Jamieson is a town in 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 located at the junction of the

Goulburn River The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victor ...

and Jamieson River, north-east 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 name is believed to have been derived from George Jamieson, a shepherd who grazed sheep in the area in the 1850s. At the time of the , Jamieson had a population of 382.

History

The area was first settled in 1860 and by 1861 approximately 300 people were working the goldfields. According to the book Jamieson Founders and Families by Dr. Brian Lloyd, the first Post Office in the upper Goulburn district was at Mansfield in 1858. The first Post and Telegraph Office at Jamieson was on the west side of Bank Street. When the Oriental Bank closed down in 1865, the Post Office was moved across the street to occupy the bank building. The Post Office at its current location in Perkins St was from about 1872. The town site was surveyed in 1862, and a borough council was established in 1864. By 1865 the town had a Catholic chapel, an Anglican church, a school, a courthouse and police station, two banks, two insurance offices, five hotels, and several stores. Jamieson reached its peak in the 1870s, but a sharp decline soon followed. Most mining operations had ceased by the beginning of the

First World War 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 ...

, and Black Friday bushfires destroyed many mine workings in 1939. By the 1990s, the town had become a popular tourist destination, boosted by

Lake Eildon The Eildon Dam is a rock and earth-fill embankment dam with a controlled spillway, located on the Goulburn River between the regional towns of and within Lake Eildon National Park, in the Alpine region of Victoria, Australia. The dam's pur ...

(situated adjacent to the Jamieson township and formed by the damming of the

) reaching 100% capacity in 1996. However, the tourism industry suffered in the early 2000s following a drought that affected Lake Eildon. In March 2007, the capacity of the lake reached a historic low of 7.9%. The Jamieson Magistrates' Court closed on 1 January 1983.

Jamieson today

Jamieson has a permanent population of around 250. It is a popular destination for

four wheel drive The Four Wheel Drive Auto Company, more often known as Four Wheel Drive (FWD), was a pioneering American company that developed and produced all-wheel drive vehicles. It was founded in 1909 in Clintonville, Wisconsin, as the Badger Four-Wheel Dr ...

enthusiasts, fishers, and amateur gold diggers. It is close to

and the

Mount Buller Mount Buller is primarily a resort town on the slopes of Mount Buller (Victoria), Mount Buller, within Mount Buller Alpine Resort, an unincorporated area of the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It is located approximately n ...

snowfields. The town has two hotels, a caravan park, and several

bed and breakfast A bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. In addition, a B&B sometimes has the hosts living in the house. ''Bed and breakfast'' is also used to ...

establishments.

2006-07 Victorian Bushfires

In December 2006, Victoria's North-East was affected by many bushfires that threatened to merge into fewer, but bigger fire fronts. Jamieson was one town at the centre of attention during these times, used as a major post for firefighters and media (Free-to-Air, Pay TV, and newspaper journalists were based in the town). Luckily for Jamieson, fire breaks helped the Mount Terrible fire stay away from the town centre. It was also helped by a late Southerly Change that brought rain. However, a short distance, both East and South East ( Jamieson-Licola and Mansfield-Woods Point Roads) of the town were burnt in the blaze.

References

External links

Jamieson & District Historical SocietyJamieson Community Website
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Shire of Mansfield Mining towns in Victoria (state) 1862 establishments in Australia