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Dunolly is situated amongst stunning
bushland 178km north west of Melbourne. It started out as a goldmining
town, believed to have comprised some 35,000.
Dunolly is thought to have been
inhabited by the Wemba-Wemba aborigines before white settlers
came. Campbell McDougall established the pastoral run in 1845.
He named it after the seat of the McDougall clan, Dunolly Castle
in Scotland. Other settlers began to take up land in the late
1840's.
When a major gold strike occured
in 1856 a new rush was precipitated and a new township emerged,
known initially as New Dunolly. At the peak of the rush the population
was allegedly 35 000 (including many Chinese) with shops stretching
along a 5-km section of road (now much-reduced).
The new townsite was surveyed
in 1857 but, as the gold was excoriated from the creek-beds, the
population dwindled to some 400, only to revive again with a new
strike in the 1860's.
Together with Moliagul and Tarnagulla,
Dunolly forms the Golden Triangle - a district which has turned
up more nuggets than any other in Australia. The largest was the
'Welcome Stranger' which, at 66 kg, was, at that time, the largest
in the world. The good fortune extended as far as 1976 when a
5.6-kg nugget turned up.
The railway arrived from Maryborough
in 1874. The Dunolly Goldrush Festival is held on the Melbourne
Cup weekend in November.
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