Chewton Domain Society and Parks Victoria are holding a double celebration to mark the 20th birthday of Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park and to commemorate the Diggers’ 1851 Monster Meeting next month.
The event will be held on Sunday December 11 at the Monster Meeting site in Golden Point Road, Chewton.
Parks rangers will lead the kids in gold panning activities from 1.30pm followed by the official proceedings at 3pm.
The event will mark 20 years since the park was granted national heritage status and remember the 15,000 gold diggers who held their Monster Meeting there on the banks of Forest Creek in 1851.
Chewton Domain Society memer Patricia Healy said the park was the only place where we could still see the landscape of the great gold rush that began there in 1851 and started the transformation of Australia from an agricultural economy to a modern nation.
“The Diggers’ 1851 Monster Meeting played a crucial role in that transformation,” Ms Healy said.
“When the gold diggers met at Forest Creek to defy the quasi-military government of Governor La Trobe, they ignited a social and political protest movement that spread across the goldfields and kick-started the march to the Eureka Stockade and finally to parliamentary democracy in Victoria.
“In the park we can still walk through the landscape of that Diggers’ Meeting and see the impact left by the thousands from all over the world who tramped to Mount Alexander to pan and dig on the richest shallow alluvial goldfield ever discovered. They are still here in spirit.”
The December 11 celebration will begin with a Welcome to Country from the traditional owners, the Dja Dja Wurrung.
Participants will then hear Gus Read Hill again declare the Diggers’ words of defiance and listen to the Castlemaine Brasslemaine Brass Band play their music.
Maree Edwards will tell the Diggers’ story, and from Parks Victoria and Mount Alexander Shire Council you will hear the story of the park and its part in the local community.
And what is a birthday without a cake? The members of the Chewton CWA will make the 20th birthday cake and present it to the park rangers with the music of Happy Birthday from Brasslemaine Brass Band.
There will be marquees with displays on site and a port-a-loo will be available but in true diggers’ style it’s BYO water, hat and chair (or sit on the grass).
