In 1860, land around Daylesford and Glenlyon was being advertised to a public weary of digging and looking to put down roots in the wake of the Victorian gold rush. Just a few years earlier, the district had been a chaotic patchwork of diggers’ camps and muddy tracks. With the initial gold fever beginning to fade, settlers were turning their eyes to farming.

Government surveys had carved up Crown land into allotments for sale or lease. (No one had owned it previously so all of it was owned by the Crown to be disposed at a profit as the government saw fit.) What followed was a new kind of rush: not for gold, but for ownership and for the somewhat less risky occupation of farming.

As seen in these advertisements from The Daylesford Advocate and Hepburn Courier, rural acreage could be bought for a price equivalent to a typical annual wage. Ten acres near Glenlyon, already under cultivation, might sell for as little as £50. A larger 133-acre parcel between Daylesford and Ballan—complete with its own spring—was up for grabs, not because it lacked value, but because its owner lacked the necessary capital to work it.

Today, that same land—if you could find it—might fetch upwards of $2 million, especially with water access and proximity to town. These historical ads offer a glimpse into a time when the landscape was still being claimed, cleared, and worked to provide a family with a living – a far cry from the vastly more expensive lifestyle properties and rural retreats that surround our townships today.

From The Daylesford Advocate and Hepburn Courier of Thursday 19 January 1860:

VALUABLE PROPERTIES NEAR GLENLYON
WILLIAM DOUGLAS has received instructions to sell by public auction, at his rooms, Piper Street, Kyneton on Wednesday the 1st day of February, the following properties—

Lot 1 – 10 Acres of excellent land under cultivation in the parish of Glenlyon, being allotment 2 and 3 of section 4 adjacent to the township and about 8 miles from Daylesford. Possession to be had on the 1st March next.

Lot 2 – 25 Acres, 2 roads, being allotment 1 of section 1, parish of Glenlyon, situated as above, being very fine agricultural land, with a frontage to the river Loddon.

This lot is held under lease by Mr Dawson, (of which twelve months unexpired) at £25 10s per annum.  The government bridge to be erected across the river will be within thirty or forty yards of this property. Terms £50 cash; residue by approved bills at three or six months, bearing bank interest. For particulars of title, &c, apply to F.H. Boulton, Esq. solicitor, Kyneton, or the auctioneer, Piper Street.

FARM FOR SALE

Fourteen miles from Daylesford and six from Ballan on the main road between both places, at the 4-rail fence, containing 133 acres of first class arable land; there is a spring on it, an accommodation not to be found on the survey; the title is a crown grant; the owner being disappointed in means to cultivate is the only reason for his selling it.  Apply on the ground to DENNIS ROWAN.

From the Daylesford and district Historical Society.