LEFT: Did you notice the scooter in the featured photo above?

I took these photos for Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge: 2014 #19.

We often see this fellow on his scooter with his dog in the trailer, but I’m not usually in a photo taking position. We had just packed our groceries in the car, the camera phone was handy, and I thought of Cee’s Odd Ball or Which Way photo challenge.

Heathcote’s main street is reputed to be the longest in Victoria. I’ve even seen some claims it is the longest in the Southern Hemisphere, but that sounds ridiculous. Anyway, it’s not particularly interesting, just a longer version of many other Australian towns. The population is about 3,000.  In the 1850s, up to 40,000 prospectors set up in this area at the height of the goldrush.

BELOW: McIvor Diggings, 26 July 1853
Shows Langley, Hawkes and Foster’s Stores, St. Louis Auction Mart, St. Louis Restaurant, Argus Office and St. Louis Store

Produced by the Cultural Heritage Unit, The University of Melbourne eGold website

The McIvor-Heathcote goldfield opened in November 1852 after a discovery by William John Bulling and two mates. A rush started early the next year, and contemporary estimates of the digger population at that time ranged from sixteen thousand to forty thousand, working the numerous gullies running into the western side of McIvor Creek. The first Commissioner of the McIvor goldfield commenced duty in Easter week, 1853. A decade later the field was basically deserted.

I’ll show you more of the town, sometime.