Chewton Town Hall

Make your way through stories and pictures from the past, collected and assembled by the people of Chewton.

The Goldfields' main route passed through the town and in 1852 the place was described as...”ten times more dusty than even dusty Melbourne, and the heavy gusts of wind which pour through the gullies with great violence, whirl it up in clouds and scatter it far and near upon everything around”.

On the one day of rest (it was illegal to mine on Sundays) thousands of diggers would gather at Forest Creek to visit the post office and buy Melbourne newspapers, which would arrive every Sunday by pack- horse.

Today the Chewton Town Hall houses a remarkable collection of photographs from Chewton's past. A visit to the Town Hall is a journey through history and a chance to discover your family’s connection with gold rush days.

The Town Hall was built in 1858 as a community hall in the centre of the rapidly developing Chewton township, and served as the meeting room of the Chewton Borough Council from 1861.

In March 1997 the Town Hall building, the similarly historic Post Office  and Ellery Park were handed over to the local community in recognition of the role this precinct plays in the life of the town.

`Gold was bought by the store keepers... They used to sift it on to a piece of brown paper, the sieve not being of the finest quality. The siftings were thrown into a box under the counter. The storekeeper always remarking, "You must be more careful next time in bringing it in clean." As a rule these men were the most successful diggers.'
- A. C. Yandell inRecords of the Castlemaine Pioneers, Graffiti, 1996.