Everything about Clunes Victoria totally explained
Clunes is a town in
Victoria,
Australia, located 36 kilometres north of
Ballarat, in the
Shire of Hepburn. At the 2006
census, Clunes had a population of 1605.
History
The town was home to Victoria's first registered gold discovery on
7 July 1851 which triggered the first
gold rush in Victoria. Subsequent
gold mining, predominantly driven by the
Port Phillip and Colonial Mining Company saw the town's population rising to well over 5,000 residents in the late 1880s.
In 1873, mine employers attempted to introduce Saturday afternoon and Sunday shifts. The miners refused to sign the new terms outlined in their contract renewals and went on
strike. Days into the action the miners organised the
Clunes Miners' Association and, what was to become known as the
Clunes Riots, successfully resisted the use of foreign labour as
strikebreakers. The
Clunes Miners' Association is one of the earliest antecedents of the
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
From the 1850s through to 1893, when gold mining eventually came to an end, Clunes was an important gold production location in Victoria. During this period gold in excess of 1.2 million oz was produced at Clunes. Today the town retains many of its elegant historic buildings, surrounded by agricultural fields.
Clunes Booktown
Clunes held its first Booktown on
20 May 2007. Over 50 booksellers from around Australia set up shop for the day in the heritage buildings of the gold town. The town, which had worked together to create the day, was awarded as
Hepburn Shire's Community Event of the Year. Now called 'Back to Booktown', the township holds the event each year on the first weekend in May.
Wesley@Clunes
In recent years the town has undergone a noticeable transformation and rejuvenation following the decision by
Wesley College, Australia's largest co-educational private school, to establish a campus for Year 9 students in Clunes. Opened for the first time in 2000, over 100 students now take up residency in the
Wesley Clunes Residential Learning Village, located in the centre of town, and become integral part of the local community for an eight-week period each term.
Film
Many of the external scenes in the 2003 film
Ned Kelly, starring
Heath Ledger, were shot in Clunes.
Clunes also appears in the films
Mad Max starring
Mel Gibson, and the remake of the 1950s classic
On the Beach. It also appreas in the ABC television series'
Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude and
Something in the Air.
Clunes was once closed off to the public for the TV show
The Mole in 2001. The mission in that episode was to direct one of the contestants to pick up another contestant in a blacked out car.
The most recent film shot in Clunes is Julius Avery's 13-minute movie
Jerrycan. Jerrycan has won the 2008 Jury Prize at the 61st
Cannes Film Festival in France for short films, with its portrayal of restless teenagers in rural Victoria.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Clunes Victoria'.
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