Good Country For A Grant - secondhand

Contained within the Stawell Shire are both the Wimmera plains and the peaks of the Grampians, and the Shire's history is as varied as its terrain.  First people on the scene were, of course, the Aborigines, for whom the advent of the European was a disaster.  Early white society consisted of squatters and bushworkers, and then, in the 1850s, the district knew the fever of the alluvial gold rushes.  Next the quartz miners moved in, to dig, at that time, Australia's deepest shafts.  Later came the selectors, who experimented with growing wheat on the plains.  Others involved in the story include the vineyard owners in the mountains.  The turbulent early days of local and Victorian politics, the Stawell district's experience of fire and drought, and the area's involvement in wars in South Arica and Europe also described.  In his work the author has drawn on a wide range of sources, and he writes of a past richer and more diverse than many may realise.