[2] In December 1863 the policeman Sub-Inspector Brook Smith was travelling in the region of recently opened goldfields in the Victorian alpine country and reported that “quite a township has sprung up halfway between Jericho and Wood’s Point called Emerald Hill”.

It was situated in an exposed location on the top of a hill above the Upper Goulburn and Jordan valleys and was itself flanked by three nearby gold-mines, the Loch Fyne, All Nations and Emerald Reef.

Totally exposed on the crown of the hill, the settlement was subject to extremes of weather, particularly in winter when deep snow, sleet and gale-force winds were commonplace.

[2] On 15 December 1873, with a “terrific wind” blowing and a bushfire burning nearby, embers started a fire in the roof of the Royal Mail Hotel at Matlock.

[8][9][5] A year after the destructive fire, in late December 1874, a visitor to the region recorded his impressions of the devastated township, describing the scene as presenting “a most deplorable appearance”.

[10] In March 1882, in an article regarding the discovery of “a wonderfully rich” gold-bearing reef half a mile from Matlock, the following was written about the settlement: “Ever since the great rush, some twenty years ago, the silence of desolation has brooded over this bare, bleak hill”.

[7] In August a traveller to the area wrote: “New stores, shops, and residences are going up, and competent judges say that the mines at Matlock are only the beginning of enormous discoveries, and there certainly seems to be good indications”.

[16] In January 1939 bushfires “sweeping through the ranges from three directions” caused destruction “at the Matlock Mills where a large number of men were employed”.

[14] In 1953 a saw-mill opened at Matlock, reviving the settlement somewhat, with 10 timber-cutters and millhands and two families occupying some of the old houses and three newly constructed dwellings.