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Beechworth Victoria
Panorama of Beechworth town centre
Population:	3227 (2006)[1]
Postcode:	3747
Elevation:	580 m (1,903 ft)
Location:	284 km (176 mi) NE of Melbourne 39 km (24 mi) SW of Wodonga 38 km (24 mi) E of Wangaratta
LGA:	Indigo Shire
State District:	Benambra
Federal Division:	Indi
Mean Max Temp Mean Min Temp Rainfall 25.1 °C 77 °F 11.6 °C 53 °F 949.4 mm 37.4 in

Beechworth (36°21′S, 146°41′E) is a well-preserved historical town located in the north-east of Victoria, Australia, famous for its major growth during the gold rush days of the mid-1850s. At the 2006 census, Beechworth had a population of 3227.

Beechworth's many historical buildings are well preserved and the town has re-invented itself and evolved into a popular tourist destination and growing wine-producing centre.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Gold 1.2 Colourful characters 1.2.1 Robert O'Hara Burke 1.2.2 Ned Kelly 1.2.3 George B. Kerferd 2 Newspapers 3 Tourism 4 References 5 Books on Beechworth 5.1 Histories 5.2 Local Histories 5.2.1 Unpublished theses 5.3 Biography 5.4 Fictional novel set in part around Beechworth 5.5 Food 5.6 Rail 5.7 Chinese goldminers in the region 6 External links

Originally used for grazing by the settler David Reid, the area was known as Mayday Hills until 1853, when it was renamed Beechworth.

Beechworth was gold. In its golden heyday from 1852-1857, this was a fabulous gold region and centre of government; but its power, wealth and influence were short lived. At its wildest moments of gold discoveries, Woods related how an early party of prospectors retrieved a pan of gold weighing 14 lb (about 7 kg).(p. 10.) Another lucky party, said Woods, cleared some 50lb (approx. 25 kg) of gold in a week.(p. 16.) And so began a rush into this remote region. During the first election campaign in 1855, one candidate, Daniel Cameron, rode horse was shod with solid gold horseshoes. The extravagance of this event is still commemorated as the logo for Beechworth is a golden horseshoe.

At the time, Beechworth was far removed from the centre of colonial administration in Melbourne both in distance and time taken to travel. The railway arrived in September 1876, but by that stage the town and its gold production was waning.

Nevertheless, Beechworth town boasted a range of industries including, a tannery, jewellers, boot makers, a brewery, blacksmiths, livestock sale yards. It had schools, a convent, hotels, a prison with imposing stone walls, a hospital, a mental hospital, court house, police barracks, stage coach companies and a powder magazine.

In its golden days, men and women arrived from, the USA, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and China. At its peak, Beechworth town had some 3,100 residents. The Chinese were not allowed live in Beechworth town and resided on the outskirts. Numerous controls and enforced regulations and licence checks existed against the Chinese miners.(see: Woods; also McWaters; also O'Brien; and Cronin). Beechworth Cemetery has a large preserved section of early Chinese miners/pioneers. The presence of the Chinese goldminers around Beechworth and throughout northeastern region created social unrest and these are recorded in a variety of the book references below.

Like many Australian country towns associated with the early goldfields, Beechworth had its share of colourful characters and villains. Among the infamous during the 1870s was, the one time, Livery Stable owner, later the 'Dog Officer', at some other time the 'Pound Officer' and another time shire revenue officer; John Phelan. (O'Brien, 'Awaiting Ned Kelly' & Jones, The Friendship, p. 29.) Phelan was a continual litigant, correspondent to the newspapers and advertiser. His official and officious escapades were mockingly reported in the local paper.(O'Brien)

Robert O'Hara Burke, leader of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition was stationed in Beechworth as Senior Inspector of Police from 1854 to 1857.([1]. Policeman John Sadleir one of the Kelly Gang pursuers was also stationed in Beechworth during its early days.(Harvey)

The Burke Museum is located in Loch Street and holds a rich source of primary materials on Beechworth and the surrounding districts golden past. Source materials include newspapers, photos, artefacts, clothings, paintings, exhibitions, published local histories and unpublished theses on the district and displays dating back to the gold discoveries, early Chinese miners and workings of the 1850s. For family and academic researchers this museum is a gold mine.

The outlaw Ned Kelly had many links to Beechworth - he spent time in HM Prison Beechworth and fought a famous boxing bout with Isaiah 'Wild" Wright in the back of a local hotel [2]. Aaron Sherritt and Joe Byrne of the Kelly Gang came from the Woolshed goldmining camp, outside of Beechworth town. It was in Beechworth gaol that twenty-one men, suspected Kelly Gang supporters, relatives and other sympathersiers were held without trial or evidence for over 3 months, by the Chief Commissioner of Police Captain Standish, under the Outlawry Act. [Jones, pp. 177-178]

George B. Kerferd (1836-1889) a long time resident of Beechworth became a Premier of Victoria and was a major participant in ensuring Beechworth had a railway connection to Melbourne.

John Buckley Castieau

Castieau (1831-1885)was the Prison Governor at Beechworth from 1856 to 1869. The prison, famous for its huge granite walls was known as Castieau's castle. As the Governor of the Melbourne gaol in 1880 he was an official witness to the hanging of Ned Kelly. His diaries were later published (2004) as The Difficulties of My Position. In this book a drawing from the Australian Sketcher, 14 August 1880 shows Castieau sitting with Ned Kelly during his remand (p.278) and also a photo of his signature as one of the witnesses to the Kelly hanging (p. viii).

In its golden heyday Beechworth boasted two influential newspapers: The Ovens and Murray Advertiser and The Constitution and Mining Intelligencer. These papers engaged in fierce competition and for a while were daily issues. The papers circulated far and wide throughout the district and the colony of Victoria.(O'Brien) Both papers represented the views of their respective readerships sometimes to the exclusion of all others.(O'Brien) Even today, these old papers are an important historical research tool, as most editions from the early 1850 survive and are micro-filmed. These two local papers provided rich primary sources for many historians of Beechworth and its surrounds, plus the Kelly Gang historians.(See: Woods (1985); McMahon (2000); Lane (1978); McQuilton (1979); Jones (1995); McWaters (2002); O'Brien (2005); and Wild & McMahon (2006))

The Ovens and Murray Advertiser still survives as a local paper.

Beechworth is a popular tourist destination. Attractions include Ned Kelly themed displays at the old court house, Burke Museum, waterfalls, lakes, historic buildings, gold fields, walks, trail rides, the beechworth bakery, the beechworth lolly shop, night tours and more.

Considering the present nature of the town, a surprising range and variety of books exist on Beechworth town, its adjoining goldfield camps, its surrounds and its heady goldfield days. These include numerous histories, a treasure of local histories, theses, material on bushrangers, police, Chinese, riots, the coming and going of the railway and fictional novels set in the district.

• Griffiths, Tom. Beechworth: An Australian Country Town and its Past, Greenhouse, North Melbourne, 1987. (solid research piece on a post-gold boom town and its re-invention)
• McQuilton, John. The Kelly Outbreak 1878-1880, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1979. (wonderful insight into the Kelly Outbreak in NE Victoria and its geographical causes)
• O'Brien, Antony. Shenanigans on the Ovens Goldfields: The 1859 Election, Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2005. (a solid, somewhat controversial piece with good insights into the social conflicts which emerged on the Ovens goldfield during an election year)
• Woods, Carole. Beechworth: A Titan's Field, Hargreen, North Melbourne, 1985. (a wide ranging solid research piece on Beechworth from its earliest days 1830s to the late 1800s)
• Williams, Jennifer. Listen to what they say, 2005. (a sound oral history of the town from the early 1900s to the modern era)
• Cronin, Kathryn. Colonial Casualties: Chinese in Early Victoria, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1997, (encompasses the Chinese miners of Northeastern Victoria)

• Clarke, Stan. How Old is Your Grandma, Beechworth, 1987. (on the district's freemasons)
• Harvey, R. C. Background to Beechworth: From 1852, Albury, 1952. (plus subsequent editions)
• Hawley, G. & Davidson, R. Beechworth Sketchbook, Rigby, Adelaide, 1972.
• Lane, Leo. History of the Parish of Beechworth 184-1978, Parish of Beechworth, 1978. (on the Catholics of the district)
• McMahon, D. M. The Golden Gum Tree: Hiram Allen Crawford, 1832-1916, Brisbane, 2000. (on an American pioneer in the district)
• McWaters, Vivine. Beechworth's Little Canton, Albury, 2002 (on the Chinese goldminers at Spring Creek)
• Shennan, M. Rosalyn. The 1855 Ovens Election and the Gold horseshoes, Noble Park, 1990. (on an election event in 1855)
• Shennan, M. Rosalyn. A Biographical Dictionary of the Pioneers of the Ovens and Townsmen of Beechworth, Noble Park, 1990. (a valuable resource tool for goldfields family researchers)
• Williams, David. Gold and Granite Grandeur: Living History of Beechworth, Stanley and Eldorado, 1994. (fine drawings of the buildings, churches and forest trees of the area)
• "Wild, Christine, G. & McMahon, Denise, H. Old News Today: Tales of the Upper Murray: newspaper snippets from 1876-1900, McClure, Wodonga, 2006 (local newspaper cuttings 1876-1900 with hundreds of family names and events)

• O'Brien, Antony. "Awaiting Ned Kelly: Rural Malise in Notheastern Victoria 1872-73", B.A. (Hons), 1999. (sighted in Burke Museum.) (a prelude to the Kelly outbreak)
• McCullough, J. "Beechworth After the Gold Rush: A Study of its development to 1956", B.A. (Hons), Dept of Geography, Melbourne University, 1971.

• Brown, Max. Australian Son,1948 (plus subsequent editions) (Socail insights and contemporary 1940s photos of Beechworth and its immediate surrounds)
• Finnane, Mark. (Ed.), The Difficulties of My Position, The Diaries of Prison Governor John Buckley Castieau 1855-1884, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2004. (insight into Beechworth's colonial society in the 1850s, '60s and '70s) [ISBN 0 642 10793 9]
• Sadleir, John. Recollections of a Victorian Police Officer, 1913. (includes an insight into the land turmoils surrounding the Kelly Gang)
• Gee, Margaret. A Long Way from Silver Creek, 2000. (a moving account of growing up in post-war Beechworth)
• Jones, Ian. Ned Kelly a Short Life, Lothian, Port Melbourne, 1995.
• Jones, Ian. The Friendship that destroyed Ned Kelly: Joe Byrne and Aaron Sherritt, Lothian, Port Melbourne, 1992.
• Kenneally, J.J. The Inner History of the Kelly Gang, 1929 (plus many subsequent editions) (This work gives insights into the Beechworth locale, the Beechworth court sessions and policing)

• "O'Brien, Antony. Bye-Bye Dolly Gray, Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2006." (local lads go to the Boer War and get into more strife than Ned Kelly)

• O'Toole, Tom. Secrets of the Beechworth Bakery, Bas, Melbourne, 2001. (a must indulge famous local icon)

• Larsen, Wal. The MayDay Hills Railway, Wal Larsen, Bright, 1976.

• Kaufman, R. J. The Chinese on the Upper Ovens Goldfields: 1855-1920, LRGM, Bright, 1997. ISBN 0 646 34017 4
• Groom, Jocelyn. Chinese Pioneers of the King Vally, Centre for Continuing Education, Wangaratta, 2001. ISBN 0 909760 23 3
• Talbot, Diann. The Buckland Valley Goldfield, Specialty Press, Albury, 2004 ISBN 0 9757170 0 6

• http://www.beechworth.com.au
• http://www.beechworth.name
• http://www.beechworthonline.com.au
• Australian Places - Beechworth

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