RUTHERGLEN is famous for more than its wine, writes KIM WOODS

In 1860, publican and gold miner John Wallace was selecting the site for his new Star Hotel on a slight rise overlooking the feverish activity of the gold diggings.

As they stood on the site of the future hotel, his friend David Hamilton suggested the town be named after Wallace's Scottish birthplace, Rutherglen.

The name stuck, even though the mining settlement was known as Barkly, after the then Governor, Sir Henry Barkly.

Until 1860, Rutherglen had been a quiet farming area, producing livestock, crops and wine grapes.

But a gold discovery in May, 1858, at nearby Indigo, sparked a stampede from the Ballarat and Bendigo goldfields.

Within a year there were 13,000 people, eight hotels, 56 restaurants and 41 stores.

Prospectors John and Harry Mitchell, and Thomas and James Keen, drifted away from the Indigo fields to try their luck in the hills to the west.

After sinking five dud shafts, they hit gold in the sixth on September 9, 1860.

The news spread and within days, prospectors were working every gully around the district.

Traders were quick on their heels, setting up their shops and stalls, while carts, coaches and drays loaded with miners headed for the new diggings.

By October 5, an estimated 3000 people had arrived, with shares in claims changing hands for 10-60.

From 1860 to 1879, the district produced 244,000 ounces of alluvial gold and 36,000 ounces of quartz gold.

The main leads were worked until they needed greater capital to develop, and soon, claim after claim was abandoned.

From late 1879 to 1886, there was little mining.

Rutherglen yielded more than a million ounces of gold but visitors today would be hard-pressed to find mining era remnants.

Retired Rutherglen businessman and former shire mayor Don Chambers said most visitors did not realise the importance of the town in Australia's gold heritage.

"Many of the old mullock heaps were used by council for road building and filling in pot holes," Don said.

Don's family pre-dates gold discovery in Beechworth, with William Chambers arriving in 1856, buying land from Corowa pioneer settler John Foord.

After a career as an industrial chemist with CSR, Don bought the supermarket in Rutherglen in 1983.

With a population of 2000, Rutherglen won the Best Small Town in the Tidy Town awards last year.

Don is helping his mate Ian Stones, a fourth generation Rutherglen resident, to restore a historic gold battery.

The pair, and other members of the restoration committee, hope to have the site operational by September, when the town celebrates the 150th anniversary of gold discovery.

Originally built in 1908, the five-head battery could crush 10 tonnes of quartz in 16 hours.

Ian, president of the Rutherglen Historical Society, said the machine was the last remaining working battery on its original site.

"This was a government battery which was supplied for the smaller miners who couldn't afford their own crushing plants," he said.

"It crushed quartz recovered from quartz reefs in the district and operated up until the mid-1990s.

"When we heard it might be lost, we jumped on it straight away."

Rutherglen's celebration of its gold history started this month and finishes with a carnival on September 9-12.

There will be a gold-tie ball, bonfire night, golden jersey bike ride, fun run, beauty contest, barrel rolling, street parade, gold-rush ball and a hunt for a $10,000 gold nugget.

"I spent 48 years working in the post office here and you can't beat the climate," Ian said.