Location of Hard Hills near Buninyong.

[stuart.d]

Hi Paul
Have you been onto the Victorian Govt Earth Resources "GeoVic" mapping website?  It shows "Mines and Mineral occurrences", but not "Hard Hills".  Around Buniyong  it includes mines Scotchmans Lead / Scotchmans Co.

Alternatively, if you know the publication in which the place "Hard Hills" appears, you could get the Vic Mines Library to check if that publication has a map showing the location.

Stuart

[andycand]

Hi

It looks like Hard Hill(s) mine was a common name, using the link posted by Nettie there is a Hard Hill mine south west of Stawell, another Hard Hill mine North West of Ararat and a Hard Hills mine west of Smythesdale. You wouldn't consider any of them as being near Buninyong. Have you tried contacting the Buninyong Historical Society?

Andy

[rusted]

Hi Neil,
 No I don't think Geoscience Aus is wrong, its just one of those names that crop up all over the place. Lots of my ancestors were born, lived and died at places that just don't exist any more, temporary hives of activity given a name, then abandoned. Mosquito, Browns, Italian Gully, Jones Creek, Hiscocks, Gumtree, Chapel Flat, I have Great (great) Grandparents born in all of these ex places and I have tracked them all down, some are easy, Italian gully is on good modern maps but you would struggle to find some of the others.
From those mining reports on Trove it appears Hard Hills was a very short lived rush, quite a few reports of mines being worked out.
Andy and Stuart
The Mines Library and State Library are certainly on my list to visit when I am in melbourne next time, as is the Ballarat Library collection, probably the Buninyong Historical society will be first as I am visiting family there in the next week or so, as long as I can arrange the visit to coincide with open day at the society.

Thanks all for your input. Now for some legwork.

[stuart.d]

Paul
As a person interested in placenames and their origins, can I suggest you and others who come across placenames (town, stream, etc names) and can not find the placename, even if it is historical (ie the place no longer exists) in either the GeoScience Australia National Gazetteer or a state gazetteer, send you information to the relevant State geographical / place names Board / Committee. Contact details can be found at http://www.icsm.gov.au/cgna/cgna_members.pdf

The National Gazetteer is an annual compilation of all state/ territory gazetteers.  Whereas State / Territory Gazetteers are mostly updated each night.  State / Territory boards / Committees have very limited staff to research placenames and are not proactive in their research.

When submitting a placename, I suggest you include: the source of the placename (ie map, trove reference, etc), LGA, latitude / longitude (or easting / northing)(if known), a description of the feature and where the feature named was located, and any historical information you can provide.

I am a member of the Australian Placenames Survey which is a small group of people attempting to collect the origin of all Australian placenames.  We work in conjunction with state/ territory placename boards.

Stuart

[Neil Todd]

Worth a read if you haven't already?

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/11554946

Neil

[rusted]

Thanks Stuart.
I think you have helped me before with some forgotten places.
Is John Tulloch the person to contact for Victorian Place names?

If I can I would love to update knowledge about some of these places.

Going back and rereading a lot of that mining intelligence from Trove I am certain that Hard Hills describes the general country South of Sebastopol, It seems for a short time it became an actual village with shops and hotels, there's talk of following a deep lead onto Mr Yuilles station which is Sebastopol/ish, a lot of talk about Leigh River now named Yarrowee Creek, Black lead which is West/ish of Cambrian Hill towards Napoleons, Buninyong cemetery, Scotchmans, Magpie at the foot of Sebastopol.
Now all I need is a map from the 1850s of the area.

Paul

[rusted]

Thats a good find Neil.

My G G grandfather worked in the Imperial mine mentioned there. A large hammer fell down the shaft and hit him so there's a report of the accident. Ballarat Star 14 Dec 1868.

So much information in that article, its a real keeper.

Paul

[LoganH]

A map is available - will send PM, it now is free to download.

[rusted]

This morning I went across to Buninyong and visited the Historical Society. I found quite a bit of extra information about my Collas ancestors in Buninyong but also found a fantastic map that shows exactly where Hard Hills and Gumtree was.
For the information of anyone searching and finding this thread in future, Gumtree is about700m almost directly South of the Cemetery, Hard Hills is in the same direction about 1.5Km.
To get there, turn South at the Thomas Hiscock Gold discovery cairn on the main road.