Rutherglen, the town

...a place in the KellyGang story 

Areas

location

near the River Murray north west of Chiltern

Beginnings

From 1858, land at the Wahgunyah plains was opened up for sale to selectors. That same year gold was discovered at Indigo, 11 km south-east of day Rutherglen.

Gold was discovered at Rutherglen in 1860. The town was first called 'Wahgunyah Rush', then 'Barkly' after the governor, Sir Henry Barkly but this was finally changed to Rutherglen after John Wallace's (publican of the Star Hotel) home town in Scotland.

In 1864 the Black Dog Load was discovered. It was named the Fifeshire, and the prospects obtained from it were at the rate of a penny- weight lo the dish. It is near the old Eureka

Representatives from Rutherglen attended a major meeting to plan for the coming of the railways (Argus15/7/67)

Soon after the town was founded Henderson established a newspaper called the Murray Gazette.

The Aboriginal community lived on the shore of Lake Moodemere.
The lake has also been used as the site of Victoria's oldest continuously operating rowing regatta (since 1866).

Importance of Rutherglen

After a short period of alluvial mining they developed a number of deap lead mines including the Great Eastern Reef, discovered in 1872 by Burns and Hainsley about 2 miles from Rutherglen and 3 miles from Wahgunyah. The mine produced at least 9,000 ounces of gold. ref

By 1867 the gold rush had basically ended but it was revived in the 1880s with the success of the Great Northern Mine.

There are a number of wineries in the area that were started before the time of the Kellygang. George Morris established the Fairfield Vineyard in 1859, Fritz Ruhe (1860), Mount Prior (1860) Sutherland Smith (1864), John Campbell (1870), Timothy Stanton (1875), and This was the first winery in the district to be hit by phylloxera.

What was Rutherglen like in the late 1870s

By 1862 Rutherglen started local government with the formation of the borough. The Rutherglen Road Board was also established to deliver services to the area

People were concerned about the taxes on trade to and from New South Wales (Argus15/4/79)

Facilities in Rutherglen in the late 1870s

Star Hotel

 

Presbyterian church opened in 1861
St Stephen's Anglican church, 1864
Catholic Church, 1875
Congregational and Wesleyan churches, 1877.

Convent school
State school, 1872

Bank of Victoria, in 1874

Coaches
Royal Mail Coaches left Rutherglen regularly for locations in the area including Corowa,

Railway
arrived in Rutherglen in 1879

Rutherglen was declared a municipality in 1862 and a shire in 1871
Court of petty sessions was established in 1861

Post Office
built 1863
ES Outtrim

Mail route from Springhurst and Wahgunyah via Rutherglen

The Chinese camp was on Cooper's paddock on the Chiltern Road. When the gold ended they took up working on the land in the area and many worked on the vineyards in the area

Cornish Town gold mine (Argus1/7/79)

Mr W Shenstone was the secretary of the Deniliquin and Murray Railway Company (T&C16/10/1875)

Links to the KellyGang

Const Faulkiner was stationed at Rutherglen in early 1879 (RC5155)

On 22/2/1879 police were sent secretly to town to watch for the KellyGang.(RC5852)

SConst Gribbin left Rutherglen on sick leave (RC837 RC873)

There was a reported citing of the KellyGang in Rutherglen in June 1880. (RC5851)

Members of the Rutherglen community

J Graham, J L Brown, D Logan, A M'Cleery (Argus15/7/67)

 

What happened at Rutherglen after the time of the Kelly Gang

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18-jun-12

What is happening at Rutherglen today - a part of the Kelly Country and Ned Kelly's story

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