Tag:historic
The historic town of Queenscliff is situated on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula 90 minutes from Melbourne. Nearby is Point Lonsdale (and a third lighthouse). Surrounded on three sides by water, Queenscliff is a popular seaside resort. It is known for its Victorian-era heritage-listed buildings and two lighthouses.
History
In January 1802, the first European explorers arrived with Lieutenant John Murray. This was followed by Captain Matthew Flinders in April. The first European settler was escaped convict William Buckley in 1803. Buckley briefly lived in a cave with local aborigines at Point Lonsdale, above which the lighthouse was later built. In 1836, permanent settlement began with the arrival of squatters. The area was then named Shortlands Bluff in honour of Lieutenant John Shortland who had assisted in the surveying of Port Phillip. In 1853 Lieutenant Charles La Trobe renamed the area Queenscliff in honour of Queen Victoria.
Originally a fishing village, Queenscliff evolved into a major cargo port servicing steamships trading in Port Phillip Bay. In 1841, a shipping pilot service was established to lead the boats through the treacherous rip that runs through Port Phillip Heads.
The Notorious Rip
The ‘rip’, also known as “The Heads”, is a narrow waterway connecting Bass Strait to Port Phillip Bay and is the only maritime route providing access to Port Phillip Bay. While the entrance between Point Lonsdale and Point Nepean is 3.5km wide, protruding reefs reduce the shipping channel to only 1km wide. In addition, large tides flow through the narrow channel from the bay to the ocean; this, coupled with the high rocky sea bed, puts it on the list of one of the ten most treacherous navigatable passages in the world. It’s a passage that has claimed many ships and lives. As a result, two lighthouses were added at Queenscliff in 1862-63, the High Light and Low light, with the Pt Lonsdale Lighthouse and foghorn added in 1867.
Lighthouses
The High Light, also known as the Black Lighthouse, is situated on the grounds of Fort Queenscliff. It is one of only three black lighthouses in the world and the only one in the Southern Hemisphere. The Low Light – a White lighthouse stands at the entrance to Port Phillip from Bass Strait, overlooking the ‘rip’. On either side of the White Lighthouse are two skeletal towers showing red and green lights that blink in unison, defining the correct course through the Rip.
Tourist Boom and Decline
In the late 19th century, Queenscliff boomed with visitors arriving from Melbourne after a two-hour paddle steamer journey. The railway line opened in 1879, bringing more tourists, and numerous luxury hotels sprung up to accommodate the influx of visitors. However, with the advent of the car, Queenscliff entered its decline, as tourists could now drive themselves anywhere within the state and were no longer reliant on Queenscliff as a transport hub. As a result, the railway ceased weekly passenger services in 1950. Instead, the train now operates passenger service between Queenscliff and Drysdale, with diesel and steam trains for the Blues Train, Day Out With Thomas Weekends, Santa Trains and Charter Experiences.
Revival
In the 1980’s tourism again turned its sights to Queenscliff. As there is no bridge connecting both sides of the bay, in 1987, the first Searoad ferry carrying 35 cars and passengers connected Sorrento with Queenscliff. This turned a 211km/3hr drive into a one-hour sea road in comfort. In 1993 a larger ferry, the M.V Queenscliff, commenced service, doubling the vehicle capacity and providing greater comfort for passengers. Searoad Ferries now run two ferries on an hourly service from Queenscliff to Sorrento, with a ferry leaving each side on the hour and passing each other in the bay.
Heritage Buildings
Listed on the Victorian Heritage Register are the following Queenscliff buildings:
- Fishermans Shed – I Weeroona Parade and 2 Wharf St
- Lathamstowe – built as a sanatorium for the Anglican Clergy
- Ozone Hotel, 42 Gellibrand Street – now converted to apartments
- Pilots cottages – 60-62 Gellibrand Street – built in 1854 for the sea pilots of Port Phillip
- Queenscliff Hotel – 16 Gellibrand Street
- Wreck Bell, Corner of Gellibrand and Wharf Streets
- Fort Queenscliffe Museum, Cnr of King and Gellibrand Streets
- Queenscliff Pier and Lifeboat Complex, Symonds Street,
- Queenscliff Railway Station – 20 Symonds Street
- Rosenfeld, 26 King Street,
- Roseville Cottage, 42 Mercer Street,
- Warringah, 80 Mercer Street
- St George the Martyr Church and Parish Hall, 16-26 Hobson Street
Seven km south of Rushworth and ten km south-west of the Waranga Basin reservoir lies the abandoned gold mining town of Whroo. The name is pronounced ‘roo’ and comes from an Aboriginal word meaning lips. The town is completely gone with little evidence of its existence, save for Whroo cemetery. The final resting place of 400 of the town inhabitants. Whroo is abandoned but not forgotten as the Whroo Cemetery trust works to restore the graves.
Gold!
In October 1854, the year after Rushworth, two sailors, John Thomas Lewis and James Meek Nickinson discovered gold at Whroo on Balaclava Hill. Balaclava Hill was a rich field and was later mined by open cut. The call of gold brought thousands of miners to Whroo; however, the population had shrunk to around 450 by 1858.
By 1865 Whroo had a flourishing gold mining industry. Serviced by a mechanics’ institute, library, two churches, three hotels, a cordial factory and three ore crushing mills. By 1933, at the last census, the population had dwindled to 52, and by 1955 it was a ghost town. Walking there today it is a silent, empty place of dry, dusty earth and ironbark forest.
Whroo Cemetery
The Whroo cemetery epitomises the difficulties of living in a harsh, unforgiving environment before modern medical care. Regardless of status, health, age or nationality, a simple illness or accident led to death. Chinese miners account for 15% of 400 graves. The Chinese were a significant part of the community as miners, puddling machine operators and market gardeners. Of the 400 graves, only around 200 names have been identified by the Whroo cemetery trust due to the deterioration of the grave markers.
Many of the graves are of children. These were either stillborn or died when Diptheria, Typhoid or dysentery swept through the town. Tuberculosis was also a common cause of death at the time. Among the graves is six children from one family. The eldest of which was a girl who died at just two years old. Their mother is also buried with them, who passed in her early 40s. Other graves as those of miners who died of illness or mining accidents
The cemetery trust is working on naming all the graves, and to that end, it has unveiled a new plaque with the names of all those interned there.
