BLACKBALL Blackball was named for the Black Ball Shipping Line, which leased land in the area to mine for coal. It was formerly known as Joliffetown and Moonlight Gully, it began life as a small gold settlement towards the end of 1865 but its development was impeded by the pull of the major goldfield a few miles up the Grey Valley at Moonlight. There the gold was purer and the prospects brighter. The local hotel 'Formerly the Blackball Hilton' was founded in 1910, as the Dominion Hotel, renaming itself to the "Blackball Hilton" after the mine manager, Mr Hilton, after whom the town's main street is also named. It was forced to change its name after objections from the international Hilton hotel chain. It was the development of the coalfield in 1893 that began Blackball's growth,
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