Avoca, Victoria
Encyclopedia
Avoca is a town in the Central Highlands of Victoria
, Australia
, 71 kilometres (44.1 mi) north west of Ballarat
. It is one of two main towns in the Pyrenees Shire
, the other being Beaufort
to the south. At the 2006 census
, Avoca had a population of 951.
, which rises in the Pyrenees Ranges
to the west. To the south, the region is bounded by low hills of the Great Dividing Range
; eastwards, the basin ends in a dry forested rise; to the north the Avoca River runs slowly through the plains of the Wimmera
before petering out in swamps near the Murray
. The town and river were named after Avoca
, the village and River Avoca
in County Wicklow
, Ireland
.
The region takes in an area of about 200 square kilometres (77.2 sq mi), and includes the villages of Redbank, Natte Yallock, Rathscar, Bung Bong
, Lamplough
, Amphitheatre
, Percydale, Moonambel, and Warrenmang. A few miles to the northeast, bare paddocks mark the site of Homebush
, once a flourishing mining village.
Avoca has many small businesses servicing the local community including 2 pubs, several cafes, a chemist, convenience store, 2 butchers, a supermarket, its own newspaper (Pyrenees Advocate) and a community bank. Its local business group has worked hard to gain new residents and businesses over recent years, with their efforts starting to pay off.
".
The Blood Hole massacre
occurred at Middle Creek, near Moonambel north of Avoca, at the end of 1839 or early 1840 killing an unknown number of Dja Dja Wurrung
people.
By 1850
there were several large sheep runs, and pastoral settlement was well established.
Like Ballarat and many other Victorian towns, Avoca sprang into being suddenly in the 1850s with the discovery of gold. Gold was first found in Victoria in 1849 in the Pyrenees Ranges near Avoca. But it was not for another two years that the first discovery of any importance took place. In 1851 a shepherd called James Esmond
found gold at Clunes
, forty kilometres from present-day Avoca, setting off a gold rush
to the region. In 1853 gold was found at Four Mile Flat, near Avoca, and the main lead at Avoca itself was opened up a few months later. By the beginning of December 1853, the population had increased from 100 to 2,200, and by June the following year, Avoca, with a population of 16,000, was regarded as one of Victoria's more important gold rush districts.
With a Court, a police station, Post Office (opened 1 September 1854), gold wardens, churches, and schools, Avoca had established itself as an administrative centre. This was a crucial development in its survival as a town, for when the gold miners left their Avoca claims to travel to the new Dunolly
rush in 1856, Avoca continued to serve as the focus of the region's commercial and administrative life. With the Lamplough
rush in 1859, miners returned to the Avoca district, and in that year rich deposits were also opened up at Homebush
, established on the site of the 1853 Four Mile Flat rush. This discovery brought renewed activity to the district. The value of gold mining to the economy of the area may be seen in a single statistic: from 1859 to 1870 gold worth £2,500,000 was sent from Avoca to Melbourne. (Even this huge sum may represent as little as one third of the gold won, for private sales were not included.)
Across Australia rural productivity was rising, partly through the development of agricultural machinery by implement makers such as Mackay and Shearer. Some rural areas in 1901 recorded five times the harvest yields of the 1890s, at a small fraction of the cost.
In the first decade of the twentieth century Avoca's infrastructure was further developed. More and better roads were being built, the Shire Engineer attributed the problem of bad roads to heavier traffic from increased cultivation of land and more produce brought to market. In 1911 a new reservoir was opened, and in the same year the district was linked to the rest of the State by telephone.
In the late twentieth century viticulture was re-established and wine and tourism are now of significant economic importance to the region. Avoca is regarded as the gateway to the Pyrenees wine region.
often features on souvenirs of Avoca and could be said to be the symbol of the town.
The memorial was built in 1921. Since early in the First World War there had been a desire in the community to honour the men from the district who had enlisted. Finally in 1920 it was decided to hold a "Back to Avoca" celebration the next year and for the memorial to be opened at this time.
The memorial cost £1,100. Most monuments in Victoria and New South Wales cost between £100 and £1000, one in five between £1000 and £2000, and a few more than that. (It has been estimated that £100 in the 1920s was roughly equivalent to A$
8000 in 1998.) Avoca, too small to be allocated a gun for a war trophy, built a monument on a scale suitable for the largest twenty per cent of communities. Having not built a band rotunda to date, it appears that the community may have used the opportunity of erecting the memorial to overcome this deficiency in the town's furnishings.
The Avoca memorial, which was initially conceived as a band rotunda, is an irregular octagon with eight piers carrying a roof obscured by a parapet. A frieze above the columns contains the names of the main areas where volunteers from Avoca fought: Gallipoli
, France, Palestine and Belgium. Low walls on four sides each have a soldier's helmet and pack sculptured in high relief. The entrances on the other sides are guarded by free-standing granite tablets, inscribed with the names of soldiers from the district who fought in the First World War. The tablet on the northern side of the memorial records the names of those who died. The memorial is based on a classical model but with few references to classical detailing.
team competing in the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football League
, the Avoca Bulldogs have been in the league for several years.
Avoca has a horse racing club, the Avoca Shire Turf Club, which has just been awarded a a third race meeting in December to augment the two well established meetings a year; the ANZAC Races on Anzac Day
every year and The Avoca Cup meeting in October.
Golfers play at the Avoca Golf Club on Davey Street.
Avoca has had a number of A.F.L. players over the years. The town has one current player, Darren Jolly
now playing at Collingwood Football Club
recruited from the Sydney Swans
at the end of the 2009 AFL season.
and the Pyrenees Highway
.
It was once served by a railway station, until it was closed in 1979. In 1995 the railway from Ararat to Maryborough was closed for conversion to standard gauge. The railway hasn't seen any freight traffic since 2005.
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, 71 kilometres (44.1 mi) north west of Ballarat
Ballarat, Victoria
Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...
. It is one of two main towns in the Pyrenees Shire
Pyrenees Shire
Pyrenees Shire is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia. It is located in the western part of the state. It includes the towns of Avoca and Beaufort. It was formed in 1994 from the merger of the Shire of Avoca, Shire of Lexton and Shire of Ripon...
, the other being Beaufort
Beaufort, Victoria
Beaufort is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Western Highway midway between Ararat and Ballarat, in the Pyrenees Shire local government area. It is 387 metres above sea level. At the 2001 census, Beaufort had a population of 987...
to the south. At the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
, Avoca had a population of 951.
Geography
The town stands in the gently undulating basin of the Avoca RiverAvoca River
The Avoca River drains a substantial part of Victoria, the southernmost state of mainland Australia. The river rises at the foot of Mount Lonarch in the Central Highlands near the small town of Amphitheatre, and flows north for 270 km through Avoca, Charlton and Quambatook...
, which rises in the Pyrenees Ranges
Pyrenees (Victoria)
The Pyrenees is a wine region centred on the Pyrenees ranges located in Victoria, Australia near the town of Avoca.The altitude of the ranges is 300 to over 750 m...
to the west. To the south, the region is bounded by low hills of the Great Dividing Range
Great Dividing Range
The Great Dividing Range, or the Eastern Highlands, is Australia's most substantial mountain range and the third longest in the world. The range stretches more than 3,500 km from Dauan Island off the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through...
; eastwards, the basin ends in a dry forested rise; to the north the Avoca River runs slowly through the plains of the Wimmera
Wimmera
The Wimmera is a region in the west of the Australian state of Victoria.It covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Australia border and north of the Great Dividing Range...
before petering out in swamps near the Murray
Murray River
The Murray River is Australia's longest river. At in length, the Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains and, for most of its length, meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between New South Wales and Victoria as it...
. The town and river were named after Avoca
Avoca, County Wicklow
Avoca is a small town near Arklow, in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is situated on the River Avoca.The Avoca area has been associated with its famous copper mines for many years and the valley has been immortalised by Thomas Moore in the famous song The Meeting of the Waters...
, the village and River Avoca
River Avoca
The Avoca is a river in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is contained completely within the county.The Avoca starts life as two rivers, the Avonmore and the Avonbeg...
in County Wicklow
County Wicklow
County Wicklow is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wicklow, which derives from the Old Norse name Víkingalág or Wykynlo. Wicklow County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
.
The region takes in an area of about 200 square kilometres (77.2 sq mi), and includes the villages of Redbank, Natte Yallock, Rathscar, Bung Bong
Bung Bong, Victoria
Bung Bong is a town in Victoria near the rural towns of Avoca and Maryborough. It is divided in half with one half in Pyrenees Shire and the other half in Shire of Central Goldfields...
, Lamplough
Lamplough, Victoria
Lamplough is a locality near Avoca, Victoria in Australia. It was the site of a gold rush from November 1859 and up to 16,000 people were on the site...
, Amphitheatre
Amphitheatre, Victoria
Amphitheatre is a small town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Pyrenees Highway in the Pyrenees Shire, south-west of Avoca. At the 2006 census, Amphitheatre and the surrounding area had a population of 291....
, Percydale, Moonambel, and Warrenmang. A few miles to the northeast, bare paddocks mark the site of Homebush
Homebush, Victoria
Homebush was a goldmining town from Avoca in central Victoria, Australia. The locality is within the Pyrenees Shire.First settled in 1853 after a rush to a rich claim nearby, the town reached the height of its prosperity in the 1880s. But Homebush owed its existence entirely to the mines: when the...
, once a flourishing mining village.
Avoca has many small businesses servicing the local community including 2 pubs, several cafes, a chemist, convenience store, 2 butchers, a supermarket, its own newspaper (Pyrenees Advocate) and a community bank. Its local business group has worked hard to gain new residents and businesses over recent years, with their efforts starting to pay off.
Early settlement and the gold rush
The explorer and surveyor Thomas Mitchell was the first European recorded to have travelled through the Avoca district. He found the area more temperate in climate and better watered than inland New South Wales, and he encouraged settlers to take up land in what he described as "Australia FelixAustralia Felix
On this expedition Mitchell was instructed to travel to Menindee, then down the Darling River to the sea, if it flowed there; or, if it flowed into the Murray River to go up the Murray to the inhabited parts of the colony....
".
The Blood Hole massacre
Blood Hole massacre
The Blood Hole massacre occurred at Middle Creek 6 – 7 miles from Glengower Station between Clunes and Newstead at the end of 1839 or early 1840 killing an unknown number of Aborigines from the Grampians district who were on their way home after trading goods for green stone axe blanks which they...
occurred at Middle Creek, near Moonambel north of Avoca, at the end of 1839 or early 1840 killing an unknown number of Dja Dja Wurrung
Dja Dja Wurrung
Dja Dja Wurrung, also known as the Jaara people and Loddon River tribe, is a native Aboriginal tribe which occupied the watersheds of the Loddon and Avoca Rivers in the Bendigo region of central Victoria, Australia. They were part of the Kulin alliance of tribes. There were 16 clans, which adhered...
people.
By 1850
1850 in Australia
See also:1849 in Australia,other events of 1850,1851 in Australia and theTimeline of Australian history.-Governors:Governors of the Australian colonies:*Governor of New South Wales - Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy...
there were several large sheep runs, and pastoral settlement was well established.
Like Ballarat and many other Victorian towns, Avoca sprang into being suddenly in the 1850s with the discovery of gold. Gold was first found in Victoria in 1849 in the Pyrenees Ranges near Avoca. But it was not for another two years that the first discovery of any importance took place. In 1851 a shepherd called James Esmond
James Esmond
James William Esmond , was an Irish-Australian gold prospector and miner, and was one of the first people to discover gold in Australia.-Early life:...
found gold at Clunes
Clunes, Victoria
Clunes is a town in Victoria, Australia, located 36 kilometres north of Ballarat, in the Shire of Hepburn. At the 2006 census it had a population of 1,026.- History :...
, forty kilometres from present-day Avoca, setting off a gold rush
Victorian gold rush
The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...
to the region. In 1853 gold was found at Four Mile Flat, near Avoca, and the main lead at Avoca itself was opened up a few months later. By the beginning of December 1853, the population had increased from 100 to 2,200, and by June the following year, Avoca, with a population of 16,000, was regarded as one of Victoria's more important gold rush districts.
With a Court, a police station, Post Office (opened 1 September 1854), gold wardens, churches, and schools, Avoca had established itself as an administrative centre. This was a crucial development in its survival as a town, for when the gold miners left their Avoca claims to travel to the new Dunolly
Dunolly, Victoria
Dunolly is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Dunolly - Maryborough Road, in the Shire of Central Goldfields. At the 2006 census, Dunolly had a population of 969....
rush in 1856, Avoca continued to serve as the focus of the region's commercial and administrative life. With the Lamplough
Lamplough, Victoria
Lamplough is a locality near Avoca, Victoria in Australia. It was the site of a gold rush from November 1859 and up to 16,000 people were on the site...
rush in 1859, miners returned to the Avoca district, and in that year rich deposits were also opened up at Homebush
Homebush, Victoria
Homebush was a goldmining town from Avoca in central Victoria, Australia. The locality is within the Pyrenees Shire.First settled in 1853 after a rush to a rich claim nearby, the town reached the height of its prosperity in the 1880s. But Homebush owed its existence entirely to the mines: when the...
, established on the site of the 1853 Four Mile Flat rush. This discovery brought renewed activity to the district. The value of gold mining to the economy of the area may be seen in a single statistic: from 1859 to 1870 gold worth £2,500,000 was sent from Avoca to Melbourne. (Even this huge sum may represent as little as one third of the gold won, for private sales were not included.)
From mining to agriculture and pastoralism
Avoca's economic basis was shifting rapidly from gold mining to agriculture. Many of the miners who had rushed the area in the 1850s and early 1860s settled and took up land. The big pastoral runs that had existed before the rushes were broken up for closer settlement. Mining continued to be an important source of employment, but for the last decades of the nineteenth century most miners no longer worked individually or in small teams but for larger companies working deep leads. Homebush, about ten kilometres from Avoca, was based almost entirely on company mines and flourished for several decades before these mines became uneconomical. Rural Victoria was hit particularly by the depression and drought of the 1890s. From 1895 the larger mines in the Avoca district closed and at the outbreak of World War I very few companies were still in operation.Across Australia rural productivity was rising, partly through the development of agricultural machinery by implement makers such as Mackay and Shearer. Some rural areas in 1901 recorded five times the harvest yields of the 1890s, at a small fraction of the cost.
In the first decade of the twentieth century Avoca's infrastructure was further developed. More and better roads were being built, the Shire Engineer attributed the problem of bad roads to heavier traffic from increased cultivation of land and more produce brought to market. In 1911 a new reservoir was opened, and in the same year the district was linked to the rest of the State by telephone.
In the late twentieth century viticulture was re-established and wine and tourism are now of significant economic importance to the region. Avoca is regarded as the gateway to the Pyrenees wine region.
Avoca Soldiers' Memorial
The Avoca Soldiers' Memorial is prominent in the park in the centre of the High Street. The war memorialWar memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...
often features on souvenirs of Avoca and could be said to be the symbol of the town.
The memorial was built in 1921. Since early in the First World War there had been a desire in the community to honour the men from the district who had enlisted. Finally in 1920 it was decided to hold a "Back to Avoca" celebration the next year and for the memorial to be opened at this time.
The memorial cost £1,100. Most monuments in Victoria and New South Wales cost between £100 and £1000, one in five between £1000 and £2000, and a few more than that. (It has been estimated that £100 in the 1920s was roughly equivalent to A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
8000 in 1998.) Avoca, too small to be allocated a gun for a war trophy, built a monument on a scale suitable for the largest twenty per cent of communities. Having not built a band rotunda to date, it appears that the community may have used the opportunity of erecting the memorial to overcome this deficiency in the town's furnishings.
The Avoca memorial, which was initially conceived as a band rotunda, is an irregular octagon with eight piers carrying a roof obscured by a parapet. A frieze above the columns contains the names of the main areas where volunteers from Avoca fought: Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
, France, Palestine and Belgium. Low walls on four sides each have a soldier's helmet and pack sculptured in high relief. The entrances on the other sides are guarded by free-standing granite tablets, inscribed with the names of soldiers from the district who fought in the First World War. The tablet on the northern side of the memorial records the names of those who died. The memorial is based on a classical model but with few references to classical detailing.
Sport
The town has an Australian rules footballAustralian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
team competing in the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football League
Maryborough Castlemaine District Football League
The Maryborough Castlemaine District Football League is an Australian rules football league based in central Victoria. This is a minor league with clubs coming from towns near the regional centres of Maryborough, and Castlemaine.-History:...
, the Avoca Bulldogs have been in the league for several years.
Avoca has a horse racing club, the Avoca Shire Turf Club, which has just been awarded a a third race meeting in December to augment the two well established meetings a year; the ANZAC Races on Anzac Day
ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...
every year and The Avoca Cup meeting in October.
Golfers play at the Avoca Golf Club on Davey Street.
Avoca has had a number of A.F.L. players over the years. The town has one current player, Darren Jolly
Darren Jolly
Darren Jolly is a professional Australian rules football player currently playing for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League . Jolly has previously played for Melbourne, the Sydney Swans...
now playing at Collingwood Football Club
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
recruited from the Sydney Swans
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
at the end of the 2009 AFL season.
Transport
The town is located on the Sunraysia HighwaySunraysia Highway
The Sunraysia Highway , is a important north-south route in western Victoria. The highway extends north a length of 331 km from the Western Highway near Ballarat to the Calder Highway near Ouyen....
and the Pyrenees Highway
Pyrenees Highway
Pyrenees Highway in western Victoria, Australia is a 206 kilometre highway serving to link the Calder Highway in Elphinstone with the Glenelg Highway in Glenthompson...
.
It was once served by a railway station, until it was closed in 1979. In 1995 the railway from Ararat to Maryborough was closed for conversion to standard gauge. The railway hasn't seen any freight traffic since 2005.