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(5 stories)
  • Chewton.: The world's richest shallow alluvial gold field was discovered in Forest Creek at what was to become Chewton in 1851.... read story
  • Goongarrie.: Goongarrie was the first site North of Coolgardie where gold was found in 1893. The town was gazetted in ... read story
  • Mount Windarra Mine.: The Mount Windarra Mine was the site of one of the greatest share boom and bust stories in Australia, ... read story
  • Mount Morgans.: Mount Morgans is an abandoned town off the old Laverton Road. The Municipal Chambers, built in 1900, ... read story
  • Meekatharra: On the Great Northern Highway, Meekatharra is the largest town on the Murchison goldfields. The main building in ... read story

Chewton. (2 October 2006)

contributed by DerrickJessop
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Chewton Evidence of alluvial mining at Red Knob.

The world's richest shallow alluvial gold field was discovered in Forest Creek at what was to become Chewton in 1851.

Chewton The Wesley Hill Church 1852.

The town grew along the cart track that today is the Pyrenees Highway and on that track was built one of the earliest remaining buildings, the 1852 Wesley Hill Church.

Chewton The grave of Elizabeth Escott 1856 among the ironbark South of Chewton.

By 1861 the town of Castlemaine had been surveyed, but Chewton continued to grow and prosper on its original haphazard pattern. The 1861 JubileePrimitive Methodist Church, said to be the most elaborate structure of its kind on the whole Castlemaine diggings, was an indication of the riches being won.

Chewton The Garfield Water Wheel foundations 1887. The largest water wheel ever erected in Australia at 21m in diameter.

Special things were happening such as the erection of the largest water wheel in Australia with a diameter of 21 m.

Chewton The Forest Creek battery and water wheel.

This powered the stamper battery when reef mining took over from the alluvial workings in 1887. The foundations of the waterwheel remain although every evidence of the viaduct feeding water to the wheel and the stamper battery have disappeared.

Chewton The Jubilee Primitive Methodist Church 1861.

South of Chewton at Red Knob the valley still shows sign of the alluvial mining having gouged away tons of soil.

Even throughout the ironbark forest there is evidence of diggings and among them the lonely grave of Elizabeth Escott who passed away, probably in a canvas tent, in 1856.

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