Clunes

Clunes is a historic gold-rush town in the Shire of Hepburn, Victoria, about 35 kilometres north of Ballarat. Established after Victoria's first recorded gold discovery in 1851, it retains an exceptionally intact 19th-century streetscape along Fraser Street. Known today as Australia's first internationally recognised Booktown, it hosts bookshops, heritage buildings, museums and film locations, offering a well-preserved example of Victorian colonial architecture and goldfields history.

Visitors can expect a compact, walkable historic town centred on Fraser Street with two-storey Victorian shopfronts, wide streets and preserved gold-era buildings. The town offers bookshops, cafes, galleries, the Clunes Museum, and heritage walks. Surroundings are rural goldfields landscape with open farmland. Visitors can explore streetscapes, heritage interiors, small museums and local shops at a relaxed pace, with interpretive signage about gold-mining history.

Site of Victoria's first recorded gold discovery in 1851 by James Esmond at Clunes, which triggered the Victorian gold rush. The town grew rapidly in the 1850s-1870s as a quartz-mining centre, with many buildings constructed during this prosperity. Fraser Street and the town centre are classified by the National Trust for their intact Victorian architecture reflecting goldfields history.

Designated Australia's first Booktown and member of the International Organisation of Book Towns, hosting the annual Clunes Booktown Festival since 2007. The preserved streetscape is regularly used as a filming location for period productions, reinforcing its identity as a living heritage and literary town within the Goldfields region.