Before the rush
Kangaroo Flat is on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Djaara’s account of their Country is theirs to tell, on the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation’s own site. The council records that Bendigo Creek, whose walking trail starts at Crusoe Reservoir by Kangaroo Flat, began as a chain of ponds that held fresh water for the local Dja Dja Wurrung people. In 2013 the Dja Dja Wurrung People and the State of Victoria signed a Recognition and Settlement Agreement.
This page tells the settler history that the heritage records hold. It does not speak for Dja Dja Wurrung history, which belongs to Djaara to tell. Their own account starts at djadjawurrung.com.au.
The dated record
Each line is one fact from one record, linked. Where a source says “about” or “before”, so does this list.
- 1852
A government camp is set up at Kangaroo Flat. Common School record
- 1854
A Wesleyan day school opens in a slab building, and becomes a vested Common School the following year. Common School record
- 1855
An Act of 1855 creates the miner’s right. Lot 3 follows it Act by Act.
- Before 1857
At Kangaroo Gully, a miner named William Williams opens a store that becomes the hub of the gully settlement’s public life. Visiting government officials work from it, people come to it for public information, and inquests are held there. Kangaroo Gully Road record
- 1857
The first Mass at Kangaroo Flat is held on the High Street site of today’s St Monica’s church, then the International Hotel. St Monica’s record
- 1858
The first Wesleyan church goes up on the High Street allotment the Uniting Church still occupies. Uniting Church record
- 1860s
The brick Liverpool Store is built on Lockwood Road, a building its citation dates to “the earliest phase of settlement at Kangaroo Flat”. Liverpool Store record
- 1861–62
A Church of England school opens in 1861 and becomes Common School No. 363 the next year. Common School record
- 1862
The contract to build Kangaroo Flat station is let, on the line from Melbourne to Echuca. Station record
- 1870
Common School No. 981 is built by George Pallett to a Vahland and Getzschman design, replacing schools 354 and 363. It becomes a State School in 1873. Common School record
- 1871
The present Wesleyan church, designed by the Melbourne architects Crouch and Wilson, replaces the 1858 building. Uniting Church record
- c. 1877
A second brick classroom is added to the school, and by 1878 a timber building with a verandah holds another 120 pupils. Common School record
- 1883
A weatherboard police station and quarters, to a standard Public Works Department design, opens at Camp and Church streets. Police station record
- 1884
Kangaroo Flat has nine hotels. Liverpool Arms record
- 1886
Kangaroo Flat is proclaimed. At Kangaroo Gully, where traffic between the diggings had dwindled, the rate books now describe the old store and hotel as “house and garden”. Police station record · Kangaroo Gully Road record
- 1904–16
The station is renamed “Kangaroo” in 1904 and takes back its original name in 1916. Station record
- 1914
The Kangaroo Flat Soldiers Memorial, a granite obelisk at the Calder Highway and View Street, is first erected. Memorial record
- 1926
St Monica’s Catholic Church is built at High and Station streets. St Monica’s record
- 1930s
Mining at Crusoe leaves an earthen water race and a small dam, recorded on the Victorian Heritage Inventory. Crusoe mining area record
- 1953
State School No. 981 moves to new buildings nearby on Camp Street. Common School record
- 1987
The station’s signal box closes. Station record
- 2006
Police operations at the 1883 station finally cease. Police station record
- 2014
In January, the station’s platforms are extended for longer trains. Station record
Who was digging where in 1857
A heritage study published by the City of Greater Bendigo tabulates the 1857 census of miners across the Bendigo goldfield. The rows that carry Kangaroo Flat’s names, and its near neighbours, read like this.
| Locality, as the census names it | Miners | Share of the goldfield |
|---|---|---|
| Kangaroo Gully | 350 | 3.33% |
| Kangaroo Flat, West | 262 | 2.49% |
| Robinson Crusoe Gully | 177 | 1.68% |
| Myers Flat | 117 | 1.11% |
| Kangaroo Flat within the Borough of Sandhurst | 82 | 0.78% |
| Diamond Hill within the Borough of Sandhurst | 34 | 0.32% |
Added together, the two rows named Kangaroo Flat come to 344 miners (262 plus 82), a few short of Kangaroo Gully on its own. The same study notes that in 1857 over 80 per cent of housing on the goldfield was recorded simply as a one-roomed hut or tent.
What the ground still holds
Search the Victorian Heritage Database for Kangaroo Flat and the mining sites come up in a run along Kangaroo Gully Road: the South Langdon mine and the Golden Fleece Extended (Ryan) shaft among them, alongside the Kangaroo Gully graves at 155 Kangaroo Gully Road.The former Wait ’til I’m Ready Hotel at 147 Kangaroo Gully Road is, its citation says, one of the few buildings left from the Kangaroo Gully settlement, where one of the earliest rushes on the Bendigo goldfield took place.
Parks Victoria’s guidance is that the Heritage Act 2017 protects all historical archaeological sites in Victoria, including ones on no register, and that disturbing one or removing objects from it is an offence. Old workings are for looking at.
To read further, the Bendigo Regional Archives Centre holds original regional records from 1856 to the 1980s, and Public Record Office Victoria keeps records created by Bendigo’s mining offices, courts and councils. Lot 6 has the details.
