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California Gully Precinct

Other Name California Gully Precinct ( Precinct 4.00 California Gully Commercial and Civic ) Location ESLER STREET CALIFORNIA GULLY, GREATER BENDIGO CITY Level Included in Heritage Overlay

[1/2] California Gully Commercial [2/2] Buildings on Eaglehawk Road,

Statement of Significance

This group represents the major components of gold-era town life at California Gully; an area renowned at first for its alluvial gold finds but later a rich quartz field. Apart from the fair integrity of its commercial components, there is the church, at once a monument to the devotion of the local Cornish and Methodist communities and an architectural marvel for its interior decoration scheme.

As with Long Gully and perhaps with an even greater sense of cohesion, the California Gully Precinct demonstrates the village characteristics identified with nineteenth century mining. In the case of California Gully the landscape is more comprehensively revealing since there are landform remnants from mining as a backdrop to a group of buildings which includes cottages, shops and Methodist chapel. The siting of the commercial strip along the roadway into Bendigo further illustrates the significance of traffic between Eaglehawk and Bendigo itself. California Gully is an important precinct since its range of buildings, street alignment and character and as well its surrounding landforms reflect the integrated local life of mining on the nineteenth century goldfield.