Brief History of Heathcote
At the foot of Mt Ida, Heathcote is situated amidst a National Park and State Forests beside McIvor Creek. 109 kms north of Melbourne via Northen Highway, it is a convenient distance from Bendigo and Echuca, 220 metres above sea level. The district population is approx. 3500.
Heathcote is clustered around High Street which presents an interesting and diverse streetscape of old shopfronts, hotels, churches, some distinguished homes and the post office. The trees that line the main street and the plantation at Queen Meadow were planted in the 19th century on the advice of Baron Von Mueller who made a significant contribution to Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens.
A number of prehistoric quarry sites have been found at Mt Camel Range, north of Heathcote, providing evidence of ancient Aboriginal associations with the land. It is clearly evident that the Wuywurrung People inhabited the district well before European settlement.
The first Europeans in the area was the exploration party of Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836. Mitchell named the McIvor creek after a member of his party and this title was later applied to the Shire.
Pastoralists soon moved into the area and a track with a couple of roadside inns, developed through what would later become the townsite. Produce was carted along this route to and from the northern sheep stations.
However, the town itself developed on the back of a series of gold rushes along McIvor Creek commencing in 1851. One of the major strikes (1852) was a Golden Gully, behind the old courthouse. By 1855, the alluvial gold was running out and reef mining commenced. Consequently, the population dropped to about 6,000 by 1860 as ex-miners took up land or began timber cutting in the forests - an industry much aided by the arrival of the railway around 1890.
At the peak of the gold rushes there were up to 35,000 people, largely housed in tents and shanties on the fields. 3,000 Chinese walked to the digging from Robe in South Australia where they had disembarked to avoid paying a tax levied upon Chinese disembarking in Victoria. There were at least 3 breweries; 22 hotels; 2 flour mills, reflecting the emergence of wheat growing in the district; a bacon factory, hospital, banks and several wineries.
The town was apparently named by Lord Heathcote, not in honor of himself, but because of the quantities of heath growing in the district - if that is plausible.
Although the population remained steady until 1880’s, it was down to 1,090 by 1891 as gold reserves dwindled. Other local mining communities were Balmoral (now known as Redcastle) which reputedly had 17,000 people but ceased to exist when mining ended around 1910. Costerfield once employed 700 men and closed in 1925 - it once produced 92% of the state’s antimony. Graytown was reported to have had 30,000 on its fields, but that was short lived.
Click here to view the brochure of 'A Historic Walk Around Heathcote'.
For more information, please contact the Heathcote Visitor Information Centre or Heathcote & McIvor Historical Society.