Berringa is a small township in west-central Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is situated in Golden Plains Shire, about 43 km southwest of

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

. The township and surrounding rural community are located on the southern extremity of a range of

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 23.5 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the third and shortest period of t ...

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

rock. The area was a centre of intensive

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The township was known as Kangaroo prior to 1900, the Post Office opening in January 1878 as Kangaroo, being renamed Berringa in 1900 and closing in 1955. Gold has been mined at Berringa since the 1850s, with the main period of production being from 1898 to 1917, during which time about 280,000 ounces of gold were extracted from five major mines and several other, smaller operations. Mining continued after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

on a lesser scale until the area was abandoned in the 1950s. Ballarat Goldfields NL, through its subsidiary, Berringa Resources Pty. Ltd., still conducts exploration operations at Berringa. Gold mining had a direct effect on Berringa's population, which increased from 150 in 1899 to a peak of about 4000 in 1908. By 1922, with the gold mining boom over, the population had fallen to about 100. As of the 2016 census, Berringa and the surrounding area had a population of 167. The Berringa district is showing a modest population revival with the

tree change In Australian culture, a seachange (or sea change) is a form of human migration where individuals abandon city living for a perceived easier life in rural coastal communities. The term was popularised by ABC TV series '' SeaChange'', which pr ...

phenomenon. The district was the site of a significant

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

in February 1995.

References

*Menhennet, Marion Joy. 1987. ''The History of Berringa''. Australian Print Group, Maryborough, Victoria.

External links

Golden Plains Shire
Municipality website
Ballarat Mining company with operations at BerringaBerringa Gold Field: Victoria Geol. Survey 1904
W.M. Bradford: Geological and Historical description of the Berringa Gold Field.
DSE
Berringa Bushfire 1995 Towns in Victoria (state) Golden Plains Shire Mining towns in Victoria (state) {{GrampiansAU-geo-stub