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Weeds are growing in the dining room, the slate roof is long gone and no beers have been sold here in over 150 years. The bluestone walls are crumbling; if only they could talk.
But experts hope an archaeological dig at the heritage-listed Rockbank Inn north-west of Melbourne will yield insights into Victoria s gold rush history.
Heritage Victoria principal archaeologist Jeremy Smith at the ruins of the Rockbank Inn.
Credit:Justin McManus
They say thousands of artefacts, dating from as early as the 1840s, could be uncovered during the eight-week excavation, which will start in February.
The single-storey, two-room inn was built around 1853 by liquor merchants James Stewart and John Como Brown as an overnight stop for gold miners, just off a busy main road from Melbourne to the Ballarat goldfields.