Visit the Goldfields Region in Victoria, Australia

Ever thought about travelling around the goldfields region in Victoria? With it's truly interesting gold rush history, various historic towns and cities, the goldfields region is certainly jam packed with interesting things to do and see. Here are a few facts you probably didn't already know about the area.


You can find the Clunes Bottle Museum in the tiny town of Clunes, Victoria. This museum showcases a collection of more than six thousand different bottles, being the biggest collection in the Southern Hemisphere. Clunes is also a popular town in movie sets. This is due to almost the entire town already looking like a movie set with its numerous heritage listed buildings. Films including Mad Max and Ned Kelly were shot along Fraser Street in Clunes, a street that today, still strongly reflects the magnificent gold rush era architecture.


Heading west of the region, you will find the small town of Avoca with its residency just under 1,000, the town is loaded with amazing history such as being home to the oldest operating chemist and butchers in the whole of Victoria and for the butchers, the whole of Australia.


Down south of the region, Lake Wendouree lies in the city of Ballarat. Named after William Yuille, Ballarat's first resident, the lake was first called Yuille's Swamp. Nowadays, the lake is mostly used for recreation and it is called home to a wonderful variety of wildlife. Among common wildlife like swans and ducks, the lake also has water-rats, around 100 natives to be exact.


For the history buff, back in the mid 1800's and the gold rush days of Ballarat, all diggers had to have a gold licence in order to search certain areas of Ballarat land for gold. If a digger was found without such a licence, they would immediately have to pay a fine, or, be chained to a log until the fine was paid.


To the east, you can find the well-known city of Castlemaine. With its impressive Georgian style buildings, Castlemaine is proudly home to the states oldest public gardens, the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens. These botanical gardens were transformed from nothing but mining area to impressive garden in the 1860's. Castlemaine is also the place of birth to the inventor of the Chiko Roll, Australia's favourite snack.


The Victorian goldfields region has quite a lot of historical and interesting facts and it most definately does not end here. The region has lots to offer including more amazing art galleries, local produce, historic attractions and stunning gardens.


So get exploring and see Victoria, you won't regret it!