West Malakoff Mine, Ballarat
Ballarat’s rich gold-mining history is everywhere, including beneath the ground you walk, explaining the heritage of Malakoff Street.
I’ve moved into a home in Balaclava Street, Newington. A parallel street is called Malakoff, both named after battles in the Crimean War during the 1850s.
While researching the Malakoff name, I discovered there was a West Malakoff Mine, which operated nearby.
The claim is at the junction of the Golden Point and its tributary leads Malakoff and Nightingale. There were many leases in the area in the late 1850’s, and like at various others parts of the goldfield at this time much litigation in the Court of Mines over who owned what piece of land, and accusations of encroachment. It amounted to a legal, and sometimes physical underground war between numerous parties, only solved when a Royal Commission was called, which arbitrarily determined what company could mine what land, and ended the legal arguments.
The Telegraph, Great Western, British and West Malakoff companies were all in dispute with each other. The Telegraph and Great Western miners entered into an alliance against the West Malakoff. Meanwhile the British Mine miners were erecting barricades underground, and arranging combustible materials to burn believing they would be invaded by the Great Western miners. Instead they traversed the Telegraph workings and attacked the West Malakoff miners while they were working. The West Malakoff men were overpowered, then sent running with ore wagons pushed down an incline towards them. On the surface the West Malakoff men armed themselves, then took over the Telegraph and Great Western mine engine houses, thereby preventing the thirty or so Great Western men from surfacing. The police arrived, however the men refused to surface, and a stand off ensued throughout the night. Some were eventually arrested, and faced court charged with assault and damaging a mine.
They were John McDonald, Samuel Johns, Laurence Branscombe, Patrick Flannigan, Robert Morrison, John Jones, John Earhardt, William Kelly, Martin Mullins, William Johnson, William Stevens, Abraham Berman. A jury acquitted them after 20 minutes of deliberation.
Robert Vetter was killed in a fall of earth January 1858. In monetary terms the company stated it had achieved 25,000 pounds worth of gold by March 1859. Information of activity was only found between 1857 to 1859.
The shaft is at the Midland Highway and South Street intersection.
That’s all very close to me, also Nightingale Street, which I assume is named after the nurse Florence, also of Crimean War fame.
Malakoff Street, Ballarat, now has meaning to me.
- The first Michael Gorey in Australia.