The Member for Benambra, Hon. Bill Tilley MP and Indigo Shire Council Mayor, Cr Larry Goldsworthy, today launch Heritage Week celebrations with the official opening of a suite of new projects completed as part of the Indigo Gold Trail, a major tourism initiative which links the towns and historic sites of the area by the common thread of gold.

State Government grants totalling $130,000 under the Sustainable Small Towns Development Fund, together with contributions from Indigo Shire Council, have enabled the refurbishment of the Rutherglen Gold Battery including a new visitor viewing area, audio visual production, interpretive signage, landscaping, building repairs and carpark upgrade. The Rutherglen Gold Battery Committee, supported by the Rutherglen Historical Society and Indigo Shire's Economic Development and Tourism teams, has seen the refurbishment project to fruition.

Today's event is also launches:

• A package of entertaining Indigo Gold Trail Audio Tours which take visitors on an entertaining journey of gold discovery around Indigo Shire, bringing to life the sites, colour and the characters of the goldfields. The Audio Tours are now available on MP3 players (pictured) at Visitor Information Centres in Rutherglen, Beechworth, Chiltern and Yackandandah and online.

• The Indigo Gold Trail website – www.indigogoldtrail.com - equipped with a downloadable Gold Trail brochure, soon to be available in simplified Chinese, as well as audio tours, videos and comprehensive information about the gold history of the area.

• Indigo Gold Trail touch-screens equipped with new software offering visitors a virtual tour of some 40 key gold sites across our Indigo Shire, to be installed at each Visitor Information Centre in Beechworth, Chiltern, Rutherglen and Yackandandah.

Believed to be the only Government Battery in Victoria still in working order, the Rutherglen Gold Battery was built in 1908 to extract quartz recovered from reefs in and around Rutherglen. It was in use until 1994 yielding 5650 ounces of gold (worth close to $100 million in today’s currency) from 6549 tons of quartz crushed during that period. The Battery is considered historically as well as scientifically significant because of its rarity and its intactness.

The State Government grant has also assisted the refurbishment of the National Trust-listed Powder Magazine, one of a number of nationally significant gold era buildings comprising the Beechworth Historic & Cultural Precinct.

The Indigo Gold Trail is a key plank of Indigo Shire's Tourism Strategy and aims to bring tangible benefits to the community by giving visitors of all ages a new reason to explore the area, bringing economic benefit to local accommodation and hospitality providers, restaurants and cafes, retailers and ultimately, the broader communities of the Shire.

This year marks the 160th anniversary of the discovery of gold in Indigo Shire – the rush began on the banks of Spring Creek in Beechworth in August 1852.