Early days at Glen Park

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT

The early settlement of the area is not well documented but clearly the first settlers came for one of three reasons.  In the early days of Ballarat timber was in great demand for building, industry and use in the mines.  The early timber cutters would have removed a lot of the forest which covered the fertile volcanic soil.  The soil which resulted from volcanic activity in the area was, and still is, much sought after for agricultural purposes.

Miners also came to the area searching for the deep leads buried beneath the basalt flow.  A legacy of these efforts are a number of mullock heaps still visible near the school today. ( Photo below of our closest mullah heap from the Eastern Plateau Mine)  The miners often had to blast their way through bluestone to reach the buried leads and were often thwarted by water in the mines.  Many ofthe mines struck an underground stream which could not be lowered even by pumping 24 hours a day.  During a drought in 1914 a number of local shafts were pumped and although the pumps removed 10,000 gallons an hour, the water level did not drop.  John and George Kneeshaw, two of the early settlers in the district, worked the Eastern Plateau Mine (southeast of the school ) to a depth of 250 feet but were beaten by water.  The abandoned mine was purchased by the Ballarat Water Board who investigated pumping the considerable underground reserves of water to supplement the Gong Gong reservoir during periods of drought

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT

The early settlement of the area is not well documented but clearly the first settlers came for one of three reasons.  In the early days of Ballarat timber was in great demand for building, industry and use in the mines.  The early timber cutters would have removed a lot of the forest which covered the fertile volcanic soil.  The soil which resulted from volcanic activity in the area was, and still is, much sought after for agricultural purposes.

Miners also came to the area searching for the deep leads buried beneath the basalt flow.  A legacy of these efforts are a number of mullock heaps still visible near the school today.  The miners often had to blast their way through bluestone to reach the buried leads and were often thwarted by water in the mines.  Many ofthe mines struck an underground stream which could not be lowered even by pumping 24 hours a day.  During a drought in 1914 a number of local shafts were pumped and although the pumps removed 10,000 gallons an hour, the water level did not drop.  John and George Kneeshaw, two of the early settlers in the district, worked the Eastern Plateau Mine (southeast of the school ) to a depth of 250 feet but were beaten by water.  The abandoned mine was purchased by the Ballarat Water Board who investigated pumping the considerable underground reserves of water to supplement the Gong Gong reservoir during periods of drought.

Old White Swan Hotel.

The White Swan is best know today as a reservoir but the name originated from a hotel which was built on the site last century by William Ritchie an immigrant from Scotland, who still has descendants living in the district today.

One well known story involving the White Swan Hotel is that during the days leading up to the Eureka Revolt in 1854, a group of miners from the Creswick diggings set out on foot to join the diggers at Eureka. On the way they were caught in a terrible rain storm and sought shelter at the White Swan Hotel. These miners never made it to the Eureka Stockade. Also, Arty Coffield recalls a tornado which swept through the district in 1926 tearing many boards off the Hotel. Although it was repaired at the time the White Swan Hotel closed soon after and quickly fell into disrepair. The remains of the building were demolished during construction of the reservoir and the site is now 5m. under water.