The town,& 36km N of Ballarat,& has several National Trust-classified bluestone buildings,& and the verandahed elegance of Fraser St is worth noting. Surrounding the town are a number of extinct volcanoes,& and a good view of these can be obtained about 3km S,& on the road to Ballarat. During Nov: Agricultural Show.
Main street of Clunes
History
Main street of Clunes
The town was home to Victoria’s first registered gold discovery made by James Esmond. His discovery, first published in the Geelong Advertiser on 7 July 1851 triggered the first gold rush in Victoria. The township was established a few years later and subsequent gold mining, predominantly driven by the Port Phillip and Colonial Mining Company saw the town’s population rising to well over 6,000 residents in the late 1880s.
Clunes post office opened as early as 1 October 1857 and in 1874 Clunes was connected to the Victorian railway network. Clunes station , featuring in the movie ‘Mad Max’, was opened in the same year.
In 1873 mine employers attempted to introduce Saturday afternoon and Sunday shifts. The miners refused to sign the new terms outlined in their contract renewals and went on strike. Some days into the action the miners organised the Clunes Miners’ Association and what were to become known as the Clunes Riots, successfully resisting the use of foreign labour as strikebreakers. The Clunes Miners’ Association is one of the earliest antecedents of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
From the 1850s through to 1893, when gold mining eventually came to an end, Clunes was an important gold production location in Victoria. During this period gold in excess of 1.2 million oz. was produced at Clunes. Surrounded by grassland, meadows and pastures, the town has preserved many of its elegant historic buildings until today and is recognised as one of the architecturally most intact gold towns in Victoria.
Wesley College campus
In recent years Clunes has undergone a noticeable transformation and rejuvenation[4] following the decision by Wesley College, Australia‘s largest co-educational private school, to establish a campus for Year 9 students in the town. Opened in 2000, about 80 students take up residency in the Wesley Clunes Residential Learning Village in the centre of town and become part of the local community for an eight-week period each term.
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