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Black Rock
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MOUNTED TROOPERS ESTABLISH AVOCA

Incredibly it wasn't gold that founded the central Victorian town of Avoca.

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Yet gold certainly made it wealthy and central to the story of the Victorian goldfields.

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To visit the Police Camp, take the tour below.

 

Duration: 5 minutes

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AVOCA RIVER
From DYSENTRY to
HOT BATHS

Fresh water has been a constant challenge for Avoca. The Avoca River has undergone several transformations.  The river was modified to enable hot baths. Floods undid the progress. Population growth added to the pressures on the river.

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Duration: 3 Minutes

avoca river baths
Troopers
Baths
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BLOOD HOLE
MASSACRE

In a time when the value of human life was measured by the colour of skin and birthplace, the first peoples around Avoca were decimated by disease and white occupiers of their lands. 

Added to this was the mindset of the first European explorers and settlers that place no respect on the lives of Aboriginies.

A lethal cocktail of history, and arrogance resulted in a massacre at nearby Middle Creek.

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Duration: 8 Minutes

blood hole massacre
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BUILT IN GERMANY & ROLLED DOWN THE HILL

Need accommodation built fast in a goldfields boom town? No local timber in easy supply.

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Solution' ship it from the other side of the world

 

Duration: 3 minutes

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Watford House
Blood
watford
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THE BIG WALK FROM SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Would you travel to a strange land and walk from South Australia to the Victorian goldfields in the faint hope of "striking it rich"?

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Many Chinese did.

Duration:  8 Minutes

Chinese in Avoca and District
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Burnt Body found in Elmhurst Tree

It is one of the strangest stories. Whilst there is a likely explanation, nobody knows for certain how a burnt body was located in a tree at Elmhurst in 1868.

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Duration:  4.5  Minutes

strange story
walk
burnt
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FIDDLER IN A CREEK

A fiddle started a gold rush.

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Today all that remains is a paddock and small mine mullock heaps

Duration:  4.5  Minutes

fiddler in the creek
fiddler
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