The land around Rutherglen was once occupied by the Whroo people, a subgroup of the Bangerang tribe who lived a life based around the Murray River. It was estimated that there were 1200 Bangerang in 1841. Initially friendly to Europeans, they soon found their food sources destroyed or driven out by clearing and the introduction of European stock. When, of necessity, they turned to that stock for food they found themselves subject to punitive raids by white landowners. Reduced to dependency on handouts and plagued with European diseases, dislocation and alcoholism, their communities were devastated and, by 1860, there were thought to be only 60 Aborigines remaining in the north-east of the state.
European incursions began when the explorers Hume and Hovell crossed the Murray in November 1824. Charles Sturt explored the Murray River area in 1829-30 and the first squatter took up land on the river in 1835 at the future site of Albury. His beach-head encouraged others who began spreading through the area from 1836. In 1838 the party of John Foord set off from Yass with 1000 head of cattle, in search of fresh grazing land. With his business partners, he established the 'Wahgunyah' run on what is now known as the Rutherglen district. By 1845 the whole area was taken up by squatters' runs.
Gold fever hit Australia in 1851 and local pastoralists soon found a ready market for their meat at the Beechworth goldfields. From 1858, land on the Wahgunyah plains was opened up for sale and farmers began to take up land. That same year gold was discovered at Indigo, 11 km south-east of present-day Rutherglen. In November 1858 Indigo had eight hotels and 41 stores. By early 1859, 13 000 people were thought to be in the district.
Then, in September 1860, the Wahgunyah rush, one of the last in Victoria, started when a deep lead was found underground on the present townsite of Rutherglen. The township of Barkly sprang up to the west of the claim and it was soon followed by another 500 metres to the east. The latter was named Rutherglen in October after the Scottish birthplace of John Wallace, who set up the Star Hotel (the first major establishment in the town)on the new townsite (Barkly is now part of Rutherglen).
However, Wallace was but one of many traders who were quick off the mark as there were forty stores and innumerable grog shops in operation within a month. Argyle St (now Main St) and Elizabeth St (now High St) soon became the major commercial thoroughfares of the goldfield. The first newspaper was issued and the first postmaster appointed in October. By November three schools were in operation and a police camp was established.
By December 1860 there were 12 095 people in the Indigo Division (comprising Rutherglen, Indigo and Chiltern). 1925 of these were Chinese.
A court of petty sessions was established at Rutherglen in April 1861 and a Presbyterian church opened the same month. A survey of the township was conducted a few months later and sites were reserved for churches, a national school, public buildings, post and telegraph offices and a cemetery. Rutherglen was declared a municipality in September 1862. A brick post office was built in 1863 and St Stephen's Anglican church was erected in 1864-65.
Despite this dizzying rate of development, it became apparent early in 1861 that the gold was not going to come easily. Production fell from 28 kg a week in mid-1861 to 21 kg by the end of the year. The number of miners working on the Indigo Division fell from 6411 in January 1861 to 5070 in August, 3235 in July 1862, 1815 in January 1863, 763 in March 1864, about 200 in March 1865 and 46 by March 1867. The total population of the Rutherglen district declined from 6600 in December 1861 to about 3000 one year later. The dry leads were exhausted in 1866 and both people and equipment began to disappear rapidly. Thus, in the June quarter of 1867, only 1.4 kg of gold were produced.
This decline left Rutherglen without an economic base to support the town's businesses. However, many of the miners stayed on to take up rural industries, cultivating grains, vegetables, orchards and wines which ultimately ensured the survival of Rutherglen. The houses of these early settlers were mostly of split slabs and bark. Ploughing was done with a single-furrow plough, sowing and threshing was by hand and reaping by sickle with the grain shovelled into four-bushel bags which were sewn up by hand.
Rutherglen was declared a shire in 1871 and, despite the post-goldrush struggle, the town proved viable. Signs of some confidence were evident in the opening of a National School in 1872, a Bank of Victoria branch in 1874, a Catholic Church in 1875 and, in 1877, Congregational and Wesleyan churches.
The goldfields of the north-east were the main market for local producers until the arrival of the railway in 1879 which dramatically changed local production by providing access to the Melbourne market. This proved a considerable stimulus to the local economy, contributing to a boom period in the last 20 years of the century.
The boom was greatly enhanced by a substantial revival of goldmining at Rutherglen which was sparked in the mid-1880s when the Great Northern Mine was sold by its owners, who had given up after finding nothing to a depth of 216 feet. The new owners, after digging a mere two metres further, found a lead which was a metre thick and 15 metres wide. This became one of the state's richest mines, producing 107,000 ounces of gold. Returns (and the population) began to decline again after 1900 although the industry struggled on until about 1919, by which time the Rutherglen goldfield had produced a total of 24 156 kg or 1.58% of Victoria's total.
Another reason for the decline was the virtual destruction of the wine industry by the insect known as phylloxera at the outset of the 20th century. The first vines had been planted in the Rutherglen district in the 1850s and a wine industry was under way by 1865. It had greatly improved by the end of the 1870s, by which time wine was being exported to Europe, winning a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
As with agriculture the enhanced market access provided by the railway proved crucial to the wine industry which greatly expanded in the early 1880s and flourished until 1899 when phylloxera was first noted in the local vines. However, the reputation of local wines had already been damaged in the 1890s as a result of action by the Victorian government which tried to increase exports by offering a financial bonus for every acre of vines planted. This led to the cultivation of an extra 12 000 acres which was often poorly prepared. The result was a huge quantity of inferior wine which reduced the overall price.
Nonetheless, the industry did not disappear, thanks largely to the Viticultural College which was established in the 1890s. The college began providing American vine stock resistant to the incursions of the American mite. Thus the industry struggled on and began flourishing again after the first wine festival in 1967.
At the turn of the century agriculture was still of small consequence to the local economy but with the help of the Viticultural College (now the Research Institute) it too flourished to become a major sector.
The Rutherglen and District Art Show is held at Rutherglen Memorial Hall in March, Easter in Rutherglen in April and the Agricultural Show in October. Events relating to the wineries are listed under Things to See.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.