HERITAGE PLACE REPORT Greater Bendigo City Type of Place Hermes Number Heritage Place Report HERITAGE CITATION REPORTName: Lazarus Street/Poor Man’s Gully Heritage Precinct, known formerly as Moonta Area, part of West Bendigo Heritage Overlay Address7 , 9, 13 Harvey Street, 9, 11,14, 16, 19, 21, 24, 25 Lazarus Street, 8, 9, 11, 14, 19 Union Street, 110 Marong Road Property No: VHR Number Building Type Residential buildings, former church, Poor Man’s Gully, Long Gully and former mine sites HI Number Heritage Status: File Number Precinct Recommended as Lazarus Street/Poor Man’s Gully Heritage Precinct Hermes Number Heritage Study Ironbark Heritage Study Author Mandy Jean Year 2010 Grading Local significance Designer/Architect Unknown Architectural Style Vernacular Victorian to Modern Fifties Bungalows Maker/Builder Unknown Year Circa 1870-1950 History and Historical Context
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HERITAGE PLACE REPORT · HERITAGE PLACE REPORT Greater Bendigo City Type of Place Hermes Number Heritage Place Report Bendigo Creek where the alluvial miners first worked.5 By mid
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VHR Number Building Type Residential buildings, former
church, Poor Man’s Gully, Long Gully and
former mine sites HI Number
Heritage Status: File Number
Precinct Recommended as Lazarus Street/Poor
Man’s Gully Heritage PrecinctHermes Number
Heritage Study
Ironbark Heritage Study Author
Mandy Jean Year
2010
Grading
Local significance
Designer/Architect
Unknown Architectural Style
Vernacular Victorian to
Modern Fifties Bungalows
Maker/Builder
Unknown Year
Circa 1870-1950
History and Historical Context
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History of the Area
Bendigo gold field commenced in 1851 and continued over the next 153 years through times of boom,
decline, revival and stagnation. The last underground historic mine closed in 1954 with continued
production locally. The Bendigo Goldfields is Australia's second largest in terms of historical
production after Western Australia's Golden Mile (Boulder, Kalgoorlie).1 It produced the largest
amount of gold of any field in Eastern Australia and retains the largest evidence of its mining past
within the inner city area. The history of mining shaped and created Bendigo. It left a chaotic
industrial landscape which was in a state of perpetual flux with seemingly random, scattered, small
and often very isolated settlements of people across a wide area.2
The Bendigo goldfields, about 12 kilometres wide, extend 30 kilometres from north to south. It is
made up of folded beds of sedimentary rock, eroded sandstone and shale ridges which formed
anticline and syncline folds that run approximately 300 metres apart in parallel formation, north-south
towards Eaglehawk. The close association of all types of gold reefs with the anticline axis was
recognised early in the development of the field. This early breakthrough in the predictability of ore
gave mine management and investors confidence in the practice of deep shaft sinking on productive
anticlines as the main exploration tool. The Bendigo Goldfield represents the largest concentration of
deep shafts anywhere in the world. Deep, often speculative, shaft sinking remained the pre-eminent
exploration tool throughout the early productive life of the field (1851 to 1954).3
The majority of the Bendigo goldfields mines were worked from the 38 north-south anticline lines of
reef that lay from Bendigo East to Kangaroo Flat. Gullies and dry creeks cut across the ridges in a
west to easterly direction, flowing into the Bendigo Creek, which flows across the gravel plains of
Epsom, a former shallow sea in the north, and thence into the Campaspe River, a tributary of the
Murray River. The area was covered by dense Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands and was the
traditional lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung Indigenous people who had managed the lands for thousands
of years. In 1848 the Mount Alexander North, known later as Ravenswood pastoral lease, a
government lease for grazing stock over Crown Land, was granted over this area, acquired by Stewart
and Gibson.4 With the discovery of gold and the thousands of gold diggers, who rushed to the area,
the Government managed access to land through the issue of mining leases. Mining leases, pastoral
leases and Indigenous native title rights co-exist over Crown Land, but at the time the Indigenous
Australians were pushed to the margins of society and their rights were not considered as legitimate. �
In 1854 the character of the city of Bendigo (Sandhurst) changed from a collection of irregular
diggings on Crown Land to a town when the area was surveyed by government surveyor, Richard
Larritt. A government camp was established and the geometric grid layout of the town was laid out,
streets surveyed and land auctioned for sale under Torrens Title. The primary factor governing
settlement in the area was mining. It was to the outer gullies and creeks within the watershed of
���������������������������������������� �������������������1 Bendigo Mining for a summary of the history of mining to the present see website for Bendigo Mining
http://www.bmnl.com.au/safety_environment/community_relations/gold_mining/bendigo_goldfield_history.htm 2 Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Vol 2, Thematic History 1993 3 Quoted from Bendigo Mining, op cit.
Birrell, R.W. and James A. Lerk, Bendigo’s Gold Story, pub Lerk 2001 p 4 17 Ibid Vol 3 p 23 18 Mining Chronology Vol 3�19
See press clippings of the 1998 ‘The Save Ironbark Campaign’ supported by over 1000 local community
members. 20 Ibid Vol 2 p. 34 21 Ellis, G. E., A Brief History and Reminiscence of Long Gully, City of Greater Bendigo, 2000, p 45 22 Ibid p 32 23 Ibid p 31
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black smithies and large iron foundries serviced the local mines. The earliest foundry was Wellington Ironbark foundry-Swalling Briggs & Delaney engineers now Central Foundry and nearby W. Gradling blacksmith.
24 In Long Gully to the north on Eaglehawk Road was Horsfield, engineers and
Dennis, blacksmiths.
Transforming the land: Mining Wastelands
The depths of mineralisation at Bendigo placed some of the field at the leading edge of mining
technology with shafts being the deepest in the world at that time. 25
Throughout the mining history of
the Bendigo goldfields in excess of 5,000 shafts were sunk (90 km of shaft sinking in total). Despite
this amount of shaft sinking the vast majority of the field is tested to depths of less than 200 m due to
the physical and technical constraints on mining and exploration in the 19th century.26
The
combination of small leases and the great depths of mineralisation created problems in raising capital,
limited the utilisation of expensive assets, reduced the chances of developing economies of scale and
limited geological knowledge to a small fraction of the whole field. Massive problems were caused by
mining with resultant sludge, silt and flooding contaminating the water supplies. Lack of water, severe
drought, wind blown contaminated dust caused severe outbreak of diseases, blindness, cholera,
typhoid which was a major problem.27
The disused mine sites became contaminated industrial wastelands creating a physical barrier that
separated early residential areas into small isolated pockets of scattered miners’ cottages from the rest
of the growing suburbs of Bendigo. After the major decline in mining in the early to mid 20th
century,
these large areas of mining wastelands of sand heaps, old sludge dams and cyanide tailing dams
remained un-developed, ‘a dry slum’.28
These factors resulted in the creation of a poor working class
suburb that remained under resourced and largely intact until the mid to late 20th century. Attempts at
dust mitigation by planting of peppercorn trees was minimal, the land remained a source of dust and
contamination until the 1950s and 1960s when some parcels of land were cleaned up for low cost
housing and state government commission housing.29
Peopling Victoria’s Places and Landscapes: Transnational Migration
Ironbark was noted for its large German, Polish, Scandinavian and Cornish digger population. Many
of the early miners in the area came from South Australia, including a large number of German
miners. They came with skills and experience and included C. Ballerstedt and his son, Carl Roeder,
Carl Mueller and the Pole, Barnet Lazarus. The skill of the German quartz miners and speculators had
a significant influence on the development of quartz mining in Bendigo. They were noted for their
introduction of German mining equipment and skill in underground tunneling, examples of which
have World Heritage listing in the Harz mining area of Germany, from where many Bendigo German
miners came. German mining development and machinery has had a continuing influence on mining
in Australia.
���������������������������������������� �������������������24 Eaglehawk and Bendigo Thematic History Vol 2 p 24 25 Ibid 26 Bendigo Mining history http://www.bmnl.com.au/about_us/goldfield_history.htm27 Butler, et al, Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, Vol 2, Thematic History 28 Ellis, G. E., A Brief History and Reminiscence of Long Gully, City of Greater Bendigo, 2000, p 47. 29 Ibid .
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Another large ethnic group in the area was the Chinese, numbering 400-500 in 1868. There were
several large Chinese villages in the Bendigo district of which one was located in Long Gully, near
the junction with Sparrowhawk Gully.30
It was Sir John Quick, former resident of Ironbark, who
introduced the first bill into Parliament in 1888 for the disenfranchisement of Chinese holding a
Miner’s Right.31
Chinese miners worked the tailing heaps and discarded ore bodies in Long Gully and
Ironbark Gully. It was only the Chinese contractors, who worked the tailings of the quartz reefs. The
work of stacking tailing dumps associated with major mine sites was a particular feature of the
Bendigo field. The tailings had to be stacked for placement as they washed out of the batteries. It was
undertaken exclusively by groups of Chinese workers, who paid the mining companies to stack the
tailings with the hope of finding traces of gold. The long sluicing boxes and blankets laid out in lines
over the tailings became a familiar feature in the city landscape. This work continued until the early
20th century. It was an essential element of the operations of the mines. The tailings were
progressively planted with spiny rushes, pampas grass and peppercorn trees.32
Chinese herbalists and
shop keepers continued to operate businesses in Ironbark well into the 20th century.
33
Cornish mining technology was essential in Victoria mining in the years after 1860 and the influence
of the Cornish permeated into other aspects of social and cultural life in the Victorian central gold
fields.34
Cornish mining practice and managers became prominent in the quartz mines of Victoria. It
was the Cornishman's traditional skills of shaft sinking and stoping and the tribute system, which was
well known in Cornwall that were in immediate demand. This historical process relates the area and
Victoria to an international context that had its beginning with the collapse in the summer of 1866 of
the Cornish copper mining industry. It resulted in a massive exodus of Cornish miners and their
families, who introduced their mining labour practices, tributing system, technology and culture to
new areas around the world.
Governing Victorians: Government and Surveillance
The cultural landscape of Long Gully/Ironbark area of Bendigo clearly demonstrates the impact of the
particular mining leasing system associated with deep quartz mining and the way in which it was
administered and interpreted by the Mining Board in Bendigo. An important consequence of this was
the establishment of large company mining in the area, which led to the highest concentration of
working miners living within one location in Bendigo. But despite the numbers and size of mining
companies operating in the area, lack of capital meant that operations were often intermittent,
necessitating miners to work in several different mines each year. This in turn led to what became a
chronic oversupply of local miners as the mines stopped operating whenever they were not paying and
miners were laid off. To avoid making calls on their shareholders to raise capital the mine companies
and owners let in the tributors. A Cornish mining system, whereby a party of working miners could
lease a part share of a mine in return for whatever gold was recovered. The system was subject to rort
The largest historic Chinese settlement was located in Bridge Street to Finn and Thunder Streets, an area
which was once regarded as part of Ironbark. 31
Bendigo Chinese Association Museum, publication Chinese Footsteps, 2000 p. 36 32
James Lerk and Carol Holdsworth pers. communication regarding the work of the Chinese mine contractors
on the tailings. 33
Ibid. p. 40 Quinn store in Milroy Street, also evidence from Bendigo rates books. 34
Fahey, Charles, From St Just to St Just Point, Cornish migration to Victoria, Cornish Studies, 2nd
Series Vol
15, University of Exeter, UK pp117-140 for survey of Cornish migration to Bendigo and Ironbark.
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and abuse. The operations of drilling, blasting and shovelling created excessive dust, which together
with poorly ventilated shafts, led to very high mortality rates amongst the miners in the Ironbark and
Long gully areas. Deaths by phthisis and tuberculosis in Bendigo were the highest in the state. 35
Miners unions were formed in 1870s. Industrial conflicts occurred in 1872, 74 and 79 by which time
organized working class had spread to those employed in bakeries and other factories.
Building Towns, Cities and the Garden State: Buildings Towns and Cities
When quartz mining expanded into these gullies, they took on the character of small villages. In 1861
there were 96 houses in Long Gully the majority were still one room huts (53). In the wider area there
were 131 one room huts/tents, 95 two room structures and 60 three room structures. In Ironbark there
were 260 residences in all with 71 one room tent/huts, 83 two room structures and 85 three room
structures. Individual houses began to emerge in the 1860s replacing tents. Nonetheless miners and
their families still lived in small wooden cottages that had first been settled in the 1850s.36
Hotels
appeared quickly on the goldfields, along with sporting clubs, band halls and churches. There were
many small hotels and hostelries such as Gold Mines Hotel located along the main roads such as Mt
Korong (then Alley Street) and the British & American Hotel, Ironbark Hotel, Fifeshire Arms, Danaher’s and Quartz Miner’s Arms Hotels, Manchester Arms, Silver Mines and Rose of Australia
Hotels, all in Eaglehawk Roads that serviced the community, along with suppliers, butchers operated
by specialized German butchers, grocers, boot makers, watchmakers and confectionery shops. The
local community was supplied by scattered informal shops in the Moonta area operating their
businesses from home, such as the former butcher shop at 29 Union Street (now destroyed by fire
2009); while recreational areas such as the Long Gully golf course were created in make shift fashion
across mine wastelands.37
The quartz mining town functioned with a labour force living close to the
mine head. During times of depression fossickers and sustenance miners returned to the waste mine
lands.
Company mining altered the social structure and suburban pattern of development in Bendigo from
the early 1870s. A new class of wealthy mine investors, many being ordinary shop keepers of
Bendigo and mine owners built their homes in prestigious non polluted areas such as Barkly Terrace
and Quarry Hill, where roads were surveyed, sealed, sandstone gutters laid and avenues of street trees
planted. In contrast, in the mining areas, the working class miner lived in segregated low cost housing
areas, a hidden consequence of under capitalisation of the quartz mines of Long Gully and Ironbark,
which had a long lasting impact on the environment. The waged miners rarely participated in the
wealth generated by the mines. There was no investment in local infrastructure and community
buildings remained modest, built by the miners themselves and as mining safety practices remained
basic, the mortality rates amongst miners remained high, resulting in a high proportion of widows
looking after large families of children.
History of Lazarus Street/Poor Man’s Gully area of Long Gully
Three major historic mines comprising, Royal George, Moonta, Central Nell Gywnne are associated
with the Lazarus Street/Poor Man’s Gully area of Long Gully. The area was originally identified as
Piggin, Stuart, the History of Revivals in Australia, chapter 8, vol 1, Studies in Australian Christianity and
also ‘Two Great Australian Awakenings: Moonta Mines 1875 and Loddon River 1883’ Australian Pentecostal
Pastors, 2006 45
Ibid.
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City of Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme maps 2005
Secondary sources
Ballinger, R., Ironbark Hill History, 2005, City of Greater Bendigo
Bannear, D General References: Bannear Site Number: 15.12 North Central Goldfields Project: Historic Mining Sites in the
Sandhurst, Eaglehawk & Raywood mining division, Bannear, D., 1993, DCNR New Chum Syncline Mine operated from
1932 to 1949.
Bendigo Independent, 1890 quoted in Dingle, Tony, The Victorians, Setting, Farifax, Syme & Weldon & Ass, 1984, p 99
Bendigo Mining for a summary of the history of mining see website for Bendigo Mining
http://www.bmnl.com.au/safety_environment/community_relations/gold_mining/bendigo_goldfield_history.htmBorrie, W, Italians and Germans in Australia: A Study of Assimilation, Australian Nation University, Melbourne, n.d.
Cusack, Frank, Bendigo: A History. Lerk & McClure, Bendigo, 2002 (rev. ed.)
Cusack, Frank, Bendigo the German Chapter, German Heritage Society, 1998
Davison, Graeme, John Hirst and Stuart MacIntyre, The Oxford Companion to Australian History, Melbourne, Oxford
University Press, 1999
Dingle, Tony , Miner’s Cottages, in Australian Economic History Review, Blackwell Publishing, 2010 Dingle, Tony, The Victorians, Setting, Farifax, Syme & Weldon & Ass, 1984, p 99
- Miners and their Cottages, presented at ‘Bendigo: Nothing But Gold’ conference, October 2001, p.25
Ellis, G. E., A Brief History and Reminiscence of Long Gully, City of Greater Bendigo, 2000, p 47.
Eaglehawk and Bendigo Heritage Study, 1993, Butler, Significant Mining Areas and Sites Report, Vol 3
pp.123-235 1Fahey, Charles, From St Just to St Just Point, Cornish migration to Victoria, Cornish Studies, 2nd Series Vol 15, University
of Exeter, UK pp117-140 for survey of Cornish migration to Bendigo and Ironbark.
http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/page.asp?ID=124 HI Number: H7724-0178
Fahey, Charles, Cornish Miner’s in Bendigo: An Examination of their Standard of Living, Department of History Monash
University n.d.
Hopkins, Ruth, Where no Cousin Jack?, Bendigo Bicentenniel Committee, Bendigo 1988
Hopkins, Ruth, Cousin Jack, man for the times:” A History of the Cornish People in Victoria, Ruth Hopkins, Bendigo 1994
James Lerk and Carol Holdsworth pers. communication regarding the work of the Chinese mine contractors on
the tailings Lerk, James, ‘Discover Bendigo: Ironbark Hill School of John Rae’, Bendigo Weekly, 21.1.2000
Mackay, George, History of Bendigo. Lerk & McClure, Bendigo, 2000 (rev. ed.)
Mackay, George, editor, Annals of Bendigo Volume Two 1868-1920
Palmer, A.V., Gold Mines of Bendigo, Book Two, Hawthorn, Craftsman Press, 1979
Ravenswood Homestead, Heritage Victoria, http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/places/heritage/967SKM, Bendigo Former Mine Land Project Lazarus St / Harvey St / Happy Valley Rd, report for City of Bendigo
December 2007
Relevant Historical Australian Themes
• Shaping Victoria’s Environment: The Natural Landscape
• Peopling Victoria’s Places And Landscapes: Transnational Migration
• Governing Victorians: Government and Surveillance
• Transforming the land: Mining Wastelands
• Building Victoria’s Industries And Workforce: Mining labour force and technological
achievements
• Building Towns, Cities And The Garden State: Buildings towns and cities
• Building Communities: New roads to self improvement
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Description of the Precinct
The cultural landscape of the former Moonta mining area is unusual in that the early 19th Century
pattern of mining settlement is still intact. The area remains largely undeveloped despite persistent
government housing policies dating from the 1950s, for the reuse of former mining land for
residential development and urban consolidation. In contrast to other areas nearby that have been
subsequently subdivided and developed, the contextual setting of the area still retains its original
spatial distribution of mine lands, now an archaeological relic mining landscape, and undeveloped
creek lines of Long Gully and Poor Man’s Gully and scattered groups of miners’ cottages. The few
isolated groups of self made rammed earth and timber cottages line Union, Lazarus and Harvey Street
to the north and west. These small single storey cottages are sited on large blocks of former Crown
Land. They form a boundary, a buffer zone to the vacant mine lands. There has been some later infill
development, which includes a few examples of 1950s additions and dwellings that replaced early
miners’ cottages. Later development is largely confined to the east side of Harvey Street and the area
in Lazarus Street between Union Street and near Marong Road.
The wide side setbacks of scattered group of cottages set in large allotments provide a powerful visual
reminder of the pattern of historic development in the mining areas of Bendigo. The low density,
small scale of development and informal rustic fencing allows expansive views across the area. The
extensive gardens, often working yards, are a particular feature of this precinct. It creates a strong
visual contrast with later 19th century development that formed an arc of wealthy suburbs located on
high ground that stretched from Golden Square to Barkly Terrace. It demonstrates the extremely
uneven distribution of wealth in Bendigo that was created by the establishment of the large company
mines after 1870s. Few areas in Bendigo illustrate to such a degree as this precinct, how marginalised
miners and the unemployed lived in the early 20th century, prior to the creation of assisted government
housing programmes.
The group of miners’ cottages at the end of Lazarus Street are built of mud bricks and pise, rammed
earth. Most cottages are believed to have been erected in the mid-1860s-early 1900s. There are other
examples of timber frame weatherboard structures in the precinct such as the buildings at 7 and 9
Harvey Street, which are good representative examples of the miners’ cottage type.
The cottages in this precinct are very small, rectangle in plan, single room width, single ridge and
gable ends with a low hipped corrugated verandah across the front elevation, with low rear skillion
extension. The narrow wooden front doors are centred or slightly off centre. The two front timber
windows located either side of the door can often be of a later style, often incorporating one to three
different designs. The structures are typically built off the ground and have low roof pitches and
closed eaves. The basic timber frames are very rudimentary, the weatherboards are simple. There is
often a miscellaneous collection of out buildings, some open corrugated iron out buildings others pise
rammed earth structures. The houses have irregular setbacks. They all have individual features that
differentiate them from each other such as decorative verandah detailing, but the majority have an
extremely high level of integrity.
Most of the former miners’ cottages are set into large mature cottage gardens with tall mature
eucalyptus trees, which visually dominate the area. The streets are generally informal and have
recently been sealed with new concrete kerbs and gutters. The unmade road , Moonta Street, follows
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the line of Poor Man’s Gully and is important as it provides a refuge habitat for local flora and fauna
and allows deep penetrating views between the cottages to former mine land. Later examples of mid
20th century development was commonly established on subdivided land and reflects popular
architectural styles of the day.
Conservation Policy Guidelines (Specific) It is recommended that the Lazarus Street/Poor Man’s Gully heritage precinct is listed within the
heritage overlay of the Bendigo Planning Scheme.
Integrity. The precinct has a high degree of integrity.
Conditions: Fair
Statement of Significance
What is Significant? The Lazarus Street/Poor Man’s Gully Heritage Precinct is a small residential area north of Marong
Road and to the south of Long Gully in West Bendigo. The collection of 1870s-1890s timber
weatherboard and pise miners cottages in Lazarus Street, Harvey Street and Union Street form part
of the historic mining landscape associated with the deep quartz mine, Moonta, which opened in
1869, which now forms part of the Long Gully Linear Park. They replicate earlier examples of
German pise cottages, which were formerly located at the end of Lazarus Street towards the Royal
George mines. Other cottages such as at 8 Union Street and 13 Harvey Street illustrate the
architectural changing styles of the 1940s and 1950s. The area was mined by depression workers and
sustenance workers who re-worked the nearby mullock heaps and banks of Poor Man’s Gully, a small
creek that feeds into Long Gully from near Lazarus Street. Chinese contractors worked the tailings
from nearby Nell Gwynne mine complex.
The Long Gully/Ironbark area of Bendigo is particularly associated with skilled Cornish and German
miners. It was the Cornishman's traditional skills of shaft sinking and stoping and the tribute system,
which was well known in Cornwall that were in immediate demand. Cornish mining technology was
essential in Victoria mining in the years after 1860 and the influence of the Cornish permeated into
other aspects of social and cultural life in the Victorian central gold fields.
The local community was served by the Moonta Mission, an independent charismatic evangelical
revival church group that dates from 1893. The timber church at Union Street provides evidence of
the widespread interest in non conformist evangelical religious movements in Australia associated
with Cornish migration to the area. As the name ‘Moonta’ suggests, the area was worked by miners
from the Moonta mines of South Australia. The church is associated with several important
Australian spiritual revival movements, the 1875 Moonta mission ‘Revival’ in South Australia with a
corresponding ‘Revival’ in Bendigo and the 1883, Loddon River ‘Revival’ around Bendigo in
addition to the 1894 revival in Bendigo.
The landscape became characterized by huge mullocks and slag heaps of quartz tailings and with
available work the pyrite and cyanide ore treatment and processing plants in the late 1870s to the
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north of Moonta mine, it attracted local unemployed and Chinese mining contractors. The history of
Long Gully and Ironbark goldfields are marked by growing distress of unemployed miners towards
the end of the 19th century and early 20
th century. The Moonta area staged a brief recovery period in
the 1890s and 1920s and again in the early 1930s during the Depression eras, when the mine was re-
opened coinciding with the favourable supply of cheap local labour, the large numbers of desperate
sustenance workers, who were sent out to work on the fields by the government. Like other areas
along Ironbark and Long Gully, there was little attempt by authorities to clean up contaminated mine
lands until the mid 20th century to early 21
st century. Much of the former mine land now remains
reserved as open space and collectively forms one of the most comprehensive collections of mining
artefacts, which spans the entire period of mining on Bendigo from the earliest reef workings from
1853 through to the 1950s.
How is it Significant? The Lazarus Street/Poor Man’s Gully heritage precinct forms a cultural landscape that has rare,
historic, aesthetic, architectural and social significance at a local level to the City of Greater
Bendigo.
Why is it Significant? The Lazarus Street/Poor Man’s Gully heritage precinct is associated with
skilled migrant Cornish, German and Chinese miners, whose combined contribution became essential
to the development of the city of Bendigo, its mining operations and distinctive social life.
Criterion A: Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history.
1) The Lazarus Street/Poor Man’s Gully heritage precinct is a cultural landscape which has
heritage significance for its historic associations with the 19th century mining settlement of
Long Gully that developed amongst some of the wealthiest deep quartz mines of Bendigo.
The working class miners’ cottages set amidst the regrowth trees, peppercorn trees and old
mine relic landscape of Moonta area represent a ‘fringe’ landscape that illustrates the
extremely uneven distribution of wealth in Bendigo that resulted from the development of
large company mines after 1870s. The small cottages are the self-made homes of the poor,
unemployed, created from the mud of the local creek beds, influenced by traditional
construction methods of local German miners in Derwent and Sparrowhawk Gullies to the
north. They provide a powerful visual contrast between the newly formed affluent suburbs of
Bendigo built by mine owners and mine speculators and the less fortunate.
2) The small timber weatherboard church at Union Street, the former Moonta Mission dates
from 1893, has historic significance as a local example of an independent charismatic
evangelical church revival group that became hugely popular in the local district during the
time of greatest religious revival in Australia (1870-1910). The group remained independent
for nearly 100 years and was abandoned in the 1990s.
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Criteron B: Possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Victoria’s cultural history.
3) The miners’ cottages and their large gardens in Moonta area are associated with one of the
unique features of the Victorian goldfields- the Miners Residency Area. The Lazarus Street
cottages are self-made community housing that resulted from adverse possession of Crown
Land at the time of the 1890s depression.�The cottages belong to a group of increasingly rare
structures that show a combined use of timber weatherboards and pise, rammed earth
construction techniques, the mud coming from the nearby creek. Groups of mud adobe and
pise rammed earth dwellings associated with the German community were once a common
feature on the Bendigo goldfields and in the former Long Gully Creek area, but are now
becoming increasingly rare.
4) The contextual setting as an archaeological relic mining landscape, creek lines of Long Gully
and Poor Man’s Gully and the isolated groups of self made rammed earth and timber cottages
that line Union, Lazarus and Harvey Street to the north are rare features. Few areas in
Bendigo illustrate to such a degree, how marginalised miners, Chinese contractors and the
unemployed lived in the early 20th century, prior to the creation of assisted government
housing programmes.
Criterion D: Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places
or environments.
5) The cottages at numbers 19, 21, 25 and 24 Lazarus Street are excellent representative
examples of miner’s cottages particularly associated with the influence of the German
community, who worked nearby on the gold mining works along Long Gully, Derwent and
Sparrowhawk Gullies, where they built most of their building from locally made mud bricks
and pise. All miners’ cottages in the Moonta precinct are significant features and are an
excellent architectural record of some of the earliest types and designs of miners’ cottage. The
two former weatherboard and timber cottages at 7 and 9 Harvey Street are significant as
highly intact mid 19th century miners cottages erected on Miners Residency Areas, which
were retained on Crown Land until the 21st century.
6) The cottages display a level of intactness and authenticity in terms of their architectural
character, form and scale that demonstrates the principle characteristics of cottages, built by
unemployed miners and sustenance workers, during the Depression years of 1890s and 1930s.
7) The sporadic and scattered incidence of very small miners’ cottages on large lots in an open
landscape, with timber church, erected prior to the establishment of formal roads, together
with the nearby mining archaeological wastelands clearly tells the story of the early alluvial
and quartz reef mining boom in Bendigo. There is physical evidence from the 1850s through
to the major mining boom of the late 1860s and early 1870s when advances in technology
allowed the formation of huge mining companies and periodic revitalisation of the mines in
the 1890s, 1930s and 1950s.
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Criterion G: Strong association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural
or spiritual reasons.
8) The Moonta precinct has social significance for its strong association with the local Cornish
mining community and its links to the Moonta mines and Moonta mission. The mud pise
rammed earth cottages show strong German influence in their construction methods and
building techniques.
Assessment against the Criteria
HERCON CRITERIA
Criterion A
Importance to the course or pattern of our cultural or natural history.
Criterion B
Possession of uncommon rare or endangers aspects of our cultural or natural history.
Criterion C
Potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of our cultural or natural
history.
Criterion D
Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places
or environments.
Criterion EImportance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics.
Criterion F
Importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular
period.
Criterion G Strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural
or spiritual reasons. This includes the significance of a place to Indigenous peoples as part of
the continuing and developing cultural traditions.
Criterion H
Special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in our
history.
Recommendations 2010 External Paint Controls: No
Internal Alteration Controls: No
Tree Controls: Yes (Refer to Significant Vegetation Map)
Fences & Outbuildings: No
Prohibited Uses May Be Permitted: No
Incorporated Plan: Yes (Ironbark Heritage Area Incorporated Plan)
Aboriginal Heritage Place: No
Other Recommendations
It is recommended that the Lazarus Street/Poor Mans Gully Precinct be added to the Heritage Overlay
of the Greater Bendigo City Planning Scheme with the schedule entry as shown above. The extent of
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registration is defined by a map. The recommended Incorporated Plan is the ‘Incorporated Plan –
Ironbark Heritage Area’.
CONTRIBUTORY PLACES WITHIN PRECINCT 1
Name No. Street Prop No. Suburb
HERMES ID Significance
Miner's Cottage 7 Harvey 180441 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 9 Harvey 180443 West Bendigo Local
House 13 Harvey 180446 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 9 Lazarus 181018 West Bendigo Local
Utility -Pumping Station 11 Lazarus 181007 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 14 Lazarus 181019 West Bendigo Local
House 16 Lazarus 181021 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 19 Lazarus 181023 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 21 Lazarus 181024 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 24 Lazarus 181025 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 25 Lazarus 181026 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 110 Marong Road 181525 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 8 Union 182351 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 9 Union 182352 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 11 Union 182354 West Bendigo Local
House 13 Union 182356 West Bendigo Local
Church 14 Union 182357 West Bendigo Local
Miner's Cottage 19 Union 182361 West Bendigo Local
Archaeological Sites
Mine Site -Moonta 26 Lazarus 181006 West Bendigo Local
Mine Site - Moonta 18A Harvey 180434 West Bendigo Local
Total Significant Sites Precinct 1 20
NON CONTRIBUTORY PLACES WITHIN PRECINCT 1
No. Street Prop No. Suburb
11 Harvey 180445 West Bendigo
15 Lazarus 181020 West Bendigo
22 Lazarus 212331 West Bendigo
116-132 Marong Rd 181469 West Bendigo
1 Union 182348 West Bendigo
17 Union 182359 West Bendigo
Total Not Significant Places 6
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Tree species and location was determined without entering private property, as such tree location and
variety may be inexact.
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Development Plan
Overlay (DPO3)
Coverage; Precinct
1.
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Precinct 1
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Victoria. Dept. of Mines. Mining surveyors' map of the district of Sandhurst: showing the different
companies and ground leased up to 1st Nov., 1871, R. Brough Smyth, Secretary of Mines, NLA