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Amherst is a locality situated within the
Shire of Central Goldfields Shire of Central Goldfields is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the central part of the state. It covers an area of and, in August 2021 had a population of 13,48 ...
in
Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...
. Much of the original township has been destroyed by fire, and little remains other than Amherst Cemetery at 235 Avoca Road, Talbot.


Geography

Amherst is located west of Talbot and north west of
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
. In its heyday, Amherst was situated in the middle of a gold belt long and wide. Nowadays, the size of Amherst is approximately . Four parks cover nearly 7% of this total area. The town mostly resembles an uneven paddock with little to show of its colourful and significant history. Nevertheless, Amherst is surrounded by old gold workings, and there is State forest to the north. The Amherst vineyard was planted in 1989 on land south east of Avoca. The Amherst Winery markets its 'Daisy Creek' red and white wine. Evidence of the gold diggings can be seen around the vineyard in the
quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...
rich soil.


History


Early settlement

The town of Amherst originally began as a mining settlement referred to as Daisy Hill or occasionally Daisy Hill Creek, which extended through the village. The actual location of Daisy Hill is still not known as it is often confused with a land division nearby in the Paddy Ranges known as the Daisy Hill Block, which was an earlier squatter survey lease in the
Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...
. Additionally, the Colonial Police Troopers were stationed in 1849 on the highway to Maryborough at a place widely referred to as Daisy Hill. Furthermore, newspapers of that era often loosely referred to Clunes Station, east as the "Pyrenees".


Gold fever hype

The two main colonial towns of
Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...
and Melbourne had experienced gold fever hype since the
California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
began in 1848. Daisy Hill (Amherst) gained notoriety due to an illegitimate gold rush in 1849 when exiled shepherd and former
Parkhurst prison HM Prison Parkhurst is a Category B men's prison located in Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, and is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Parkhurst prison is one of two former separate prisons that today make up HMP Isle of Wight, the othe ...
inmate Thomas Chapman sold 38 ounces of gold to
Collins Street, Melbourne Collins Street is a major street in the Melbourne central business district, central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in the first survey of Melbourne, the original 1837 Hoddle Grid, and soon became the most ...
jeweller Charles Bretani. This sparked a rush to the area. Chapman vanished soon after the sale, and uncertainty surrounds where the nugget was actually found, or whether it was stolen. The settlement of Daisy Hill (later named Amherst) is not to be confused with the contemporary town of Daisy Hill, Victoria. Amherst is now virtually deserted.


Victorian gold rush

In May 1852, a separate verifiable discovery of gold was made at Daisy Hill. During 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 capi ...
era, the location quickly became known as an extremely lucrative
diggings A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Gr ...
, and tens of thousands of miners rushed to the area. Between 1852 and 1855, gold was found at a number of locations.


Growth of Amherst

In 1855, the area was surveyed and the village name was changed from Daisy Hill to Amherst, probably to commemorate Lord Amherst (1773-1857). Town lots were sold. In January 1856, a post office opened. Later in 1856, a
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
school started. By 1857, there was also a Wesleyan (Methodist) church. On 22 October 1858, Amherst became a
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...
, which included the town of Talbot (formerly known as Back Creek, where miners rioted against Chinese prospectors three years earlier). In 1860, a
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
school commenced in Amherst. By 1861, the population of Amherst borough including Talbot exceeded 2000. The male to female ratio was 2:1. During the 1860s, there was a hospital (closed in the 1930s), a court of petty sessions, seven general stores, three hotels, various tradesmen's enterprises and a diverse gold mining industry.


Decline of Amherst

In 1859, gold was discovered at nearby Talbot. The town of Talbot increased in size and replaced Amherst in 1875 as the borough/municipality. By 1933, Amherst’s population had dropped to 185. The hospital functioned as a tuberculosis sanatorium until the 1930s, and the school closed in 1946. The post office closed in 1963. The scattered buildings left in Amherst were affected by fire in 1985, although the school building (1874) has been reconstructed. Otherwise, much of the original township has been destroyed. Little remains other than Amherst Cemetery, which was established in 1859. Talbot Arts and Historical Museum opened in 1984. It has a collection of documents and photographs as well as school, cemetery and Amherst hospital records and artefacts that present the history of the pioneers and early settlers of the district.


Demographics

In
2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
, Amherst had a population of 54 people with the predominant age group being 60–69 years. Homes were 80% owner-occupied. Households were primarily childless couples, and residents generally worked in professional occupations.(Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics).


References

{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Ghost towns in Victoria (state) Mining towns in Victoria (state)