TRANSPORT AND DEVELOPMENT
Viaduct
at Taradale
Private Collection.
A
major engineering feat - the five spans of 120 feet ( 36.5m.)
each, 115 feet (35m,) above the Back Creek at Taradale.
The completed Melbourne to Sandhurst (Bendigo) railway officially
opened in 1862. Spans strengthened with steel supports during
the 1930's.
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Travel to the goldfields in the ‘rush’ was largely
by foot, horse and bullock but, by 1853, there was a coach line
carrying passengers, gold and mail between Bendigo and Melbourne
and with road improvements and the use of fresh horses over ten
mile stages, the travelling time was soon reduced to one day.
Among the various coach operators was the legendary Cobb
& Co. A dramatic reduction in communication time came
in 1857 when a telegraph station opened in Bendigo while the next
significant benefit for the carriage of people, goods and mail
came with the railway in 1862. Melbourne, Sandhurst (Bendigo)
and Ballarat were linked by telephone in 1887. Locally, a tram
system connected the centre of Bendigo to Emu Point, Golden Square,
the railway station, Quarry Hill and Eaglehawk using, over the
years – battery power, steam power and finally, overhead
electric power. The tram service (which ran until 1972) has been
recognized as a significant feature of past life in Bendigo through
the current Tourist
Tram and Tramway Museum.
Contemporary newspaper reports, court records and official correspondence
suggest that while Bendigo officials and residents had to contend
with thefts of gold, assaults and violent disputes from time to
time, respect for law and order generally prevailed. The authority
of the Goldfields Commissioners gave way to Mining Wardens, Local
Courts and Mining Boards and a Police Magistrate was appointed
and, in 1855, a municipal police force took over from the former
Goldfields Police. The Bendigo goldfield had been transformed
irreversibly from a temporary digger’s camp governed by
Goldfields officials into a self-governing town largely responsible
for maintaining its own law and order.
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