Rare goldrush era artefacts on show

A NEW exhibition has opened at the Golden Dragon Museum and it’s showcasing artefacts from several locations across Victoria. 

The Victoria’s Goldfields: Chinese Curiosities from Heritage Victoria exhibition presents objects held by the organisation that are rarely seen by the public. 

Most of the items are from the 1860s to 1870s and were found at sites in Bendigo, Ballarat, Port Albert, Melbourne, and others. 

“It’s pieces that have been found in these excavations that tell us a bit about who lived there and the sorts of questions that brings up,” said co-curator Megan Hall. 

“Who these people were, what they did with their lives, what their careers were, and things like that? 

“The Bendigo location is out near PepperGreen Farm. That’s a fairly well-established one in history, but also at Emu Point [now a part of North Bendigo], there’s another location there. 

“That post-goldrush sort of time, as the market gardens in particular came out during that timeline as people needed to feed the masses.  

“There were a number of market gardens around this general goldfields area.” 

Ms Hall said the exhibition is an opportunity to see the rarely displayed artefacts that are from a key period in Victoria’s history. 

Amongst the items found in Bendigo are pottery, decoy eggs, and board game pieces known as Weiqi beads. 

“We hope that it can help highlight stories that the museum doesn’t get to tell as well, as we focus far more on the Bendigo stories, the community that built out after it,” said Ms Hall. 

“Heritage Victoria are not an exhibiting institution, so they have a very extensive and quite extraordinary collection that they do loan out, like they have to us in the past. 

“It’s just always wonderful to give an opportunity for them to show their work as it is quite a behind-the-scenes, quiet kind of work sometimes.” 

The Victoria’s Goldfields: Chinese Curiosities from Heritage Victoria exhibition at Golden Dragon Museum will be on until November next year.