Rediscovering Victoria's Goldfields
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: Worn/faded - some tears. Page Condition: yellowed. Markings: No markings. Usual shelf-wear.
The Victorian goldfields shaped a nation — transforming a colonial backwater into one of the most prosperous regions in the nineteenth-century world, and leaving behind a landscape rich with rusted machinery, abandoned shafts, and the ghost towns of broken dreams. John Bechervaise's Rediscovering Victoria's Goldfields chronicles this remarkable terrain with the eye of a seasoned explorer and the passion of a dedicated historian, guiding readers through the surviving relics, historic townships, and natural heritage of one of Australia's most storied regions. Part travelogue, part historical record, the work presents a vivid portrait of the goldfields as they stand today, mapping the physical and cultural remnants of the great rush that drew fortune-seekers from across the globe. Bechervaise writes with an authority grounded in firsthand fieldwork, detailing the pumphouses, headframes, and mullock heaps that punctuate the Central Victorian landscape, while anchoring each site in its broader historical context. The book stands as an essential document for anyone drawn to Australia's colonial past, offering both a practical guide and a meditation on heritage, memory, and the enduring marks that human ambition leaves upon the land. What remains when the gold runs out — and what stories those remnants still have to tell — is the quietly compelling question at the heart of this work.
Author: John Bechervaise
Format: Hardback
Published: 1980, Pitman Publishing, Melbourne
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: Worn/faded - some tears. Page Condition: yellowed. Markings: No markings. Usual shelf-wear.
The Victorian goldfields shaped a nation — transforming a colonial backwater into one of the most prosperous regions in the nineteenth-century world, and leaving behind a landscape rich with rusted machinery, abandoned shafts, and the ghost towns of broken dreams. John Bechervaise's Rediscovering Victoria's Goldfields chronicles this remarkable terrain with the eye of a seasoned explorer and the passion of a dedicated historian, guiding readers through the surviving relics, historic townships, and natural heritage of one of Australia's most storied regions. Part travelogue, part historical record, the work presents a vivid portrait of the goldfields as they stand today, mapping the physical and cultural remnants of the great rush that drew fortune-seekers from across the globe. Bechervaise writes with an authority grounded in firsthand fieldwork, detailing the pumphouses, headframes, and mullock heaps that punctuate the Central Victorian landscape, while anchoring each site in its broader historical context. The book stands as an essential document for anyone drawn to Australia's colonial past, offering both a practical guide and a meditation on heritage, memory, and the enduring marks that human ambition leaves upon the land. What remains when the gold runs out — and what stories those remnants still have to tell — is the quietly compelling question at the heart of this work.