Art Treasures of Kinloch Castle

AUSTRALIA WOOLLOOMANATA / BALLARAT / MELBOURNE
GEORGE BULLOUGH - WORLD TOUR 1892-1895

(Article 15 of 28 * Time of visit April 1893)

Written from first-hand research by George W. Randall, Co-founder in 1996 and former Vice Chairman of Kinloch Castle Friends' Association and illustrated with images from his archived copies of Bullough's photograph albums in the library at Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, Scotland, (built 1897-1900), the Highland home of Sir George Bullough, Baronet.

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GENERAL VIEW OF BALLARAT
Album VII * Image 13 * Edited from size 7½ x 4½ inches * Original No. 534
(George W. Randall Research and Photographic Archive).

Extensive mine workings, winding-gear, spoil heaps and tall smoking chimneys of

quartz roasting furnaces are visible along the sky-line.

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In April 1893 George Bullough and Robert Mitchell obtained permission to descend

2,000 feet into the Star of the East Quartz Mine at Sebastopol near Ballarat.

Opened in 1880 the mine closed in 1910 after reaching a depth of 3,172 feet and

yielding over 63,500-lbs. (28 tons) of gold at the rate of two ounces of gold per ton of spoil.

A ratio of 17,920 to 1 or 1,120-lbs spoil to 1 ounce of gold. SEE NOTE 4.

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BALLARAT, Victoria, Australia, lies at the foothills of the Great Dividing Range,

sixty-six miles north-west of Melbourne and 1½ miles from Lake Wendouree.

Here, in 1837 William Yuille with half-a-dozen other Scottish settlers,

escaping severe drought, found relief for their flocks and squatted on a 10,000 acre sheep run.

At the time Wendouree was a shallow, reedy swamp teeming with wildlife,

the area being home to the native Wathaurong Aborigine.

On the 18^th of August 1851 gold was discovered, the Ballarat Gold Boom began.

Water, or lack of it, soon became a problem.

It was solved by constructing a dam, raised several times to meet ever increasing demand,
turning the swamp into what is today a 600 acre lake.

An underground pipe was laid in 1858 to Ballarat water works located in
Sturt Street, opposite the Town Hall.

Three years later the fledgling Government of Victoria purchased Kirk’s Reservoir

from John Kirk allowing the construction of Dean’s Reservoir to further

supplement Ballarat’s water supply thereby laying the foundation

of today’s distribution system and the third largest inland city in Australia
with a population exceeding 100,000.

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By 1887 the former Wendouree Swamp had become not only a reliable source of
drinking water for Ballarat but an established sailing and pleasure lake. (F. W. Niven & Co,)
From: History of Ballarat - William Bramwell Withers 1887.

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GENERAL VIEW OF BALLARAT
Album VII * Image 13 * Size 7½ x 4½ inches * Original No. 534
(George W. Randall Research and Photographic Archive)

The business premises lower left are those of F. H. Taylor, & Co., Tobacconists.
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STURT STREET BALLARAT - FULL LENGTH FROM BRIDGE STREET
Album VII * Image 14 * Edited from size 7½ x 4½ inches * Original No. 5?
(George W. Randall Research and Photographic Archive)

As one views “the magnificent width of Sturt Street, with the avenues of trees planted
along the centre, the public buildings, banks and churches, (one is) possessed
with astonishment that this is a mining town.” (Australia and Oceania - A. J. Herbertson 1903)

Harrow educated Captain Charles Napier Sturt (born in India 1796 died England in 1869)

was a British explorer of Australia who led a number of expeditions into the interior tracing several of the westward-flowing rivers in the belief they flowed into an “inland sea”.

Previously, as a military officer he served in the Peninsular War and against the

Americans in Canada. In 1827 he escorted a shipload of convicts to New South Wales

arriving in Sydney on the 23^rd of May.

His application for the Governorship of Victoria in 1855 and Queensland the

following year were unsuccessful. Poor health, particularly with his eyesight,

forced his return to England where he died unexpectedly on the 16^th of June 1869
aged seventy-four. He is commemorated in a number of Australian city suburbs,
Sturt Street, Ballarat and numerous campuses of Charles Sturt University.

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THE MEMORIAL EUREKA STOCKADE ERECTED c1870

THE FAMOUS “EUREKA STOCKADE”

BALLARAT DECEMBER 1854

Album VII * Image 15 * Size 8 x 4¼ inches
Original by Charles Rudd, Melbourne - No. 536
(George W. Randall Research and Photographic Archive)

THE STOCKADE IN CHARLES RUDD’S PHOTOGRAPH

This Tablet commemorating all those who lost
their lives was unveiled in 1923.
monumentaustralia.org.au

is in fact a Memorial dedicated to the miners and soldiers who took part in the actual events

in December 1854, the original hastily constructed wooden stockade was destroyed at the time.

The eight sided Memorial was funded by Ballarat East Council in 1869 and the

Eureka Stockade Memorial Committee.

A tablet commemorating all those who lost their lives was unveiled in December 1923.

The Memorial consists of two tiered turrets of solid masonry built upon an earthen mount,

each accessed by a flights of steps.
A needle monolith
is raised in the centre bearing the words:

Eureka Stockade Sunday Morning

December 3^rd 1854.

A single cannon, donated by the Government,
is placed at each of the four corner points
on the lower turret.

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The alluvial gold fields around Ballarat were the richest ever

leading to a huge influx of immigrants. These prospectors, “diggers” as they were known, were required to obtain licences which cost 30/- (thirty shillings i.e. £1½ at the time) per month!*

This was an enormous outlay before work even started. Consequently many diggers did not get licences risking being caught by the Goldfield Police, who were known as “traps” or “joes”.

Those caught without documentation were punished, more often by being tied to a
tree overnight. This naturally led to unrest culminating in violent and armed conflict
at Ballarat on the 3^rd of December 1854 between gold miners and the military.

The miners, whose leaders included men from England, Ireland, Wales and Germany,

felt the police were overzealous in their attempts to ensure all prospectors had a licence to dig,

and, when prosecuted they were not getting justice in the courts.

Adopting the sign of the Southern Cross on a blue background as their flag emblem,

they built a flimsy wooden structure comprising mining timbers at Eureka,

historically known as the Eureka Stockade, as a means of peaceful protest.

Confrontation came to a head at 3am on the morning of Sunday, 3^rd December 1854

when the 150 miners on duty in the stockade were attacked by 280 soldiers and police.

Victory for the miners.
History of Ballarat -
William B. Withers 1887

The fiery battle lasted barely twenty minutes after which

twenty-two miners and six government men were dead.

Some of the miners were tried for treason in Melbourne,

but a sympathetic jury refused to convict.

Reforms were instituted and the licensing system abolished.

Miners won their democratic rights in the

State Parliament by Charter in 1855 ensuring the Eureka Stockade
incident gained a place in Australian political folklore.

* This was raised to £2 then £3 per month before being reduced to £1½ and finally abolished.
See Notes 4, 5 and 6.

** The original photograph of the Eureka Stockade was taken by C. Rudd, Photo Artist,
151 (late 102) Bourke Street East, Melbourne and photographed on Baker’s “AUSTRAL” Plates.
C. Rudd’s New Views of Australia – Ballarat Series. Charles Rudd 1849 - 1901