Suburb Snapshot: Creswick

Creswick is approximately 49.6 square kilometres and has twenty-three parks covering nearly 33.8 per cent of total area. The population of Creswick in 2011 was 2941 people and by the 2016 was at 3171, showing growth of 7.8 per cent.

Creswick is a former gold mining township 20 kilometres north of Ballarat and is set in undulating ranges, partly forested, which formed an extensive goldfields discovered during the early 1850s.
It was named after the Creswick Creek pastoral run (1842), taken up by the brothers Henry, Charles and John Creswick. In 1852 gold was discovered on Creswick Creek with most leads running north of the future township site, but one ran southwards, just east of the town centre.

A goldfields Commissioner, Walter Brackenbury, was appointed in December 1852, and his Commissioner’s Camp became the site of the Botanic Gardens. In August 1854 a township survey was carried out and the year after the first school was opened.

Upwards of 25,000 miners were estimated to be in the Creswick area at peak mining times. The census for 1861, however, recorded a population of 4714. The easy alluvial gold was quickly won, and deep lead mining became the main form of extraction after the early 1870s, particularly to the north of Creswick.

In 1859 a town Road Board was established, becoming a borough in October 1863 and that year also coincided with the construction of a hospital.

CoreLogic data indicates that the predominant age group in Creswick is 60-69 years with households being primarily childless couples and are likely to be repaying $1000 – $1399 per month on mortgage repayments, and in general, people in Creswick work in a trades occupation.

Source: Ballarat Times News Group