VICMining
Sebastopol
A Welsh and Cornish mining town named after a Crimean siege.
1854Deep-lead mining begins on the plateau
WHAT STARTED IT
Once the easy alluvial gold at Ballarat was worked out, miners moved onto the plateau to the south-west in 1854 to chase deep leads of buried gold. Their tent camps took the name of Sebastopol, then under siege in the Crimean War.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Many miners were Welsh or Cornish, and the camp grew to an estimated 20,000 people with its own chapels, choirs and dozens of hotels before becoming a borough in 1864. The claims ran down from the 1870s, the last mine closed in 1918, and trams to Ballarat drew it into the city.
TURNING POINTS
1854Deep-lead gold mining begins on the plateau south-west of Ballarat.
1858A Welsh chapel opens, and Sebastopol choirs compete at an early Ballarat eisteddfod.
1864Sebastopol is proclaimed a borough in October.
1913The electric tramway to Ballarat is officially opened on 14 April.
1918The last gold mine on the Sebastopol plateau closes.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A southern suburb of Ballarat, with housing and light industry and its shops along Albert Street. The Borough of Sebastopol merged into the City of Ballarat in 1994.