BUCKLAND RIVER CROSSING

The Buckland River Crossing being the river and surrounding landscape where the Buckland Valley Riot of 1857 culminated.

The Buckland River Crossing is of historical and social significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criterion for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register:

Criterion A
Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history.

Criterion G
Strong or special association with a particular present-day community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. 

The Buckland River Crossing is historically significant as the culmination point of one of the worst race riots in Victoria’s colonial history: the Buckland Valley Riot. On 4 July 1857 a hostile group of European miners violently chased Chinese miners from their camp down the Buckland Valley. The Joss House Temple was destroyed along with an estimated 750 tents and 30 stores. A bottleneck formed as panic-stricken Chinese people attempted to cross the Buckland River to safety over a narrow log crossing, and some Europeans assisted their passage to safety. A number of Chinese miners died as a result of the riot. [Criterion A]

The Buckland River Crossing is socially significant for the Chinese community across Victoria as a place of remembrance of the Buckland Valley Riot. [Criterion G]