Timor (Victoria)
| Timor | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The Timor General Store, which closed in 1997 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
Timor is a place in the center of the Australian state of Victoria , 180 kilometers northwest of Melbourne . The former gold rush town belongs to the LGA Central Goldfields Shire . In 2016, 18 families with a total of 58 people lived in the city.
location
Timor is on the road between Maryborough, eight kilometers away, in the south and Dunolly in the north. To the east is the Timor Nature Conservation Reserve , to the west is Timor Creek .
story
Timor is a foundation from the time of the Victorian gold rush (from 1851). The rich Chinaman's Flat and Alma Timor gold veins meet in the region. A butcher named Cox built a bridge over Bet Bet Creek and an inn with five guest rooms in 1856 . Around this a village developed, which was initially called Cox Town . In November 1856, 4,000 gold diggers were working in the area southwest of Timor called Chinaman's Flat . In 1856 Cox Town was renamed Timor , but the old butcher's name remained in use for a long time. By March 1857, the number of workers at Chinaman's Flat had grown to 30,000. The main street for a mile in Chinaman's Flat was lined with apartment buildings, hotels, and shops.
The easily accessible gold in the region was depleted by the early 1860s, but a mining company was successful in digging deeper into Chinaman's Flat. Many of the mines were dug by Chinese workers. Their tunnels are easy to recognize by their round shape. The Chinese believed that corners could hide ghosts. European workers created rectangular shafts.
In 1864 the Chinaman's Flat School was founded. The Post Office opened in Timor in 1865 and in 1861 in Chinaman's Flat, which was renamed Bowenvale in the 1870s, after the Victorian Governor Sir George Ferguson Bowen (1873–1879). In 1884 the Timor Post Office was renamed the Bowenvale Post Office and kept the name until it closed in 1981. The Chinaman's Flat Post Office closed in 1895. The small Chinaman's Flat School kept its name until it closed. The Timor State Elementary School (State School 1207), founded in 1873, is still in operation today. To the northeast of it is the Grand Duke Mine of the Duke and Timor Gold Mining Company , which operated between 1869 and 1896 and whose shafts extend up to six kilometers into the earth. It was one of the most successful gold mines in the region. It alone supplied a quarter of all the gold from the Maryborough district. The mine pump house is still standing. The prison building dates from around 1890. The Timor cemetery is also a sight.
In 1903 Timor had 1,500 inhabitants and, in addition to a post office and school, also had a telegraph office, a police station, banks and several hotels. The library had 1,000 books, and there were churches of the Church of England , the Roman Catholic Church and the Methodist and Wesleyan churches . The Bowen Park had a large grandstand and was used for recreational relaxation. A bus connected the place with the station of the Maryborough Railway Station . In addition to two mines, there was also some agriculture. A few years later, gold was extracted in Timor with the help of cyanide , but the mining industry collapsed towards the end of the First World War . The last hotel in Timor closed in 1963 and the historic Timor General Store closed in 1997 after 145 years of operation. Agriculture along Bet Bet Creek has slowed the population loss somewhat. In 2014 the Timor Elementary School still had 33 students. The Bowenvale area has tennis courts and a meeting hall.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Australian census 2016 , accessed on November 29, 2020.
- ↑ a b c d Visit Maryborough: Maryborough, Victoria, Australia , accessed October 14, 2009.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Victorian Places: Timor and Bowenvale , accessed November 29, 2020.
- ^ A b c Film Central Victoria: Bowenvale / Timor , accessed December 20, 2010.