Unveiled in November 1991 during ‘Back to Linton’ celebrations, this memorial marks the site of the original Linton’s Diggings township.
Following the discovery of gold in May 1855 a settlement sprang up in the hills and gullies to the north and west of here. As it was situated on what was then the northern end of the Linton family’s Emu Hill pastoral run, the place was called Linton’s Diggings.
Within months, there were hundreds of men and women of many different nationalities here, digging holes, felling trees, erecting tents, coming and going often and in large numbers, and creating a settlement where before there had just been a forest of eucalypts. As well as shops, businesses and a hotel, by 1856, there were weekly church services – Church of England, Methodist and Catholic – and a school under Anglican control with 56 children’s names on the roll. The principal gold discoveries were at Bloomer’s, Nuggetty, and Candlestick gullies.
In 1860, Surface Hill, where the present town of Linton stands, was selected as the site for the new town, and the population of Linton’s Diggings gradually moved there.
