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'Warrenheip' is
an Aboriginal name meaning 'Emu's feathers', used as the name for the
squatting run first taken up by Peter Inglis in 1843. In 1846, the
young Archibald Fisken took over management of this property, as well
as the Lal Lal run. (Griffiths, Three Times Blest, p. 10)
After the development of the Ballarat goldfield, a saw mill was
established in 1854 on the northern side of Mount Warrenheip.
(Griffiths, 1988, p. 91). Erica Nathan writes that in the 1850s it was
the springs at the base of Mount Warrenheip that attracted three
sawmills, a soft drink factory and two breweries. ( Lost Waters, 2007,
MUP, p. 110, 114-122)
The Warrenheip Sawmills of Groves, McGhie and Co. featured in an
article in the Miner and Weekly Star on 20 February 1857 , reporting
that 250,000 feet per week of timber was being sent to the Ballarat
mines. An extract from the Argus of 24 February 1857 recorded:
From a careful computation there are not less than seven to eight
hundred men engaged in the production of timber, supporting by their
labour at least double that number of persons, the large proportion
being married men, comfortably hutted on and around the various
localities in the forests from which the timber is obtained.
At the rate the forest surrounding the mount was being cleared, land in
the area would soon be ready for selectors to take up in the 1860s.
People began to take up small blocks of land in the area from 1856, as
the government, faced with demands from miners to 'unlock the lands',
began to bring forward parcels of land around the goldfields for
auction. (Bate, Lucky City, 1978, p. 119).
In 1855 a Mr Gilchrist opened a brewery on the western side of the
mount, using the pure mineral springs. This was the forerunner of
Magill and Coughlan, which by the end of the century was the largest
brewer outside Melboune, with an annual capacity of 20,000 hogsheads.
(Griffiths, 1988, p. 92)
Work on the Geelong-Ballarat railway commenced in 1858, with work on
the Warrenheip-Ballarat section getting underway in January 1859. (King
& Dooley, The Golden Steam at Ballarat, 1973, p. 1) When the
Geelong-Ballarat railway line opened in March 1862, a railway station
was built at Warrenheip, and a survey of the township was conducted.
Many Irish Catholics, refugees from the Potato Famine and land
clearances, settled in the Warrenheip area, including Butlers, Lambs
and Jenners. The research of Robyn McCormick and Darryl Scarff has
uncovered a 'truckload' of families from a small area around Johnswell,
Kilkenny, settling in the Warrenheip area. A Catholic School was
established in 1858 by Father Richard Fennelly. In April 1860 the
school applied for government aid for its teacher Miss Ellen
Harrington. (Ellsworth, Pioneer Catholic Victoria, 1973, p. 239). The
school closed in 1877, in favour of the nearby Catholic school at
Dunnstown.
At the influx of the famine immigrants, the Irish were forced to live
in tents and shanties. Many gold towns had their own 'Irish Town' or
'Shanty Town' where they clung together with their own kind. Their
Irish accent and backward dress resulted in ridicule and their poverty
and illiteracy resulted in scorn. In early drawings they were portrayed
as ape-like leprechauns with shoes too big, hats too small, and clothes
that had been out of style for decades. Their Catholic beliefs were
also ridiculed by the large majority of Australian Protestants who,
not-so-long before, were immigrants themselves.
Instead of apologizing for themselves, they united and took offense,
usually resulting in violence. Solidarity was their strength and they
helped each other survive; but it was their faith and dogged
determination to their survival.
I There was never a Catholic church at Warrenheip. However
at nearby Dunnstown there was a Catholic school from 1862 and the large
church of St. Brendan's, built in 1905.
Brind's Distillery was established at Warrenheip in 1864 by a Mr Dunn,
who gave his name to Dunnstown. (Griffiths, 1988, p. 94-5). J.J. Goller
was also associated with it. By 1875 the Warrenheip Distillery, managed
by Henry Brind, won a silver medal for its Geneva and Whiskey at the
Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition. In 1887 William Kenna established
his Warrenheip Brewery. The remains of the brick buildings can still be
seen on the edge of the township.( Griffiths, 1988, p. 94)
There were many marriages of Irish Catholic immigrants and their
children. Most marriages occurred at St. Alipius in Ballarat East,
rather than St. Peter and Paul's at Buninyong, which had been built as
a school-cum-church in 1858.