sheepshead, Garden Gully, the smaller Paddy Gully’s, Derby’s,

Miller’s to Hustlers lines of reef in the extreme east, the point where Ironbark Gully and Long Gully

merge together before entering Bendigo Creek.

The Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street heritage precinct is a former mining settlement that lies between

Sheepshead and Garden Gully lines of gold bearing reef. Collectively the deep quartz gold mines on

these lines of reef represent the greatest collection of the deepest shafts and were the richest mines in

Bendigo, if not the world during the late 19th century.


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The cultural landscape of the Ironbark Hill area today is still visually distinct. It encompasses one of

the highest summits in the area, with steep west, north and south slopes, which allow sweeping

panoramic views across the city. The relatively dramatic topography is noted for its cool environment,

created by tall mature trees, mature well vegetated large gardens, narrow short streets, narrow

pavements and grassy verges, and irregular, mostly single storey housing. The irregular siting of

buildings often on high ground as well as the undulating hilly terrain creates many unexpected

internal landscape views. The main character of the area is one of scattered buildings that are

subordinate to a densely vegetated Indigenous landscape, complemented by recent tree plantings and

many mature trees.

Residential Development: Miners’ Cottages

There are many historic gullies and remnants of scattered former mining settlements in the Bendigo

region. The area is also well known for the ‘miner’s cottage’, which is found throughout the central

goldfields area of Victoria. The small domestic hut belongs to a vernacular typology that is associated

with the first European settlers, who came to the area in the mid 19th century. There are regional

differences in the appearance of the typical miner’s cottage which can be linked to specific gold

mining reefs, quartz and alluvial goldfields. The typical miner’s cottage was first built as two rooms

under a gabled roof with a rear skillion, detached kitchen and massive chimneys with no architectural

pretensions. Variations are found in the different scale, width, height, size, detailing, materials and

proportion and size of windows and doors of these structures. The buildings were commonly hand

built by the owner, often re-using material that had been transported from different mining sites or

even purchased on the quayside of English ports prior to departure for the goldfields

In this precinct the former miners’ cottages are found in two scattered grouped; around Roeder,

Thomas and Prout Streets on the high ground and in the lower section of Hayes and Jebbs Streets near

Ironbark Gully. Typically the cottages all evidence a square-edged weatherboard double gabled

cottage with skillion, originally built on a quarter acre block. The historian, Charles Fahey, has

observed that it is not only the cottages that hint at the former landscape but also the fabric of the

entire area which remains relatively intact. Few cottages have been removed – instead, the original

quarter acre blocks have been subdivided and in-fill housing47

has been erected during the periods of

the 1880s, the 1920s-40s, and the 1980s.

Generally, all miners’ cottages can be defined as a building type by particular shared characteristics

and features that distinguish the building from other structures. Historian, Charles Fahey and Tony

Dingle, both note that the architecture of the miner’s cottage in central Victoria reflects Cornish

design with their simple style and building fabric made of locally manufactured or found materials

and as Dingle writes:

The miner’s cottage is aesthetically pleasing. It is simple, largely unadorned…Its proportions are

elegant and its modest height settles it comfortably into its wider landscape. They do not all look alike

but it is possible to identify general characteristics. With only minor variations, the basic building block

consists of an oblong, tent shaped box, 3 metres by 7 or thereabouts, clad with weatherboards and with

a central door flanked by two windows on the long side of the building facing the street. Abutting the

gable end is a substantial brick chimney. Extra space was created by building a skillion roof running

off the rear of the building, or one or more new units could be placed parallel to the existing one to

�� 47

Charles Fahey, personal communication.


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provide more rooms. This gave the distinctive zig zag roofline of the miner’s cottage. Typically each

gable would sport its own chimney…The cottage on its own piece of land was the miner’s castle, more

secure and comfortable than a tent, it was importantly beyond the influence of mine owners. 48

The miners’ cottages located on Ironbark Hill are associated with some of the earliest quartz mines in

Bendigo. They were built by both German and Cornish miners, many of them are exceedingly small

in scale. Many of the German influenced cottages have pise or mud brick components, while the

Cornish cottages were often made of random stone walls or incorporate stone walling. Often the

cottages are a composite structure, a mixture of timber, stone, brick and pise and have been

continually adapted with minor changes over the years. They have a high level of integrity although

many massive chimneys have been removed and extensions added in later years. The majority of

cottages appear to have been erected in the mid-1860s and 1870s, replacing earlier, less substantial

structures such as tents or slab huts. Additions that incorporate fashionable contemporary architectural

detailing are small in scale and characteristically correspond to periods of prosperity, when mining

work was stable. The cottages cluster around gullies and water supplies and have a relationship to

each other that reflects former social and family ties. They were built prior to the survey of roads and

seldom have a formal alignment with later street patterns. Interspersed between the miners’ cottages

later development is found, usually on subdivided blocks or reclaimed mine lands.

Residential Buildings: Victorian Villas to 1950s Bungalows

Several later infill developments are historic and include; speculative development by the successful

miner, Truscott, who built a row of late 19th century dwellings in Truscott and Duncan Streets. Most

of these houses have since been demolished and replaced by 1970s/80s housing, which have been

excluded from the heritage precinct. Opposite these dwellings is a fine group of Inter War bungalow

homes located high on elevated land, creating a landmark series of buildings. In Casley Street there is

a mixture of early cottages, later 19th century villas and quality Inter War homes many of which are on

prominent locations.

A group of mid to late 20th century residences have been excluded from the middle of the precinct.

This development is associated with infill development on former mining land. One of the most

historic areas is located between Quick and Bell Streets centring on Roeder Street. Other important

historic clusters of early homes are located along Victoria Street and Havilah Street and again a dense

collection of cottages around Hayes and Jebb Streets. There is a group of well designed Inter-War and

early 1950s homes in Hayes Street, a narrow lane near Eaglehawk Road which has a back drop of

Ironbark Gully, outlined by tall mature Ironbark trees.

Conservation Policy Guidelines (Specific)

It is recommended that the Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street heritage precinct be protected as an item of

local significance within the heritage overlay of the Bendigo Planning Scheme and that tree controls

apply to the whole area. The incidence of mature exotic trees at the rear of gardens and eucalyptus

street trees and those that line water courses should be protected under the Heritage Overlay schedule.

Integrity. The majority of places have a high degree of integrity.

�� 48

Tony Dingle, Miners and their Cottages, presented at ‘Bendigo: Nothing But Gold’ conference, October

2001, and Charles Fahey, Senior Lecturer in History, La Trobe University Bendigo, unpublished material.


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Physical Conditions

All buildings are in a fairly good condition.

Statement of Significance What is Significant?

The Long Gully Ironbark area had the largest concentration of deep shafts mines anywhere in the

world during the late 19th century, and the Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street heritage precinct, represents

one of the earliest mining settlements of the area. These mines were the wealthiest in Bendigo,

operated by the largest company mines, owned by the richest mining magnates in Victoria, such as

J.B. Watson, Joseph Bell and George Lansell as well as Carl Roeder. The large company mines

dominated the development of the area. They were a major employer in the area and also contributed

to the highest incidence of unemployment in Bendigo, when they ceased operating. In addition the

area was home to some of the successful mine managers such as Jewell and Truscott. The mines

spearheaded the quartz mining boom of the late 1860s and early 1870s that transformed the image of

Bendigo. The Long Gully Ironbark area is associated with mining on the Garden Gully line of reef,

the Victoria & Pandora Shaft, the Victory and Pandora Amalgamated mines, Victory Shaft, Bells, Old

Carlisle, North Garden Gully United, Pass-by, Unity mines, Garden Gully United mine.49

Other mines

included Golden Fleece, Central Garden Gully/North/Kent, and Watson’s Kentish/Carlisle United.

The collection of 1860s to 1870s miners’ cottages in the vicinity of Roeder, Prout, Thomas, Casley,

Curtis, Bell, Duncan, Jebb, Quick, Truscott, Victoria and Hayes Streets as well as later 19th century

cottages form part of the historic mining landscape associated with Ironbark Hill. The area was

worked from the earliest alluvial and quartz period of gold mining in 1852 to the 1950s and is

associated with highly specialized copper and tin miners from Cornwall and silver miners from the

Harz mining region of Germany. The distinctive characteristic of the precinct is the diverse collection

of miners’ cottages that are clustered around the upper slopes of the hill and spill down the hill

towards Ironbark Gully to the south and Long Gully to the north. These cottages represent some of the

earliest cottages in the area, sited in apparent haphazard fashion along the routes the miners took to

walk to work. The short irregular pathways provide the street pattern in the area, each of which is

named after a local miner, who lived in the area such as Roeder, Prout, Casley, Prout, Thomas,

Truscott, Bell among others.

The most significant element within the precinct are the small single gable or double gable roof,

weatherboard and sometime brick or stone cottages, which were built in irregular fashion on leased

Crown land, Miners Residency Areas. The range of different designs within this building typology is

high and includes some of the earliest basic two room miners’ cottages as well as more elaborate mine

manager’s dwellings and examples of speculative late 1890s housing development by Truscott, a

successful local miner. It also shows examples of quality 1920s bungalows and good individually

designed late 1930/40s homes that are associated with revival of the area following government

reclamation of contaminated mine wastelands.

�� 49

Ibid


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Some pockets of settlement within the precinct have been remarkably stable over a 150 year period.

These factors have ensured the survival of many very small, flimsily built timber cottages. The

buildings exhibit continuous use, small scale alterations and changes that are typical of a working

class area. Within the vicinity of these small cottages are examples of elaborate mine manager’s villas

and substantial homes of local businessmen. The hilly topography of the area is marked by the

picturesque mature gardens, large trees and street trees of local Ironbark, which have grown well in

the comparatively watered slopes of Ironbark hill.

Much of the former mine land to the south and east of the area now remains reserved as open space

and collectively forms one of the most comprehensive collections of mining artefacts which spans the

entire period of mining in Bendigo from the earliest reef workings from 1853 through to the 1950s.

The physical framework of these early settlements also remains largely intact. Only the original

quarter acre blocks, the Miners Residency Area, have most often been subsequently subdivided and

developed with in-fill housing of the 1950s/60s, with some recent development.

How is it Significant?

The Ironbark Hill has historic, architectural, aesthetic, scientific and social significance at a local level

to the City of Bendigo. (Criteria A, B, C, D, E and H)

Why is it significant?

Criterion A: Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history.

1) The Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street heritage precinct is historically significant as a good

representative example of an early working class miner’s settlement dating from the mid 1860s

located amongst some of the wealthiest deep quartz mines of Bendigo and Eastern Australia. The

collection of early cottages and later Victorian villas clearly demonstrates the way in which the

design, fabric and decorative embellishments reflected the evolving status of the owners. It

provides an important insight into the domestic lives and typical home of mainly Cornish miners

and related trades such as blacksmiths and engine drivers of Ironbark and Long Gully area.

2) The Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street heritage precinct is historically significant as an unregulated

mining settlement that developed on Crown Land and Miners Residency Areas along unsurveyed

roads between the mining shafts, battery and engine houses, chimneys, tailing dams, holding

dams, and other debris associated with deep quartz gold mining. The groups of miners’ cottages

are representative of the diverse range of miner’s cottage typology that includes examples of the

Cornish vernacular ‘long house’ built by early emigrant Cornish miners, who formed a significant

ethnic group in the area.

3) The arrival of Cornish and German miners to the area, often via South Australia, America and

New Zealand are associated with one of the great migration streams of the nineteenth century -

the movement of British and German metal miners to the mineral fields of the New World, the

United States, South America, Australia, and in the late nineteenth century South Africa. This

historical process relates Ironbark and Long Gully area and Victoria in an international context. It

had its beginning with the collapse in the summer of 1866 of the Cornish copper mining industry.

And resulted in the massive exodus of Cornish miners and their families, who introduced their


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mining labour practices, the tributing system, technology and culture into the area. Many of the

German quartz reefers came from the German mines of the Harz region, often via California.

Criterion B: Possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Victoria’s cultural history.

4) The miner’s cottages of Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street heritage precinct are associated with one of

the unique features of the Victorian goldfields- the Miners Residency Area, which allowed the

development of working class suburbs on Crown land amongst mining sites. Many cottages are

still intact, and provide a rare record of the home occupiers in the Ironbark Hill area during the

period, 1866-1882, listing their occupations as miners or associated jobs such as carter, engine

driver, blacksmith and mine manager.

5) The miners’ cottages form an important visual element in the cultural landscape of Ironbark Hill,

which collectively retained a high degree of integrity and authenticity. Despite the fact that many

original allotments have been subdivided with later infill development, the sporadic and scattered

incidence of very small miners’ cottages, which were erected prior to the establishment of formal

roads, coupled with the hilly terrain and nearby mining archaeological wastelands, clearly tells the

story of the early alluvial and quartz reef mining boom in Bendigo from the 1850s through to the

major mining boom of the late 1860s and early 1870s. The physical fabric of the area traces the

story when advances in technology allowed the formation of huge mining companies, the

employment of waged miners, who continued to work in the area through periods of revitalisation

during the 1890s, 1930s and 1950s.

6) The collection of miner’s cottages, in authentic but scattered locations provides a rare opportunity

to analyse the spatial relationship of each cottage to one another and juxtaposition of sites to

former mines. The clusters of cottages reflect internal grouping of mutually supporting families

and illustrates how they survived during times of hardship. The abrupt transition between tiny

cottages and large Inter War bungalows reflects the longevity of original occupation and

traditions, and the uneven play of fate in the lives of the miners. They represent homes of an

expanding mine labour force during periods of boom during the late 19th and 20

th century or

demonstrate different economic circumstances of families in a very hierarchical structured mining

industry. A mine manager’s house stands out in contrast to an engine driver and mine engineer’s

cottage, which is itself more spacious than a waged or tribute miner’s cottage. Other outstanding

examples are the speculative purchase and development of land by local miners, who made it rich.

The 20th century designs favoured by descendants of original miners illustrate intergenerational

identity formation. It shows how the first settlers’ relationship to the area changed from

transitional and temporary to a permanent place of home.

Criterion C: Potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Victoria’s

cultural history.

7) The miners cottages and villas of Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street heritage precinct are associated with

extensive archival materials, including but not restricted to the Quarterly Reports of the Mining


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Surveyors and Registrars, 1863-91, detailed social demographic information since 1861

particularly in Bendigo and Ballarat goldfields, scholarly research and publications as well as

contemporary journals and diaries.

Criterion D: Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural

places or environments.

Criterion E: importance in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics and/or in exhibiting richness,

diversity or unusual integration of features.

8) The miners’ cottages of Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street heritage precinct are an excellent

representative example of the miner’s cottage, particularly associated with German and Cornish

settlement of Ironbark Hill.

9) The Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street heritage precinct has aesthetic significance as a cultural

landscape that illustrates the rich diversity of a working class miner’s settlement, a key feature of

the Victorian 19th century goldfields. The size, shape and design of miners’ cottages found in

Ironbark Hill provides a historical and architectural record of a vernacular class of buildings that

developed from the prefabricated timber frame tent and was influenced by traditional building

technologies from Europe. Within the landscape are outstanding internal historic views of

examples of more elaborate 19th century Victorian villas, fine Federation, as well as early 1920s

and 1950s bungalows that were built in a hilly terrain. The unusual integration of undulating

topography marked out by narrow short streets, picturesque mature gardens, former Mining

Residency Areas, large dominating Ironbark trees and other eucalyptus street trees, which have

grown tall in the well watered slopes of Ironbark Hill, all create a cultural landscape of high

aesthetic quality.

Criterion H: Special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of

importance in Victoria’s history.

10) The miners’ cottages of Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street heritage precinct�are particularly associated

with the migration of German miners and their families to the Bendigo goldfields. Ironbark Hill

was home to a number of very successful German quartz reefers, one of which was Carl Roeder,

who had settled in the area in 1862. In 1871 he became the mine manager of one of the Victorian

quartz reef mines. Roeder Street was named after him, and his house still remains in Prout Street

nearby. Carl Roeder was one of a group of experienced miners trained at the School of Mines at

Clausthal, in the Harz Mountain region of north Germany, and became an important local

identity, mining investor, Chair of the Board into ventilation in mines and elected to the Bendigo

City Council in the 1890s. Many of the early German miners, established early mining claims in

the Ironbark area are associated with Ironbark Hill settlement such as Carl Roeder (Harz miner),

Carl Schier (Harz miner), Carl Weber, H. Waswo and others like Christopher Ballerstedt mined

nearby on Victoria Hill. Unlike the Cornish miners in the area, the majority of the German miners

left as soon as they could and established businesses elsewhere.


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Assessment Against Criteria

HERCON CRITERIA

Criterion A

Importance to the course or pattern of our cultural or natural history.

Criterion B

Possession of uncommon rare or endangers aspects of our cultural or natural history.

Criterion C

Potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of our cultural or natural

history.

Criterion D

Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places

or environments.

Criterion E

Importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics.

Criterion F

Importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular

period.

Criterion G

Strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural

or spiritual reasons. This includes the significance of a place to Indigenous peoples as part of

the continuing and developing cultural traditions.

Criterion H

Special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in our

history.

Recommendations 2010 External Paint Controls: No

Internal Alteration Controls: No

Tree Controls: Yes(Refer to Significant Vegetation Map)

Fences & Outbuildings: No

Prohibited Uses May Be Permitted: No

Incorporated Plan: Yes (Ironbark Heritage Area – Incorporated Plan)

Aboriginal Heritage Place: No

Other Recommendations

It is recommended that the Ironbark Hill/Roeder Street Heritage Precinct be added to the Heritage

Overlay of the Greater Bendigo City Planning Scheme with the schedule entry as shown above. The

extent of registration is defined by a map. The recommended Incorporated Plan is the ‘Incorporated

Plan – Ironbark Heritage Area’.


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CONTRIBUTORY PLACES WITHIN PRECINCT 2

Name No. Street Prop No. Suburb HERMES ID Significance

House 2 Arms 178999 Long Gully Local

House 25 Bell 179227 Ironbark Local

House 27 Bell 179228 Ironbark Local

House 61 Bennett 179271 Long Gully Local

House 63 Bennett 179273 Long Gully Local

Miner's Cottage 3 Casley 179558 Long Gully Local

House 6 Casley 179560 Ironbark Local

Miner's Cottage 7 Casley 179561 Long Gully Local

House 9 Casley 179563 Long Gully Local

House 1 Casley 179556 Long Gully Local






House 2 Curtis 179720 Ironbark Local

House 2 Duncan 207052 Long Gully Local








House 4 Havilah Road 180454 Long Gully Local



Miner's Cottage 10 Havilah Road 180460 Long Gully Local


House 4 Hayes 180496 Ironbark Local




Miner's Cottage 25 Hayes 180512 Ironbark Local




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House 3 Jebb 180918 Ironbark Local

House 1 Louis 181102 Long Gully Local

House 1 Prout 181839 Ironbark Local

Miner's Cottage 2 Prout 181840 Ironbark Local



Miner's Cottage 6 Prout 181844 Ironbark Local

House 1 Quick 181846 Ironbark Local


Miner's Cottage 4 Quick 229558 Ironbark Local







Miner's Cottage 28 Quick 181863 Long Gully Local

House 30 Quick 181864 Long Gully Local





Miner's Cottage 2 Rae 181873 Ironbark Local

Miner's Cottage 4 Rae 181875 Ironbark Local

House 6 Rae 181876 Ironbark Local




Miner's 4 Roeder 181915 Ironbark Local


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Cottage

House 6 Roeder 181916 Ironbark Local

Miner's Cottage 7 Roeder 181917 Ironbark Local

House 8 Roeder 181918 Ironbark Local




Miner's Cottage 2 Thomas 182307 Ironbark Local

House 4 Thomas 182308 Ironbark Local






House 4 Truscott 182342 Long Gully Local





Miner's Cottage 2 Victoria 182392 Ironbark Local

House 3 Victoria 182393 Ironbark Local













Archaeological Places

Mine Site

26-30 Rae 181885 Ironbark Local


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Total Contributory Sites Precinct 2 104

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NON CONTRIBUTORY PLACES WITHIN PRECINCT 2

No. Street Prop No. Suburb

4 Arms 179000 Long Gully

21 Bell 208033 Ironbark

23 Bell 208034 Ironbark

3 Curtin 179721 Ironbark

1 Curtis 179719 Ironbark

12 Havilah Rd 180462 Long Gully

7 Hayes 180499 Ironbark




8 to 12 Hayes 180500 Ironbark

Unit 1/11 Hayes 211422 Ironbark






4 Jebb 225041 Ironbark

5 Prout 181843 Ironbark

7 Prout 181845 Ironbark

6 Quick 229557 Ironbark







34 Quick 181866 Long Gully

11 Roeder 181920 Ironbark

1 Truscott 182341 Long Gully

5 Victoria 182395 Ironbark

10 Victoria 182399 Ironbark

Unit 1/6 Victoria 211724 Ironbark









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Total Non Contributory Places 41


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Tree species and location was determined without entering private property, as such tree location and

variety may be inexact.


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Victoria. Dept. of Mines. Mining surveyors' map of the district of Sandhurst: showing the different

companies and ground leased up to 1st Nov., 1871, R. Brough Smyth, Secretary of Mines, NLA


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HERITAGE PLACE REPORT - City of Greater Bendigo...HERITAGE PLACE REPORT Greater Bendigo City Type of...

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