Almanac Names: The Origin of The Name Bendigo

 

 

During the early 1800s a massive influx of hopeful and in many cases hopeless individuals went in search of gold amongst the Victorian goldfields in the west of the newly formed state.

 

One of these intrepid miners was Irishman Ben Rafferty and his new bride Miriam, both from County Kerry. Miriam was a feisty woman and it’s fair to say, ruled the matrimonial roost.

 

Ben on the other hand wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed and frankly suffered from terminal apathy. In a task like mining gold that requires back breaking effort, Ben preferred catching up with mates around the diggings and ‘shooting the breeze’.

 

Because the Rafferty’s relied upon what Ben brought home, Miriam spent an inordinate amount of time kicking Ben in the back side in order to put food on the table.

 

One day Miriam had reached breaking point. There had been half a dozen instances where she fired a rocket up Ben but to no avail. In the late afternoon that day Miriam walked around the side of a hut and caught a glimpse of Ben.

 

Without any prompting and assuming Ben was in his usual state of immobility, she turned the corner and suddenly screamed, “Ben! Dig!….Oh.” What Miriam saw shocked her but little did she know that her frantic cry would become the name of the town, Bendigo. True story.

 

What occurred was that Ben, who actually had a pick in his hand at the time, quickly raised it above his head upon hearing Miriam but lost control on the back lift.

 

The pick flew from his soft hands and plundered into the cranium of fellow miner Anthony Lockett. Anthony, an enormously imposing but shy man, had a formidable presence amongst the campsites.

 

He calmly removed the pick from his skull, approached a terrified Ben and put him in a choke hold just long enough to avoid total asphyxiation.

 

Anthony’s reputation would proceed him. He had no fear and wouldn’t hesitate to push through any digger’s defence to take their stake.

 

He would go on to accumulate the most gold ever by an individual miner, well over 1300 ounces which made him the greatest gold digger of all time.

 

Anthony Lockett would move to Ballarat to raise his family.

 

 

 

More from Ian Wilson can be read Here.

 

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