MARYBOROUGH'S earliest building is an 1844 slab squatter’s hut. Heathcote’s 1861 stone gaol still stands. Carisbrook boasts Victoria’s oldest log jail and the imposing Grand Duke Mine arch still stands in Timor.
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History buffs can see these goldfields treasures and more this month as the region ramps up its love affair with the past for the 2015 National Trust Heritage Festival.
The goldfields shines as the centrepiece of Victoria’s part in the festival, with the bookend cities of Bendigo and Ballarat, and all the smaller towns in between, celebrating all things heritage.
“It’s certainly the hero area for our festival this year and we’ve worked really closely with local councils through the Victorian Goldfields Tourism Executive,” says National Trust senior manager Paul Roser.
“We’re making a big effort to promote the goldfields area, to encourage people to go up there, stay overnight, linger and enjoy everything on offer.” He says the festival is also a chance for goldfields locals to take a fresh look at the heritage assets in their own backyards.
“New stories are being uncovered all the time, giving people new ways to look at familiar places,” he says.
This year’s festival theme is conflict and compassion, with many communities paying homage to their war-time heroes.
Central Goldfields’ Homecoming Exhibition features moving life-sized photographs of local World War I soldiers mounted on walls around the shire. But there’s plenty more reasons to visit those towns this month too. Dunolly will throw open its historic homes and gardens to visitors on May 16 and 17, or tour the town’s historic buildings and cemetery on May 23 and 24.
The 1863 courthouse is mixing business and pleasure, playing host to a stunning quilt display until the end of the month.
Paul says this goldfields town is the perfect example of the festival’s power to promote the state’s smaller historic assets.
He says in 2010 then-Melbourne resident Rachel Buckley visited Dunolly for the first time during the festival, liked what she saw, and bought an 1862 former hotel.
Buckley’s of Dunolly is now a house of theatre and music. This weekend it presents From Dunolly to Gallipoli, songs and stories of the goldfields and tours with local historians.
“The heritage festival is helping bring in people to take an interest in, and sometimes purchase property, in these smaller towns,” Pauls says.
He says when the trust revived the festival in 2010, it featured 80 state-wide events. This year there’s over 300, being directly marketed to 23,000 National Trust members.
See the full program of events right across the region at www.goldfieldsheritage.com.au