The Omeo region was first
sighted by Europeans in 1834, when a pioneer
naturalist, John Lhotsky saw saw a wide plain
which was known by Aborigines as 'Omeo". The
Aboriginals believed quartz crystals from the
Omeo River possessed supernatural powers.
John Pendergast arrived in 1839 with his two
brothers and established the Mt Leinster
station. A hut from this property, built in 1868
can be found at the
Omeo Historic
Park.
The history of Omeo changed when geologist
Reverend W.B. Clark discovered gold at
Livingstone Creek in Omeo. Two years later there
was 70 men out of a total of 300 in Gippsland
panning for alluvial gold along the Livingstone.
But the road from Bairnsdale the nearest
established town was 80km away - a journey which
took 4 days on horseback
The Omeo goldfields were
regarded as the roughest in Australia. This may
have been partly due to the fact that until 1858
no police were present on the site, and a gold
warden from Yackandandah only visited twice a
year. The goldrush reached its peak in the
1860's with 600 people looking for the illusive
jackpot.
In 1872 Omeo was declared a township but by 1894
much of the alluvial gold began to disappear
along with many miners. Chinese people started
work the fields soon after and also established
market gardens.
One of major setbacks suffered by Omeo and in
fact most of the surrounding regions was the
1939 'Black Friday' bushfire where nearly all
the buildings were destroyed; and thousands of
acres of forest were burned, seriously damaging
the timber industry.
This rich history has been the source material
for many works of Australian literature
including Robbery Under Arms, Nevermore and The
Hillyars and the Burtons.
For more
information, refer to the "History of Omeo"
article, download the complete chronological
history
here, or check out the
Omeo Historical Society website:
www.omeo.org.au
Also for further interest, a comparison of
yesteryear and today can be
downloaded here
of some of Omeo's oldest buildings.
