Government Camp

MOUNT BLACKWOOD DIGGINGS, The Argus Melbourne 3 August, 1855:

“I was agreeably disappointed by the quiet and regularity that every where prevail. It is true that among the grog shops which abound there is a good deal of singing and noise, but even that closes between eleven and twelve. The diggings extend for several miles along the creek…; and the majority of the miners are cutting large races to turn the creek; to enable them to work the bed. Some shallow sinkings have been opened on the side of Adelaide Flat, nearest to Golden Point, the depth about four to seven feet ; and I have been authentically informed that in some instances an ounce [of gold] to the tub has been the reward of several of the enterprising individuals, who have braved the steep ascent and prospected the land of promise. … Government has taken a step in the right direction. We have now a warden, stipendiary magistrate, and police officer stationed here.”

As prospectors and business people poured in, the police wasted no time setting up a force to keep law and order, although the cynics may say it was also to sell mining licences. In one week, 457 miners’ rights and 95 business licences were issued. A weekly paper, The Star and Blackwood Advertiser, had begun publication. Later that year, Golden Point was officially surveyed, at which time it boasted a post office and numerous stores, including two butchers, banks, houses, a school, hotels and many sly grog shops. The police stationed in Golden Point actively sought to curtail the sly grog trade. In October, The Argus reported that five men had been charged within one week, and were fined £50 each; one charge being subsequently dropped due to a discrepancy in the date on which the police officer purchased a bottle of brandy from the accused. Only one could afford the fine, with the others sentenced to time in the Golden Point lock up.

In early 1855, one mounted sergeant and five constables were stationed at Golden Point. The earliest police camp structures were made from logs and canvas. The small red-roofed police quarters at 14 Clarendon Street (now private property) is a rare example of a prefabricated timber police residence. It was constructed in the early 1850s and moved to its present site in 1859. The adjoining wing with the steeply pitched roof is the original Blackwood court house, built in 1855 and relocated to Golden Point as a much-needed addition to the police quarters.

Water theft was common with many disputes ending up in court, although a more immediate remedy was also frequently applied. Despite living directly opposite the court house at 14 Victoria St (front section of current cottage), water race owner Pauline Bonfond was not above pursuing people who stole from her with the sharp end of her shovel. Pauline Bonfond arrived from France early in 1855 with her husband Pierre, who died suddenly the following year. A feisty, indomitable woman, she successfully entered the male-dominated mining industry, owning valuable water rights to at least two water races she constructed near Golden Point: at Long Gully and Lerderderg Creek. In 1860, using her maiden name, Jumentier, she purchased a number of allotments in Golden Point. The front portion of the existing dwelling at 14 Victoria Street was built for her later that year. She died in 1867 and is buried at the Blackwood Cemetery.

The boom fades

The Bacchus Marsh Express newspaper in 1879 described, in scathing terms, the poor condition of the police buildings in Golden Point:

“The Police Camp here is of all places the most miserable and least to be admired of most of the housing on Blackwood [and] are anything but what they should be … Nearly all the officers’ housing in use was used some twelve years ago in other parts of the colony, before they were stuck up on Blackwood so the buildings are of necessity all of a tumble‐down description; and in addition to their tumble‐down nature they are far too small to accommodate the present occupants with any degree of comfort … It is seldom there are any prisoners for any time at the lock‐up, but that being equally exposed, prisoners can be conversed with or handed anything that any person may have a mind to give them.”

With the decline in mining and resultant drop in population, the trend towards business centralisation in Red Hill (modern day Blackwood) continued. In 1880, the Police Station at Golden Point was closed and the stables were removed to the new station at Red Hill. In the early 1900s, a bitter and fiery public debate ensued over whether the still well-attended primary school at Golden Point should be relocated to Red Hill, with many letters written to the Education Department and local newspapers. The matter culminated in a community meeting held at the Red Hill Mechanics Institute where a representative of the Education Department heard submissions. It was ultimately decided that the school should be moved to Red Hill, it being the more central position within the extended township and more accessible to students from Simmons Reef, Red Hill and Green Hills. Perhaps past residents of Golden Point would take some consolation from the fact that Golden Point has retained its name whilst being a valued part of Blackwood, whereas the name Red Hill is not used and little known.

The Blackwood Town interpretation signs were financed by Blackwood Progress Association Inc.