The history of
Fortuna Villa
Historically ‘Fortuna’ is significant for the record it provides from 1855 to 1871 of Christopher and Theodore Ballerstedt, Australia’s first mining magnates and from 1871 to 1935 of the Lansell family, George Lansell (The Quartz King) being one of Australia’s most successful and adventurous nineteenth century gold mine owners and speculators.
Gold was officially discovered in October of 1851 at a place called ‘the Rocks’ near present day of Golden Square along the Bendigo Creek. Where sheep had grazed quietly in the 1840s, the cry of ‘Gold!! Gold!!’ in late 1851 turned the tranquil valley into a turbulent scene of human activity.
The gold rushes followed and thousands of miners swarmed into the Bendigo valley to seek their fortune. A government camp was established at Golden Square but moved to Camp Hill, now part of Rosiland Park, in 1852. By 1855 the small bustling shanty town had given way to the township of Sandhurst, based on a plan by R.W.Larritt.
By 1856 with the decline of alluvial gold on the Bendigo fields, the diggers were required to turn to something other than alluvial sinking and their attention was directed by newspapers and old experienced minders to the quartz reefs of which huge outcroppings were so often observed on every side.
On Victoria Hill to the northwest of Sandhurst Town above New Chum Gully, gold was discovered in 1854 on the New Chum or Victoria Reef. This was the first reef worked in the Bendigo area and one of two principal lines of reef on the Bendigo gold fields.
The eccentric German, JCT Christopher Ballerstedt who had begun working on open cut systematically in 1855 on the Victoria reef was laying the foundations of a handsome fortune from a claim allegedly bought from a couple of schoolboys who had opened it up successfully.
The Ballerstedts had come to Bendigo from the 1849 California gold rush in the early 1850’s. JCT Christopher Ballerstedt was born in Russia in 1796. He fought in the battle of Waterloo as a soldier in Bluchers army.
Ballerstedt and his son Theodore were possibly the first to prove that gold yields were not inversely proportional to the depth below ground.
This interest in reef mining grew from the mid 1850’s as the alluvial deposits dwindled. However progress was hampered due to the difficulty of extracting the gold from the quartz. Soon steam crushing plants replaced hand dollies and Chilean Mills, and as the shafts went deeper, windlasses were replaced by steam winding plants.
The introduction of this equipment led to the need for capital. As a result mining companies were formed in Sandhurst as early as 1857.
Another who was firmly convinced of the future of the reefs was a young Englishman, George Lansell, who had been lured to the Bendigo gold fields by reports sent to him in England by his younger brother Wooten.
Born in Margate, England, on 24 August 1823, George Lansell was the eldest son of Thomas Lansell, grocer and tallow chandler. At the age of 14 George left school to assist his father in the family business.
When Lansell received letters from his brother Wooten, a ship’s officer, who had travelled widely and visited Australia several times, he decided to emigrate and try his luck on the gold fields of Australia.
The Quartz King
George Lansell
As he continued to prosper, so did he continue to invest his money in new mining companies. So consistent and confident was he that he became known as the ‘Quartz King of Bendigo’, and was the most sought after adviser in mining matters. He was the promoter of the Garden Gully United Mine, the most famous of all Bendigo’s Mines, in which, in spite of its varying fortunes and long delayed success, George Lansell always had the greatest faith.
Lansell was always ready to back his opinion and stand by it, with the result that he became the sole owner of several mines such as the 180, 616, 222 and 83, Comet, Sandhurst, New Red White and Blue Consolidated (Big Blue), South Red White and Blue and the Sheppshead among others. Most of these claims were originally held by companies in which Lansell had large investments. He continually increased these interests, buying out the faint hearted shareholders. He then sank the shafts deeper and deeper, venturing large sums of money but maintaining his firm faith in the properties, eventually reaping the rewards.
On the 17th October 1869 JTC Christopher Ballerstedt died at the age of 74. Theodore continued the mining interests of Ballerstedt and Son until 6 May 1871 when he sold his residence at New Chum, his machinery and his many valuable claims to George Lansell for the sum of 30,000 pounds.
In what appears to be a typical example of Lansell’s luck, one of the claims purchased by him from Ballerstedt turned out to be his most famous acquisition, the BIG 180. Originally worked by the German digger, Wittscheibe in the early 50’s he sold it to Ballerstedt and Son for thirty pounds and they are said to have made a fortune from it. The reef had been reached at 180 feet (hence the name) but Ballerstedts workings had reached about 450 feet. Typically Lansell didn’t hesitate to adopt his invariable custom and continued to sink deeper and deeper. From the first stope he worked in the 180 mine he yielded a clear profit of 180,000 pounds. In another speculative move he subdivided land he had purchased around the former Government House in Toorak Road. He named the subdivision the ‘Vice Regal Estate’ and its streets Lansell Road and St Georges Road.
Eventually the 180 workings reached a depth of 3179 feet making it the deepest mine of its day in the Southern Hemisphere. By 1889 it was estimated that collectively Ballerstedt and Lansell had taken 1,000,000 pounds worth of gold from the BIG 180 proving it one of the richest on the New Chum line of reef.
After selling off his interests in Sandhurst Theodore Ballerstedt returned with his family to Germany. Theodore died at Magdeburgh in 1876.
In 1872, Lansell then aged forty nine married Bedelia Mary Jarvis (nee Mulgauney), a young Irishwoman who had emigrated with her family to South Australia in about 1850. However Bedelia who had first married at 16 had trouble adjusting to her newly acquired social status as the wife of the Quartz King, George Lansell.
In 1876 George returned to England for the first time. He also toured the continent and visited the excavations at Pompeii. Returning home Lansell again immersed himself in business, leaving for the United States where he visited Nevada and California, inspecting mining methods there. He was very impressed with what he saw, especially the recently introduced diamond rock drill, which he subsequently used very successfully in some of his mines after returning home.
The seventies saw the coming of age of several new mines of great promise including the Londonderry and Lansell’s Cinderella, whilst the older mines continued to dazzle the colony and delight the investors. The seventies also saw in influx of Cornish miners into the Sandhurst mines as a result of the discovery of extensive alluvial tin deposits in Malaya in 1872 which spelled disaster to the deep and impoverished Cornish tin mines. With their skill and knowledge of deep mining, Cornishmen were attracted to the Victorian quartz mining files. Many of the Sandhurst mine managers were themselves Cornish and the new arrivals soon found employment. Knowing the worth of these highly skilled miners, Lansell was an active sponsor of Cornish migration for his mines.
