Stanley, Victoria

Infobox Australian Place | type = town
name = Stanley
state = vic


caption =
lga = Shire of Indigo
postcode = 3747
est =
pop = 690
elevation=
maxtemp =
mintemp =
rainfall =
stategov = Benambra
fedgov = Indi
dist1 = 296
dir1 = NW
location1= Melbourne
dist2 = 49
dir2 = E
location2= Wangaratta
dist3 = 12
dir3 = SE
location3= Beechworth

Stanley is a small town approximately convert|12|km|mi|0|lk=on from Beechworth in Victoria noted for its apple & nut farms. At the 2006 census, Stanley had a population of 690.Census 2006 AUS
id=SSC26667
name=Stanley (State Suburb)
accessdate=2007-08-07
quick=on]

The town was formerly known as Snake Gully. Many parts of this rural community have the remains of gold diggings from the Victorian gold rush of the mid 1800s.

Gold

The district has an important historic gold mining past and produced some colourful people during that heyday. Among the notable was John Scarlett (1824-?), a Scottish miner. Scarlett was involved in all things associated with writing to the newspapers, calling meetings and voicing his opinions. Originally a dry miner he advocated rights for this type of operator, then on acquiring access to water he became and advocate for wet miners to the exculusion of the dry operators. He stood for mining board elections and then Victorian parliament in 1859. He appears in two historical works of the district; Woods, "Beechworth" and more so in O'Brien, "Shenanigans". Scarlett eventually became the Secretary for the local roads board. No known photo of him exists. In her book, Woods, termed Scarlett the 'Nine Mile Warrior'. O'Brien's work with the local 1850s papers uncovered an advertisement against Scarlett and lots of doggerel verse: a local paper christened Scarlett a 'water squatter'.

The gold mining carried out in the district involved (wet) sluicing operations. During the gold era, the Stanley region comprised a higher proportion of miners from Scotland, in comparison to other localties in the surrounding area. (O'Brien)

Like many goldfields in northeastern Victoria there was a Chinese presence at Stanley.

The town centre includes school, general store, pub, primary school, fire shed, church, cricket oval, town hall and apple shed. The Post Office opened on 1 October 1857 as Nine Mile Creek and was renamed Stanley next year. Citation

last = Premier Postal History | title = Post Office List | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&country= | accessdate = 2008-04-11 ]

There are no building permits being issued for Stanley to allow for controllable use of services eg water (no town water just bore, water tanks and some residents pump from local creeks.)fact|date=August 2007

References

*Craig. G.F. "The Chinese Miners at Stanley", Beechworth, 1987,
*O'Brien, Antony. "Shenanigans on the Ovens Goldfields: the 1859 Election", Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2005.
*Williams, David. "Gold and Granite Grandeur: Living History of Beechworth, Stanley and Eldorado", 1994. (fine sketches of several pioneer Stanley buildings and surrounds)
*Woods Carole. "Beechworth: A Titan's Field", Hargreen, North Melbourne, 1985.