Clunes, Victoria

Clunes Victoria
Main street of Clunes
Clunes
Coordinates	37°18′0″S 143°47′0″E / 37.30000°S 143.78333°E / -37.30000; 143.78333Coordinates: 37°18′0″S 143°47′0″E / 37.30000°S 143.78333°E / -37.30000; 143.78333
Population	1,656 (2011 census)
Established	mid-1850s
Postcode(s)	3370
Elevation	310 m (1,017 ft)
Location	146 km (91 mi) from Melbourne 34 km (21 mi) from Ballarat 92 km (57 mi) from Bendigo
LGA(s)	Shire of Hepburn
State electorate(s)	Ripon
Federal Division(s)	Ballarat
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 19.6 °C 67 °F 6.3 °C 43 °F 575.2 mm 22.6 in

Clunes is a town in Victoria, Australia, 36 kilometres north of Ballarat, in the Shire of Hepburn. At the 2006 census it had a population of 1,026. The 2011 census recorded a population of 1,656 usual residents.

The Djadja Wurrung people were the first inhabitants of the region including the settlement which later became Clunes.

The town was home to Victoria's first registered gold discovery made by William Campbell in 1850. To counter the rush from Melbourne to the recently announced discovery in N.S.W By William Hargraves,his discovery, was not made public until 1851. In 1851 German Herman Brunn visited the site of Campbell's discovery on Donald Cameron's run the 'Clunes'. He then traveled the area informing all he met of the find on Cameron's run 'Clunes'. He told James Esmond who traveled to Clunes and inspected the site and collected a gold sample which he took to gold assayer in Geelong on 7 July 1851. He also informed Arthur Clark editor of the Geelong Advertiser, requesting that nothing would be said until he returned from Melbourne with equipment. In August 1851 a Mr. Davies from Avoca revealed in the Geelong Advertiser that the site was at the Clunese. William Campbell's announcement in Melbourne and Davies news item triggered the gold rush in Victoria. The township was established a few years later and subsequent gold mining predominantly driven by the Port Phillip and Colonial Mining Company which was mining the site of the discovery saw the town's population rising to well over 6,000 residents in the late 1880s.

Clunes post office opened as early as 1 October 1857 and in 1874 Clunes was connected to the Victorian railway network. Clunes station was opened in the same year.

In 1873 mine employers attempted to introduce Saturday afternoon and Sunday shifts. The miners refused to sign the new terms outlined in their contract renewals and went on strikethat lasted 3 months. Some days into the action the miners organised the Clunes Miners' Association and what were to become known as the Clunes Riots, successfully resisting the use of Chinese labour from Creswick as strikebreakers. The Clunes Miners' Association is one of the earliest antecedents of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.