Victoria History
Facts: Victoria facts, Demographics, Geography, Government, History
Victoria History
Victoria's Aboriginal history and culture is an important part of the State's cultural identity. Aboriginal people have occupied Victoria for thousands of years and continue today as a proud and living culture. The Victorian Aboriginal community is made up of a number of distinct communities across the State based on location, language and cultural groups and extended family. Most regional communities are based on traditional associations with the land that significantly predate the European colonisation of Victoria.
Word that gold had been discovered in Victoria in 1851, travelled across the world quickly. As letters and rumours circulated throughout the world, huge numbers of men started for Australia eager to make their fortune. Before the rush it had been difficult to attract immigrants to Victoria, but now the price for single men was raised by one pound in an effort to get more women and family men to come to Australia. By the end of 1851 over 30 000 immigrants had arrived. They came from Britain, Europe, America and China.
Between 1851 and 1861, Victoria grew from a new colony of 76 000 people to the largest and most prosperous with 540 000 people - 45 per cent of the Australian population. At the end of the decade Chinese people made up eight percent of Victoria's population, and formed over 20 percent of the goldfields population
The colony and state of Victoria provided the impetus for the Commonwealth of Australia and the basic institutions of national life. The pastoral wealth of Victoria, then the gold rush, the mercantile enterprises that followed created a society of remarkable capacity....The rapid advances of democracy made us a social laboratory. Victoria and Melbourne were the vanguard of the nation." (Professor Stuart Macintyre, Inaugural Chair of the History Council) more
Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape
The Tyrendarra area is of outstanding heritage value as it contains the remains of a complex system of natural and artificially created wetlands, channels, the stone bases of weirs and stone fish traps that were used by Gunditj Mara people to grow and harvest eels and fish (Builth 2002, 2003). The remains of the channels, weirs and fishtraps are hundreds or thousands of years old. more
Castlemaine Diggings
Castlemaine was one of the major gold rushes of Victoria and of Australia. In 1852 the goldfield had acquired a population of 30,000 and was by then regarded as the richest goldfield in the world. Significant mining continued for many decades, and some mining has been evident right up almost to the present. more
Eureka Stockade Gardens
The Eureka Stockade Gardens are significant for their association with the Eureka Stockade rebellion of 3 December 1854. The goldminers' revolt against the goldfields administration, and particularly the loss of life (33 miners, 5 soldiers) resulting from the insurrection, is a major event in Australia's political and social history. more
Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens
The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, the venue for the grand opening of the first Australian Parliament in 1901, has outstanding national historic value for its role in the defining event of Federation. It is the place where Commonwealth of Australia's first Parliament was commissioned and sworn in, on 9 May 1901. more
