Bank Street, Jamieson, looking south in about 1920. Bridge Street continues at the lower level on the right. “Jamieson was founded in the 1840s as a centre of pastoral activity. It was destined to become the gateway to the riches of the Jordan goldfields. During the early years of the gold rush, Jamieson was the distribution depot for provisions and machinery which had travelled from Melbourne with the Jordan diggings their ultimate destination. The city lies at the confluence of the Goulburn and Jamieson Rivers and is surrounded by peaks on all sides; Mounts Terrible and Buller can both be seen from Mount Margaret under which the settlement nestles. Richard Mackay painted the following picture of Jamieson: (Richard Mackay, Recollections of Early Gippsland Goldfields, Graham Publications, Ringwood, 1977, p. 21) ‘In 1861, stores, hotels, dancing houses, billiard saloons, and all the collaterals of a new gold rush, were in evidence – the town had come to stay … Then the booming days set in. Stores were plentiful, and storekeepers followed the diggers to the remotest parts, supplying, on mules and horses, places further and further out, until on every track, up river and across hill, the sound of bells made music day and night.’ Jamieson was soon eclipsed by Woods Point, the cutting of the Yarra Track making unnecessary the lengthy and expensive journey from Melbourne through Mansfield. In the 1860s, however, Jamieson was a large town with a post office, court house, police camp, several banks and schools, innumerable hotels and a few churches. When the frenzy of the gold rush had passed, Jamieson remained an important town, being for some time the centre of local government. Today, it is picturesque and popular site for holidays, as well as being the largest settlement in the environs of the Jordan Goldfields.” Reference; Owen F. Tomlin, Marysusan Bosam, Peter G. Chamberlain, “Gold for the Finding – A Pictorial History of Gippsland’s Jordan Goldfield”, page 14, first published 1979 by Hill of Content Publishing Company Pty Ltd.