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The central Victorian goldfields region has left us a rich material legacy. The modern visitor can wander through historic streetscapes whose elements range from the grand and formal to tiny cottage sites and domestic gardens. On the bushlands fringes of the communities and in reclaimed farmlands, visitors can see the detritus of mining - mullock heaps and abandoned engine houses and machine beds. Instinctively the visitor emphasises with these tangible links with the past. Yet the physical traces cannot be easily read or grouped into coherent histories.

Gold Tailings explores the private and often forgotten lives of the gold settlers who built these communities.

Gold Tailings moves beyond the stereotypes of rootless single male gold diggers - who often travelled with mates and kin - were joined by women, and together they formed families and networks of common interest and mutual support.