Fulton’s Creek – Store Point – Gilbert Smith Diary

Fulton’s Creek – Store Point – Gilbert Smith Diary brings together two historical accounts connected with the old gold-mining country around Donnelly’s Creek, Fulton’s Creek and Store Point in Gippsland.

Rather than simply listing mines and workings, this publication gives readers a much more personal look at the people who lived, travelled and worked through these isolated goldfield communities.

Gippsland Revisited – A Pilgrimage to a Mother’s Grave

The first section tells the story of Alex Shaw, who travelled from Ballarat to Donnelly’s Creek in 1930 to visit the grave of his mother at the Edward’s Reef burial ground.

Written as an account of his 14-day journey, it documents his pilgrimage through the old goldfield country and provides an unusual personal connection to the history of the district. The grave he travelled to visit is described as the only marked grave at the Edward’s Reef burial ground.

Fulton’s Creek – The Diary of Gilbert Smith, 1883–1884

The second section reproduces the diary of Gilbert Smith, a prospector who lived a largely solitary life in the Fulton’s Creek valley during the early 1880s.

His diary covers the full year of 1883 and records everyday life in the district. Each Sunday, Smith travelled on foot across the mountain range to neighbouring Donnelly’s Creek, where he taught Sunday school to local children. He later lived at the township of Store Point.

A Personal View of the Old Goldfields

The diary provides an insight into aspects of goldfield life that are often missing from conventional mining histories, including:

• Daily life in an isolated mining district
• Travel between remote goldfield settlements
• Community life around Donnelly’s Creek and Store Point
• The experiences of individual prospectors
• Historic settlements and people of the Gippsland goldfields

Ideal for Goldfield History Enthusiasts

This publication is particularly suited to:

• Victorian goldfield researchers
• Prospectors interested in the history of the areas they explore
• Local historians
• Readers interested in old mining settlements
• Anyone researching Donnelly’s Creek, Fulton’s Creek or Store Point

Fulton’s Creek – Store Point – Gilbert Smith Diary provides a fascinating first-hand glimpse into life in Victoria’s remote goldfields and the people whose stories became part of the history of the district.