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History of Daylesford


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Daylesford was founded in 1852 with the finding of alluvial gold in areas now occupied by Lake Daylesford. The area was initially called Wombat Flat. In 1854 Government Surveyor Fraser laid out a town site of 80 square chains and called it 'Wombat'. However it is believed that in 1855 Governor Hotham changed its name from Wombat to Daylesford after a small village in Worcester (now part of Gloucestershire) in England. The Post Office opened on 1 February 1858. A Telegraph Office was opened in August 1859. The railway was opened on 17 March 1880.

Market gardening was developed by Chinese immigrants who worked on the goldfields shortly after the town was founded, and a local flour mill was opened in the 1860s but closed down because the climate is too wet for effective grain production. Vegetable growing is still a significant industry, as the region has a good climate for the production of such vegetables as potatoes and is near enough to the large Melbourne market to provide a low-cost supply.

Due to it being located in mountains, formed by volcanic activity about five million years ago, the region contains as much as 80% of all the mineral springs in Victoria. Not long after settlement Daylesford had been noted for these mineral springs and from the 1880s to the 1920s the town was a major spa resort after the railway from Carlsruhe reached the town in 1880. Four separate areas, Wombat Flat, Daylesford, Old Racecourse and Spring Creek were gradually amalgamated into the town of Daylesford-Hepburn Springs.

Daylesford is a unique gold town in that it did not wither away like so many others when the easy payable gold ran out. Many sawmills had been established to supply the mines and these created employment for the out of work miners. The Land Acts of the 1860s enabled cheap land to be taken up and many miners became farmers on small areas.

The boom times of the 1860s when many of the notable structures in the town were built, the Post
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