“We have begun to destroy the beauty of this creek. It will no longer run clear between its banks, covered with wattles and tea trees…its whole course will exhibit nothing but nakedness…we diggers are horribly destructive of the picturesque” wrote William Howitt in 1855. My ancestor John Bromley discovered gold in Harrietville in the early 1850s and my family was involved in disruptive mining there until 1920. As a child I remember visiting the large family gravestone. My own visit to Harrietville Cemetery in 2021 was at dusk, there was a cold wind blowing and an otherworldly feeling walking amongst the dead.