On This Day……… 1st April 1860
Celebrating ancient festivals came easily to new gold rush settlements. Chiltern in North East Victoria, was only a few months old when April Fools Day came around in 1860, but did they forget their ancient customs? Unfortunate doctors and lawyers, whose sleep was disturbed by midnight calls to attend imaginary emergencies, and to take death – bed wills at 3am from soundly sleeping men in robust health, would mutter an emphatic “no”. According to the Chiltern Standard, half the towns business and professional people were got out of bed under one pretext or another.
