THE CAVALCADE OF BALLAARAT By Nathan F.Spielvogel The history of Ballaarat began when Thomas Livingstone Learmonth and a party of young squatters, in April 1837, climbed Mount Buninyong and looked down on the hills and valleys which today form the City. Next year William Cross Yuille and Henry Anderson brought their flocks and formed a sheep station with its headquarters by the dark reedy swamp which is now beautiful Lake Wendouree. An obelisk near the Pleasant Street State School now marks the site of their first camp. Learmonth and Scott took up land near Buninyong, and Waldie and Pettit around Blowhard and Rowan. For the next thirteen years this district was like any out-back of Australia today. Twice every year the bullock waggons travelled to Geelong with supplies of flour, sugar, tea, clothing, tools and other needs of the small community consisting of about seventy families, scattered about and living in bark huts and mud cabins. Buninyong was the centre of the district. Here was Mrs Jamieson's Inn, Campbell and Woolley's General store, the Smith of Scotty McLachlan, and the only church in the district. This was a mud Presbyterian Kirk conducted by the Rev Thomas Hastie, who spent most of his time visiting the neighbouring stations and holding services at the homesteads. In August 1851, Dunlop and Regan discovered gold at Poverty Point in Ballarat East. In a fortnight there were 400 from Melbourne and Geelong, digging for gold around Golden Point, at the foot of Black Hill, and on both sides of the Yarrowee - and finding plenty of it. When the news reached the Old World, tens of thousands of adventurous young men left their homes and set out to seek their fortunes in the golden holes of Ballaarat. By the middle of 1853 there were 20,000 men of all nationalities feverishly at work with pick and spade. In that one year - 1853 - 319,154 ounces of gold worth more than a million pounds, went to Melbourne under Police Escort. During the four following years, 1854 - 1858, more. than 2 1/2 million ounces, worth about 10 million pounds, was taken from Ballaarat in this way, and probably much more was taken away by lucky diggers in their boxes and bags of goldbelts. And just this note in passing - the total amount of gold secured in the Ballaarat district from 1851 till today is more than 21 million ounces, or 643 tons; worth at the present price of gold the enormous amount of $440,000,000. In December 1854, the diggers of Ballaarat rose in rebellion against the Government of Victoria. They were being unjustly treated, and had no redress except by violence. They set up a Republic, under the flag of the Southern Cross, on the slopes of Eureka, with Peter Lalor as their Commander in Chief. There is no space in this brief article to relate the story of the tragic affair at Eureka, further than to relate that on 3rd December, a small army consisting of detachments of the 40th and 12th Regiments of the British Army, together with a number of Police, stormed the Stockade. Twenty-five of the rebel diggers were killed; a large number were more or less seriously wounded; 145 were taken prisoners and subsequently tried because the "Riot Act" had not been read. The soldiers had fired on them without warning and the diggers had only defended themselves when attacked. But, though the diggers were defeated, the people of Melbourne sympathised with them and demanded that the diggers of Ballaarat should be given votes, so that they might elect a member to the Parliament. On October 3rd 1856, the diggers of Ballaarat elected as their representative in Parliament, Peter Lalor, who had led the Rebellion, and who had lost his left arm in that tragic business. Leaving my topic for a moment, I wish to tell that Lalor remained in Parliament till his death in 1886. From 1880 he was the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and on two occasions declined the offer of a Knighthood from the Imperial Government. In the fifties and early sixties, the business part of Ballaarat was in lower Main Road. The block between Eureka and Esmond (now York) Streets, was a very hive of trade. In that one block were sixty shops, twelve hotels, and four large well equipped theatres. Shops and hotels did not close till midnight and the roadway was always crowded with laughing noisy people Early in 1852, the Government sent up Surveyor W H Urquhart to lay out a township. He quickly saw that low-lying Main Road was an unsuitable spot. For a while he considered the high land near the present junction of Humffray and Grant Streets, be he finally decided to get out of the population areas, and lay his township upon the plateau. He meant the new township to go north and south. Lydiard Street was to be the main official street, with public offices, churches, banks and hotels; Armstrong Street was to be the main business street; Doveton Street, the residential street, while cross streets were named Dana, Sturt and Mair Streets. On 5th May 1857, the first municipal Council met at the Golden Fleece Hotel in Lydiard Street, with James Oddie as the first Chairman. A pipe was laid from the Lake. It went underground, along Webster, Drummond and Sturt Street till it came to where the Burke and Wills Monument stands today. Here came the carriers with their water carts which they filled from the stand pipe, and then hawked the water around the Town, selling it at 10 shillings per car load. On 10th June 1858, was found at the corner of Mair and Humffray Streets, at a depth of 180 feet, the "Welcome Nugget", weighing 1/2 cwt. of pure gold, worth a present day value $44,000. Several big disastrous fires - one in 1860 destroyed both sides of the business block between Eureka and York Streets - and frequent destructive flood that inundated Main Road forced the merchants to seek safer areas. They moved their business places to the plateau above Grenville Street. Main Road lost its importance as the shopping centre, and Sturt Street gradually became the place where the business was done. The year 1869 was the time when the mining industry reached its most prosperous point. In that year there were more than 300 mining companies with extensive plants around Ballaarat, giving employment to thousands of miners and supporting some seventy sharebrokers, buying and selling shares for their speculating clients. The population of Ballaarat was more than 60,000. In 1870 the bottom fell out of the mining industry. The drop in the value of Ballaarat mining share was equal to half of all the revenue of the Government of Victoria. Hundreds of citizens were ruined. Many of the mines were closed down. So many of the miners left for other goldfields that the population dropped nearly 50%. It looked as if Ballaarat was doomed to suffer the fate of so many of the other once prosperous mining towns. But Ballaarat had citizens of vision and courage. They set to work to promote new industries, chief of which were the Phoenix Foundry and the Sunnywide Woollen Mills. These gave work to many men, and though Ballaarat was hit badly by the slump, the city was able to keep fairly prosperous In 1871, Ballaarat was gazetted a City, and the City Hall was completed, though it took ten years to finish. In the late seventies the City Council was in sore financial difficulties. The overdraft was about 50,000. The bank was pressing. All sorts of economics were practised. The clock at the City Hall was not lit at night, and many of the street lamps were put out of action. These, with a reduced works programme, enabled the Council to weather the threat of insolvency. Early in 1858, the Municipal Council engaged George Longley to make a Botanical Gardens on the west side of Lake Wendouree. He stayed there for 40 years. His work was well carried on by his successors, Lingham, Rooney, Toop and Beaumont. Our Gardens form the great attraction of our City. Till 1887, the centre of wide Sturt Street was occupied by two lines of tall blue gums beautiful to see, but making the street dark, dull and damp in winter time. In that year, Mayor T H Thompson, despite much opposition, had the gums uprooted and their places taken by oaks and elms. Then in 1896, Mayor C C Shoppee made a flower garden in the centre of the street between Armstrong and Doveton Streets. The people owning shops in other parts of Sturt Street got to work and with the help of Mr Arthur Farrer, gradually built up the "floral way" of which Ballaarat folk are so proud today. Back in 1857, a rival Municipal Council was formed in Ballaarat East. Many thinking citizens saw what a mistake it was to have two Municipalities separated by only a creek, and these tried hard to bring the two together. But though the City was already ready, the East Council bitterly opposed it. No less than four times the ratepayers of Ballaarat East were asked to vote at a poll on the subject, and each time it was rejected by a large majority. But the 1914-18 War brought the two Councils into more friendly relations. In 1921, another poll was taken and this time it was carried by 708 to 616 votes. On 15th May 1921, the Governor of Victoria performed the ceremony and since them Ballaarat has been one City. The old enmity between the "Township" and the "Flat" had died away, and every part of the City has benefited by the amalgamation.