Majorca is a locality in central

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia. The locality is in the

Shire of Central Goldfields Central Goldfields Shire is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central part of the state. It covers an area of and, in June 2018 had a population of 13,209. It includes the towns of Bealiba, Carisbrook, Dunolly, Ma ...

, south of Maryborough and north west of the state capital,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. At the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

, Majorca and the surrounding rural area had a population of 387. By the time of the 2016 census the population had declined to 211.

History

Majorca was founded in 1863—towards the end of the

Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capita ...

—after two prospectors struck gold at nearby McCallum's Creek. Two months later, there were 250 stores and restaurants catering to a population of around three to four thousand, although many shops and residents soon returned to nearby Maryborough. The town was sustained for over 50 years through gold mining, including the Kong Meng Mine. It is now a rural area consisting mainly of farmland and the Tullaroop Reservoir which helps provide water to Maryborough. The old Majorca store was destroyed by fire and subsequently demolished on May 27, 2015.

Notable residents

* William Blundell (1866–1946) * Charles Fredricksen (1873–1966) *

Lowe Kong Meng Lowe Kong Meng (born 1830 or 1831; died 22 October 1888) was a Chinese-Australian businessman. Born into a trading family in Penang, Kong Meng learned English and French at an early age and worked as an importing merchant around the Indian ...

(1831–1888) * George Nicholas (1831–1937)

References

External links

Towns in Victoria (Australia) Ghost towns in Victoria (Australia) {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub