Monday, December 31, 2012

Britannia Hotel - Carisbrook, Victoria



Britannia Hotel, Carisbrook, Victoria

Small, historic goldmining town Carisbrook is a very pleasant little town of several hundred people located 159 km north-west of Melbourne between Castlemaine and Maryborough (7 km to the west). A former goldmining town it possesses some fine old bluestone buildings.
Carisbrook derives from an early pastoral run which was named in honour of the squatter's daughter Caroline. The Simson brothers, who later took up runs in the area, made a great deal of money in the 1850s by collecting tolls from diggers travelling between Castlemaine and Maryborough. The township also arose on the backs of this through-traffic which was in need of facilities and supplies.
In 1854 the population was around 100. It became a borough in 1857. A goldrush attracted some 15 000 diggers to Majorca, just south of Carisbrook, in 1863.