Guildford is a town in

Mount Alexander Shire The Mount Alexander Shire (officially Shire of Mount Alexander) is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central part of the state. It covers an area of and, in August 2021, had a population of 20,253. It includes the ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

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 ...

, situated on the

Loddon River The Loddon River, an inland river of the northcentral catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower Riverina bioregion and Central Highlands and Loddon Mallee regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The headwaters ...

. It is located on the Midland Highway between Daylesford and Castlemaine and it is 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 ...

. The population recorded at the 2016 census was 333. Facilities in the town include a post office (in a building dating from 1901), hotel, community hall, a cricket ground and a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

. It is thought that the town was named after

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

in England.

Big Tree

The Big Tree is a large, well-preserved

River Red Gum ''Eucalyptus camaldulensis'', commonly known as river red gum, is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, and is endemic to Australia. It is a tree with smooth white or cream-coloured bark, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in ...

(''Eucalyptus camaldulensis''), located at the corner of Fryers Street and Ballarat Street. It is thought to be one of the largest in Victoria, with a height of 34 metres and circumference of 9.35 metres at the base. The tree is estimated to be over 500 years old.

History

The area was known as ''Yarrayne'' to the original inhabitants of the area, the Jajowarrung people. The first European to explore the area was

Major Thomas Mitchell Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (15 June 1792 – 5 October 1855), often called Major Mitchell, was a Scottish surveyor and explorer of Southeastern Australia. He was born in Scotland and served in the British Army during the Peninsular War. I ...

in 1836. By the 1840s pastoral runs had been established and, in the following decade, gold miners flocked to the area during the Victorian gold rush, rush at the Mount Alexander goldfields. The largest encampment of Chinese miners in Victoria (estimates vary from 5000-6000 individual miners) was situated at the junction of the

and Campbells Creek. Tensions ran high between the white miners and the Chinese which erupted in numerous local conflicts. This anti-Chinese hostility, combined with discriminatory taxation against Chinese miners, saw the Chinese population dwindle and eventually all but disappear by the end of the gold rush.Chinese at the Australian Goldfields "http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/goldchinese.htm " Retrieved 04-09-2011 The first hotel opened in 1854 but was destroyed by fire three years later. The Guildford Family Hotel which also dates back to this era is still operational today. Other hotels in the town included the Farmers Arms Hotel (delicenced) and the Commercial Hotel (1865), the building now serving as a

. A school was built and a Post Office opened in 1860, followed by the Anglican Church the following year. The Catholic Church and the Wesleyan Chapel are now both private property. In 1919 an avenue of honour was planted along the main road, using London Planes, to commemorate locals who fought in World War I.

Banjo Jamboree

The Guildford Banjo Jamboree is an annual three day music festival held in September. The festival has an emphasis on string band music but also includes other styles. The Jamboree includes workshops and concerts in venues around town and on the football oval.

Panorama

References

External links

Place Names Search: Guildford
Geoscience Australia {{authority control Towns in Victoria (state)