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Directions to your fifth story point: Locate an information plaque at the start of the Avoca River Nature Trail. Proceed under the bridge. Can you imagine how it was built before concrete was used? Follow the Avoca River Nature Trail and look for park seating. Relax and appreciate the river red gums, then try to imagine the challenges faced by the early pioneers and first peoples of the area as we take you back in time. Pause the video. When seated, play when you are ready to learn about the pioneers. Apart from gold mining, red gum timber along the Avoca River flourished with many mills. They supplied mine timber, railway sleepers, firewood and charcoal. The main bridge over the river has been replaced twice since it was first constructed in 1859.
The large timber support beams that stretched across the river were milled from local timbers. In 1956 flood caused significant damage to the bridge, and it was replaced with the solid concrete bridge that you can see today. After Major Thomas Mitchell's expedition, settlers were encouraged to take up land. Europeans flocked to the region to establish large sheep runs. From 1853, gold rush ushered a mass of prospectors that swelled the region. As gold became harder to extract, farming, along with timber, returned to the fore. Early attempts at orchards and vineyards were not that effective. Modern-day vineyards became established from the 1970s.
The inevitable clash between the First Peoples and European settlers was marked by resistance to the invasion, often by driving off sheep, which then resulted in conflict and sometimes massacres of Aboriginal people. While some Aboriginals co-existed and were employed by pastoralists, a gruesome massacre took place in 1840 at Middle Creek: A cook was found hanging from a meat hook at Glengower Station. Aborigines were found at nearby Middle Creek hiding in a waterhole, where they were shot as they came up for air. It became known as the Blood Hole Massacre.
From 1850 to 1870, thousands of Chinese miners arrived in the region to prospect for gold. Resentment of the Chinese at other Victorian goldfields resulted in the Chinese Immigration Act, imposing a tax on Chinese immigrants at Victorian ports. Most disembarked in South Australia and walked overland to the central Victorian diggings. A traveller in 1854 described the group of Chinese that he saw: between six and seven hundred coming overland from Adelaide. They had four wagons carrying their sick, lame, and provisions. They were all walking single file, each one with a pole and two baskets. They stretched for over two miles in procession. It was half an hour passing them.