FORMER STARK GROCER SITE

The area was first mapped in as allotments 28, 29, 30, 31 and 32 of Section D Main Road Ballarat. The site is within Ballarat’s first commercial precinct and between two of the first alluvial gold fields mined in the initial rush. Allotment 28 has a Chinese tent mapped to the south of the timber structure, and allotments 31 and 32 have an engine house toward Little Bridge Street. This site as approximately 2m-4m across the site, 4m particularly where early mining features are mapped. 

The site is of historical and archaeological significance. 

The site is of historical significance as the location of an early residence and store during the years of the Victorian gold rush – one of the most significant rushes in world history. The later nineteenth century shows the development and decline of main road and the movement of the commercial center to Sturt Street. The site is of archaeological significance due to its potential to contain artefacts, deposits and features that relate to the establishment of commercial operations in the gold rush, and other later 19th-century activities.