HERITAGE PLACE REPORT - City of Greater Bendigo

HERITAGE PLACE REPORT 

Greater Bendigo City 

HERITAGE CITATION REPORT 

Name Carlisle United / Garden Gully Heritage 

Precinct 

Address Casley, Bennett, Duncan, Louis, Victoria Streets 

Property No: 

Building Type 

Residential buildings private, former church, 

special uses land, reserved former mine lands 

Heritage Status Recommended listing of 

Carlisle United / Garden Gully Heritage Precinct 

as an individual item within the heritage overlay 

Precinct Recommended significant and 

contributory places within the Precinct 

Heritage Study 

Ironbark Heritage Study 

Designer/Architect 

unknown 

Maker/Builder unknown 

Type of Place 

Author 

Mandy Jean 

Hermes Number Heritage Place Report 

Heritage Overlay 

VHR Number N/A 

HI Number N/A 

File Number N/A 

Hermes Number 

Year 

2010 Grading 

Local significance 

Architectural Style 

Vernacular to Modern 1950s 

Bungalows 

Date 

1870s to 1950s 

Page 1



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 



Page 2



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. 

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 



Page 3



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

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 20 th 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 the 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 19 th 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 

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 



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

together before entering Bendigo Creek. 16 

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 1865 20 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 & 

16 

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

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. 



Page 5



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 

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 

between1870-1912); 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). J.B. 

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 Other mining investors associated with the area include, Barnet Lazarus, George Lansell, 

William Johnson, Joseph Bell, W. & A. Hunter, Schmidt and Barker. 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 

23 Ibid Vol 2 p. 34 

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 



Page 6



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 

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 2 0th 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 20 th 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 Gwynne, 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 

30 

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

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. 



Page 7



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 20 th 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 

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. 

The Carlisle United/Garden Gully heritage precinct is particularly associated with John Boyd Watson, 

a mining magnate and investor, who was born in September 1828 at Paisley, Scotland. 37 His family 

settled at Windsor near Sydney where Watson became a currier (a person who dresses and colours 

leather after it is tanned). He moved to Sydney but in 1850 left for the Californian diggings. On his 

return, he set off for the Victorian gold fields, and in late 1852 reached Bendigo Creek. He was quick 

to realize the potential richness of the Bendigo reefs, and was amongst the first to erect a crushing 

battery. Watson's initial quartz-mining venture was the Old Chum Claim on New Chum Hill. Next, 

with a partner he bought a claim in Paddy's Gully. With others he floated the Cornish United Co. and 

in the late 1860s secured an interest in the adjoining Golden Fleece, Kent and Garden Gully claims, 

later buying and amalgamating them under one lease as the Kentish Mine, which he owned until 

1889. It produced huge amounts of gold in 1871-80, one reef alone yielding about thirteen tons of 

gold valued at some £1,500,000. He owned much property in Sandhurst and his extensive Melbourne 

holdings included the freehold of some of the most valuable inner-city properties. He was a founder, 

director and principal shareholder of the Federal Bank and a large shareholder in the Melbourne 

Tramways Co., the Deniliquin and Moama Railway Co. and a Sydney steamship company. He had 

mining and pastoral interests in Queensland, owned wharves in Sydney and in 1879, with a group of 

Sandhurst investors; he launched the Sydney Daily Telegraph. In the history of quartz mining at 

Bendigo, George Lansell, in the development of deep quartz mining a handful of other speculators — 

such as Ernest Mueller, John Boyd Watson, Edward Isaac Dyason, Barnett Lazarus, Carl Roeder and 

the Hunter brothers — reaped substantial rewards from the Ironbark quartz reefs and mines located 

along the Garden Gully line of reef. 38 

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 nd 

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

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

37 

On-line Australian Dictionary of Biography provided most of the information on John Boyd Watson, 

summarised in Australian Post mining stamps 

38 

Charles Fahey For the wealth of Bendigonians in the last two decades of the nineteenth century see J. C. 

Fahey, ‘Wealth and Mobility in Bendigo and Northern Victoria 1879–1901, Unpublished Ph.D., Melbourne 

University, 1981 



Page 8



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 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. 39 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. The 

quartz mining town functioned with a labour force living close to the mine head. 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. 

Other areas include the Housing Commission homes built on the reclaimed former Carlisle spill dam 

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



Page 9



area between Duncan, Bennett, Casley and Louis Streets, and the 1950/60s housing subdivisions 

facing Peters Street, on the site of the former Kent mine. 

Bibliography 

References: 

Primary Resources 

Gazetteer of Historic Mining Sites, Heritage Victoria 

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

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

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

PROV Agency VA 508, Housing Commission of Victoria 

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 

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

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 

Borrie, W, Italians and Germans in Australia: A Study of Assimilation, Australian Nation University, Melbourne, n.d. 

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

Cusack, Frank, Bendigo the German Chapter, German Heritage Society, 1998 

Cusack, Frank, Bendigo: A History. Lerk & McClure, Bendigo, 2002 (rev. ed.) 

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

Oxford University Press, 1999 

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

Dingle, Tony , Miner’s Cottages, in Australian Economic History Review, Blackwell Publishing, 2010 

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

pp.123-235 

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, From St Just to St Just Point, Cornish migration to Victoria, Cornish Studies, 2 nd 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, Senior Lecturer in History, La Trobe University Bendigo, personal communication 



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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 

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

Reminiscence of Long Gully, p. 22 

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

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 boundaries of the precinct area reflect the extent of the workings of the former mines inclusive of 

Victory & Pandora Shaft, Victory Shaft, Bells, Old Carlisle, North Garden Gully United, Pass-by and 

Unity Garden Gully United site Golden Fleece, Central Garden Gully/North Kent, Watson’s 

Kentish/Carlisle United and Carlisle mine site, which were continuously occupied from 1857s through 

to 1927. With a few exceptions of miners’ cottages, the whole area was dug up, turned over, 

excavated, used as storage for tailings, wood and ore bodies prior to cartage, drainage channels, small 

sludge dams, shaft pits and entries, pump houses, chimneys, sheds and batteries. At the closure of the 

mines in 1930s the area was left a wasteland. There was no regeneration of the area, the soils were destable 

and blew away as dust and washed away as sludge. It was only after the Second World War 

that there was a consistent effort to fill in mine shafts, dismantled the massive brick chimneys and 

clean up ready for large government residential development for the disadvantaged such as the public 

housing development (1949) between Duncan, Bennett and Louis Street, age care facilities at the 

corner of Bennet and Buckley Streets, the site of low cost housing services and development of the 

Scope (Vic) Ltd. formerly the Spastic Society of Victoria (1948) in Bennett and Victoria Streets, 

which were constructed on the most accessible of mines sites in areas of the least numbers of shafts. 

The former mine lands remain as important areas of public open space and include the highest 

vantage point located off Bell and Roeder Street, an important look out site with panoramic views 

along the Garden Gully line of reef, Victoria Hill and Hustlers Hill; the former site of Kent mine once 



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the richest mine of the Bendigo field, and a small public park off Duncan Street set between the 

housing commission estate. The development of the area has not been consistent and there is no 

unifying urban principle to the layout and appearance of the place apart from history and the location 

of former mines sites. The visual character of the precinct is made up with disjointed parcels of 

historic mine lands which are overgrown with long grass, peppercorn trees and tufts of pampas grass 

and regrowth ironbark trees. Views to the former mines land, the parcels of vacant Crown Land and 

the landscape setting of the large developments are an important feature of the precinct. The former 

mine sites provide a loose permeable cultural landscape, a setting for the mid 20 th century 

development, itself. These have been designed according to 20 th century planning ideals as pavilions 

in a park land. Except in this case, they have been designed serendipitously, in the middle of mine 

wastelands. The development includes the government low cost housing, particularly the small 

concrete hollow brick buildings that make up the 1949 estate and small children’s public park in the 

northern section of the precinct. The housing commission estate is located opposite the 1950s blond 

brick former Roman Catholic church now converted into a residency and is visually linked to the 

nearby 1950s bus shelters and concrete public benches. 

Statement of Significance 

What is Significant? 

The Carlisle United/Garden heritage precinct is associated with the Garden Gully line of reef mines, 

which were the richest mines in Bendigo. The area is particularly important in the historic 

development of deep lead mines of the central Victorian Bendigo goldfields. It represented the largest 

concentration of deep shafts anywhere in the world at the time and included the wealthiest mines, 

operated by the largest company mines and managed by some of the richest mining magnates of the 

time such as C. Ballerstedt, J.B. Watson, Joseph Bell and George Lansell. 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. 

The Garden Gully line of reef crosses the Ironbark Gully area in a line stretching from Barnard Street 

and Eaglehawk Road to Havilah Street in the north. Within this area the former mines comprises 

Garden Gully United, the Victory & Pandora Shaft, Victory Shaft, Bells, Old Carlisle, North Garden 

Gully United, Passerby, Golden Fleece, Central Garden Gully/North/Kent, Watson’s Kentish/Carlisle 

United Carlisle mines. The Carlisle site was continuously occupied from 1860s onwards through to 

1927 and is now representative of the 1890s mining revival on the Garden Gully line. The company 

which operated this site was the most successful in Bendigo and became Bendigo’s biggest gold 

producer. The mine is now known officially as the Carlisle North Garden Gully and Pass-by United, 

commonly known as the Carlisle. Its marvellous riches were owned by John Boyd Watson. The 

dividends paid by the Garden Gully United made it famous throughout the mining world. Garden 

Gully United site was continuously occupied between 1857 and 1921. Unity was continuously 

occupied between1870-1921. Victory and Pandora Amalgamated was continuously occupied between 

1857 and 1914. 

The goldfields became the engine room of the colony. It stimulated industry in the wider area and the 

economy of a nation. The quartz mining was reliant upon the manufacture, innovation and expansion 



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of the metal trades, blacksmiths, metal foundries and engineering manufacturers producing steam 

machinery, rock borers and drills, air compressors, gears, sand and water pumping gear, cartage, 

winding wheels, crushing batteries, steal housing frames and the like. Long Gully and Ironbark areas 

were the location of some of the earliest blacksmiths and foundries and also the biggest in Bendigo 

and included, Gretex and Moffat in Long Gully, W. Kidd in Ironbark, and in 1872 Osborne & Co., 

and Taylor Horsfield foundry in Long Gully in 1883. During the early 20 th century these industries 

were restructured and much of the skills base shifted to the large government North Bendigo Railway 

workshops that manufactured railway locomotives and carriages for the Victorian Railways. 

Mineralisation within the Bendigo Goldfield is characterised by erratically distributed coarse gold. It 

meant that large crushing ore plants and works were sited close to the mines and resulted in an 

expansive mining landscape of large dusty mullock heaps and tailing dams, interspersed with the 

homes of the miners. 

In addition, the spatial barriers created by large areas of mining and contaminated wastelands 

separated the small pockets of scattered mining settlements from the rest of Bendigo further 

stigmatising the area as a working class suburb for most of the twentieth century. After the major 

decline in mining in the early to mid 2 0th century, these large areas of mining wastelands of sand 

heaps, old sludge dams and cyanide tailing dams remained un-developed, ‘a dry slum’. Attempts at 

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


housing and state government commission housing. 40 

Much of the former mine land 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. 

How is it Significant? 

The, has historic, architectural, scientific and social significance at a local level to the City of 

Bendigo. (Criteria A, B, C, D and H) 

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

1) The cultural landscape of Carlisle United/Garden heritage precinct has historic significance for its 

ability to illustrate the colourful mining history of Garden Gully line of reef mines in the Ironbark 

area. These mines were the some of the wealthiest and deepest quartz mines of Bendigo. Bendigo 

goldfields became one of the world’s great 19 th century goldfields, attracting people from all over 

the world. The Bendigo goldfields was Australia's second largest in terms of historical production 

after Western Australia's Golden Mile (Boulder, Kalgoorlie). 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. 

40 Ibid . 



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2) The cultural landscape of Carlisle United/Garden heritage precinct has historic significance for its 

associated group of early mining cottages that housed the mine workers. The settlement was 

unregulated and developed 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 on leased Crown land. This factor, together with the nature of the reef area created large 

areas of mining and contaminated industrial lands across Long Gully/Ironbark areas that became 

physical barriers that separated early residential areas into small isolated pockets of scattered 

miners’ cottages from the rest of the growing suburbs of Bendigo. 

3) The cultural landscape of Carlisle United/Garden heritage precinct has historic significance as it 

demonstrates the impact of the declining mining industry in the early to mid 20 th century, which 

left large tracks of wastelands of sand heaps, deteriorating equipment, disused shafts, old sludge 

dams and cyanide tailing dams that impacted on the surrounding residential area with dust and 

pollutants. 

4) The cultural landscape of Carlisle United/Garden heritage precinct has historic significance as it 

illustrates changing attitudes towards reclamation of mining wastelands. Attempts at dust 

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


housing and state government commission housing, which were built on vacant land between 

groups of historic miners cottages. 

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

5) The cultural landscape of Carlisle United/Garden heritage precinct is rare as it provides a visual 

corridor of some of the richest former mines land near the centre of Bendigo. 

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

cultural history. 

6) The cultural landscape of Carlisle United/Garden heritage precinct has significance for its 

ability to contribute to an understanding of the gold mining history of Bendigo. There are 

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

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. 

7) The cultural landscape of Carlisle United/Garden heritage precinct has heritage 

significance for the wide range of historic elements including scattered timber miners’ cottages, 

which have collectively retained a high degree of integrity and authenticity. 

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

importance in Victoria’s history. 



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8) The Carlisle United/Garden Gully heritage precinct is particularly associated with John Boyd 

Watson, a mining magnate and investor, who with other mining speculators such as George 

Lansell Ernest Mueller, John Watson, Edward Isaac Dyason, Barnett Lazarus, Carl Roeder and 

the Hunter brothers had a profound impact on the development of deep quartz mining in Bendigo. 

They reaped substantial rewards from the Ironbark quartz reefs and mines located along the 

Garden Gully line of reef but also contributed to the development of Bendigo by funding the 

establishment of hospitals, mining research, Sustentation Funds for mine workers, the 

development of the Bendigo Land and Building Societies, They funded scientific exploration into 

the hinterland of Australia. They commissioned elaborate displays of Bendigo’s mining 

achievements and local Dja Dja Wurrung Indigenous artefacts which were sent to the Great 

Exhibitions of the world such the 1855 and 1878 Paris Exhibition. They built ornate late baroque 

colonial style buildings of great elegance that compare well with the legacy of other colonial 

cities of the world. 

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 Carlisle United / Garden Gully 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’. 

CONTRIBUTORY PLACES WITHIN PRECINCT 3 

HERMES 

Name No. Street Prop No. Suburb 

ID Significance 

House 47 Bennett 179259 Long Gully Local 







Church 1A Buckley 228366 Long Gully Local 

Miner's Cottage 6 Carlisle Pl 181924 Ironbark Local 

House 16 Casley 179567 Ironbark Local 

Miner's Cottage 18 Casley 179568 Ironbark Local 

House 14 Duncan 230111 Long Gully Local 



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House 16 Duncan 179894 Long Gully Local 

House 2 Louis 181103 Long Gully Local 





Miner's Cottage 14 Robinson 181911 Long Gully Local 

Miner's Cottage 23 Victoria 182410 Ironbark Local 

Miner's Cottage 27 Victoria 182414 Ironbark Local 

House 34 Victoria 182418 Ironbark Local 

Miner's Cottage 

Archaeological Sites 

36 Victoria 182419 Ironbark Local 

Mine Site - Garden 27- 

Gully United 

29 Bennett 183484 Ironbark Local 

Mine Site - North 31- 

Carlisle United 

Mine Site - Former 

Carlisle United/Bell 


45 Bennett 179246 Ironbark Local 

34- 

48 

Bennett 182906 Long Gully Local 

Mine Site - Pass by 11 Casley 179555 Long Gully Local 

Mine Site - Victory 38 Victoria 182390 Ironbark Local 

NON CONTRIBUTORY SITES WITHIN PRECINCT 3 

No. Street Prop No. Suburb 

12 Louis 230112 Long Gully 

25 Victoria 182412 Ironbark 

Total Non Contributory Places 2 


Total Contributory Places Precinct 3 28 

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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

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