Never heard of Fryerstown in Victoria, just a 10-minute drive south from Castlemaine? Neither had I. Yet the locals say this now-tiny town was once home to 15,000 people during the 1850s gold rush, with hundreds of homes, 30 hotels and an endless supply of freshly brewed beers! It must have been a hopping and jumping place; especially in the early days the town was full of hustlers, drinkers and men wanting to cash in on the gold finds, sometimes violently. The Traveller's Guide to the Goldfields says that the gold nuggets picked up in this area were particularly valuable.
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The foundation stone for the small brick place was laid in mid 1863 and the Mechanics Institute was completed four months later. The Mount Alexander Mail reported on the successful opening ceremony of the Mechanics Institute Hall in front of 160 honoured guests. The Fryers Town Band played a selection of airs that enlivened the whole proceedings, as did speeches about the importance of knowledge, and having the means of reading and learning available to people. Other rural Mechanics Institutes were certainly the intellectual and literary centre of those towns, but in Fryerstown it was the social centre as well.
The Burke and Wills Mechanics Institute in Fryerstown celebrated its 150th anniversary in Aug 2013. To celebrate, Hall Trustees invited past and present locals to a modern equivalent of the opening event. Teas, music and speeches!
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Duke of Cornwall Mine
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Goldfields Chapel, opened for services in 1861
Fryerstown courthouse
The good folk of Fryerstown needed community facilities built locally, so that the citizens would not have to travel to the next big town every day. The Fryerstown National School opened in Feb 1853 in a tent at the Commissioners Camp at Golden Gully with 27 pupils. By 1865 locals decided that a proper new schoolhouse was needed and in July 1866 a new building was erected. Fryerstown State School No 252 was probably never very beautiful but in the late 1860s the school enrolment was 450 pupils, so this building was very important to the Fryerstown community. By 1874 the Education Department had to build additional rooms. The school served the town well until 1967 when it closed for lack of interest; the last 3 students were relocated.
Fryerstown School
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A Post Office was opened in 1854, a courthouse and police lockup were built in 1880. The court was later converted into a private residence, but we can guess from photos what it looked like back then - ornate bluestone foundations, baltic pine timber, pressed metal ceiling, slate roofing, cruciform shape, cathedral ceilings and leadlight windows.
By the late 1850s, surface gold in the area was beginning to diminish, so if gold mining was to continue, they would need larger companies to raise finance. From Britain. Richard Luke Kitto was a Cornish immigrant, engineer and surveyor who arrived in 1856, and started mining. He was appointed the Mining Registrar at Fryer's Creek in 1860. Kitto obtained the lease of the Duke of Cornwall Quartz Mining Company, to raise capital to dig out the deepest gold. In 1867 he sailed to England to raise the capital required, forming the Australian United Gold Mining Company in 1868. It may not have been the greatest of successes, financially speaking, but the Duke of Cornwall Mine still stands.
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By the late 1850s, surface gold in the area was beginning to diminish, so if gold mining was to continue, they would need larger companies to raise finance. From Britain. Richard Luke Kitto was a Cornish immigrant, engineer and surveyor who arrived in 1856, and started mining. He was appointed the Mining Registrar at Fryer's Creek in 1860. Kitto obtained the lease of the Duke of Cornwall Quartz Mining Company, to raise capital to dig out the deepest gold. In 1867 he sailed to England to raise the capital required, forming the Australian United Gold Mining Company in 1868. It may not have been the greatest of successes, financially speaking, but the Duke of Cornwall Mine still stands.
The Methodist Goldfields Chapel church was built in 1861 when gold prospectors were flooding into the area. The stone building was used as a church until 1971 when it was sold and turned into a holiday retreat.
Perhaps the nicest facility arrived when the local inhabitants of Fryerstown decided to build a memorial to show their sorrow for the fate of the explorers who had sacrificed their lives in crossing the continent. The doomed explorers, Burke and Wills, both died in June 1861, so it was amazing that the money was raised by the end of that year! There was actually an outpouring of grief for these heroic men across the state. By 1862 monuments had been erected in Back Creek Cemetery Bendigo, on the hill overlooking Castlemaine, in Beechworth and of course Fryerstown. Then Ballarat erected their Explorer's Fountain.
Perhaps the nicest facility arrived when the local inhabitants of Fryerstown decided to build a memorial to show their sorrow for the fate of the explorers who had sacrificed their lives in crossing the continent. The doomed explorers, Burke and Wills, both died in June 1861, so it was amazing that the money was raised by the end of that year! There was actually an outpouring of grief for these heroic men across the state. By 1862 monuments had been erected in Back Creek Cemetery Bendigo, on the hill overlooking Castlemaine, in Beechworth and of course Fryerstown. Then Ballarat erected their Explorer's Fountain.
Mechanics Institute,
named in honour of Burke and Wills
Victorian Places
Dreamstime
And there are still some other Fryerstown sites of great interest to the history buff. The state school had to be restored in 2011 as part of a service for tourists i.e to improve accessibility to the Goldfields Track, a walking & mountain bike track connecting Ballarat and Bendigo via small towns in between. And to provide support for the Victorian Goldfields World Heritage Bid that was largely focused on Castlemaine’s Diggings National Heritage Park.
These days the Fryerstown Hall is best known for its annual antique fair every Australia Day long weekend, attracting a nationwide commitment by stall holders and thousands of visitors. It is an old building which requires maintenance and that is why the fair, which is a huge undertaking for a small town, is run each January. The fair will ensure that the hall is kept going and maintained for future generations. First held in 1975, the Fair is one of the largest in Australia. And the recently refurbished old Fryerstown School was also opened for inspection.
These days the Fryerstown Hall is best known for its annual antique fair every Australia Day long weekend, attracting a nationwide commitment by stall holders and thousands of visitors. It is an old building which requires maintenance and that is why the fair, which is a huge undertaking for a small town, is run each January. The fair will ensure that the hall is kept going and maintained for future generations. First held in 1975, the Fair is one of the largest in Australia. And the recently refurbished old Fryerstown School was also opened for inspection.
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