Beechworth is a town located in the north-east of Victoria, Australia, famous for its major growth during the gold rush days of the mid-1850s.

Beechworth's many historical buildings are well preserved and the town has re-invented itself and evolved into a popular tourist destination and growing wine-producing centre.

Beechworth Parish and Township plans were prepared, named and certified by George D. Smythe after he had left the family estate near Liverpool in 1828, then again near Launceston, Tasmania, in 1838.

According to Carole Woods, an early party of prospectors retrieved a pan of gold from the area weighing 14 pounds (6.4 kg).

The local debates around the potential railway into Beechworth encompassed a broad gauge (5 ft 3 in / 1,600 mm) option or a narrow gauge (2 ft 6 in / 762 mm) system, between Wangaratta and Beechworth and these debates and options appeared in the Ovens and Murray Advertiser newspaper.

Finally a broad gauge railway arrived at Beechworth in September 1876,[7] but by that stage the town and its gold production was waning.

During its boom times, Beechworth town boasted a range of industries including, a tannery, jewellers, boot makers, a brewery, blacksmiths, livestock sale yards.

Numerous controls, regulations and licence checks were enforced on the Chinese miners (see: Woods; also McWaters; also O'Brien; and Cronin).

The presence of the Chinese goldminers around Beechworth and throughout Victoria's north-eastern region created social unrest and these are recorded in O'Brien's; Woods'; and Cronin's works below.

(Harvey) The Burke Museum is located in Loch Street and holds primary materials on Beechworth and the surrounding district's past.

Source materials include newspapers, photos, artefacts, clothing, paintings, exhibitions, published local histories and unpublished theses on the district and displays dating back to the gold discoveries, early Chinese miners and workings of the 1850s.

His relatively little-known brother John Alfred Isaacs was also a lawyer and represented Ovens, the local electorate, from 1894 to 1902, but he died insolvent and embroiled in matrimonial problems.

[15] Aaron Sherritt and Joe Byrne of the Kelly Gang came from the Woolshed goldmining camp, outside of Beechworth town.

It was in Beechworth gaol that twenty-one men, suspected Kelly Gang supporters, relatives and other sympathisers were held without trial or evidence for over three months, by the Chief Commissioner of Police Captain Standish, under the Outlawry Act.

Henrietta Ingram (became Bird) was born here and she went on to run Melbourne's largest bookshop and haven for the literati in Bourke Street in the 1930s.

In its golden heyday Beechworth boasted two influential newspapers: The Ovens and Murray Advertiser and The Constitution and Mining Intelligencer.

(O'Brien) Even today, these old papers are an important historical research tool as most editions from the early 1850 survive and are micro-filmed and are available at the Burke Museum and most state and national libraries throughout Australia.

Other popular draws to the area are its many annual festivals, including the famous Golden Horseshoes Festival Easter Parade through the centre of town, the Burke Museum, Forests Commission museum, waterfalls, Gun Powder Magazine, Newtown Bridge (Stone Bridge), Tail Race (Mining Race), Spring Creek Water Falls, Spring Creek Gorge, Beechworth Lunatic Asylum ghost tours, lakes, historic buildings, goldfields, walks, the Beechworth Bakery, Beechworth Honey, brewery, the lolly shop and night tours, restaurants and wineries.