Pyrenees

Pyrenees Shire is located in the Central West of Victoria, about 130 kilometres Northwest of Melbourne and comprises an area of nearly 3,500 square kilometres.

The region of Pyrenees falls within the boundaries of four Aboriginal Traditional Custodians including the Wadawurrung (towards the South and East of the Shire), Dja Dja Wurrung (towards the Northeast of the Shire), Djab Wurrung (towards the Northwest of the Shire) and Wotjobaluk (in a Northwest corner). A further Native Title Claim by the Eastern Maar is under review.

Avoca River, 1890 Thomas Heywood, State Library of Victoria

In the early 1840s most of the land throughout the Shire had been taken up by pastoral squatters. The greatest proportion of the old Avoca Shire was held by James Cameron who occupied the land to the west of the Pyrenees ranges and William Stawell and his cousin Leslie Foster who held the land in the east.

These arrangements had followed the pattern of Aboriginal occupation with the Pyrenees providing a natural dividing line for the Dja Dja Wurrung to the east and the Djab Wurrung to the south west.

‘The establishment of a gold escort between Adelaide and Mt Alexander passing through the Shire bought with it a stream of hopeful diggers from South Australia. It was these diggers who discovered the Avoca goldfields’

It is reported that gold was first discovered in the district, at Navarre, in 1848. A further discovery at Glenmona in 1849 also remained quiet. It wasn’t until the 1851 discoveries elsewhere in Victoria that the rushes began. The establishment of a gold escort between Adelaide and Mt Alexander passing through the Shire bought with it a stream of hopeful diggers from South Australia. It was these diggers who discovered the Avoca goldfields.

The area around Beaufort became important with the Fiery Creek diggings the scene of much activity in 1854-55. However, there was ultimately little quartz mining in the area and the deep lead alluvial mines had largely faded away by the end of the nineteenth century.

Pyrenees Shire, Reconciliation Action Plan. April 2019 – July 2020.

Tonkin et al, 2012. Developing Victorian Goldfields into Australia’s Cultural Heritage Region. Final Report.

Wendy Jacobs and Karen Twigg, et al; The Pyrenees Shire, Avoca Shire Heritage Study, 1864 – 1994; 1994,

Jacobs, lewis, Vines Architects and Conservation Planners; Historic Sites Survey, Ballarat Study Area, for Land Conservation Council of Victoria et al; 1980.

Pyrenees Shire, Reconciliation Action Plan. April 2019 – July 2020.

Tonkin et al, 2012. Developing Victorian Goldfields into Australia’s Cultural Heritage Region. Final Report.

Wendy Jacobs and Karen Twigg, et al; The Pyrenees Shire, Avoca Shire Heritage Study, 1864 – 1994; 1994,

Jacobs, lewis, Vines Architects and Conservation Planners; Historic Sites Survey, Ballarat Study Area, for Land Conservation Council of Victoria et al; 1980.

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