Deptford, Victoria

Deptford is a locality in the Shire of East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia.^[4] In the 2016 census, Deptford had a population of 0.^[3]

A former mining town of which little remains, the Deptford locality today is entirely located in state forests, variously the Yowen-Burrun State Forest, Warriballat State Forest, Haunted Stream State Forest and the Bruthen State Forest. The former townsite, on the Nicholson River, is now the Deptford Picnic Area.^[4][5] The Haughtons Flat Diversion Tunnel, south of the old townsite, is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.^[6]

Deptford was established in 1864, replacing the nearby Store Creek settlement as the service town for the Nicholson River Goldfield.^[7] Mining in the area was largely shaft-based across three main reefs, with some small-scale alluvial prospecting in the Nicholson River.^[8] The population varied over the decades depending on the state of the mining industry, peaking at approximately 300.^[7]

In 1867, the town had two stores, two butchers' shops and a bakery, with two hotels under construction. The Gippsland Times said of Deptford: "The manners and customs of the place are of a primitive nature, interspersed with a good deal of drinking and civil fights, especially on Saturday nights, a good index that there is money in circulation". The town had no doctors, clergymen or policemen at that time.^[8] All buildings apart from the store, a hotel and three timber houses were reportedly "simple bush structures of spars and bark".^[7]

The Travellers' Rest Hotel (also known as the Miners' Rest Hotel) opened in 1865, was extended in 1894, and burned down in 1905.^[7][9] The first Deptford Post Office opened on 22 February 1868 and closed around September 1878; the second opened on 16 February 1885, was downgraded to a receiving office on 1 July 1927 and closed on 30 June 1928.^[10] Deptford State School (No. 3151) opened in January 1892 and closed in 1928.^[7] A church, used by both Anglican and Presbyterian congregations, was built in the 1890s.^[11][12][13]

The original Deptford cemetery was located on Navigation Creek, but was eroded by flooding and was subsequently moved. The first recorded burial was in 1870 and the last in 1898 - the year in which the cemetery was officially gazetted.^[11]

The former Store Creek settlement is now located within the broader locality of Deptford. It was the main settlement on the goldfield prior to the founding of Deptford. A government battery there was established in 1898.^[4][14][7]