Local people are digging into Beechworth’s history with good turn-outs at Beechworth History and Heritage Society-hosted events in recent weeks.

Rain auspiciously held off at the right moment for 25 people commemorating Ching Ming - meaning Clear and Bright, or Tomb-sweeping, Day - in Beechworth’s Chinese Cemetery.

More than 2000 Chinese ancestors were remembered in the extensive and beautifully-sited graveyard where they were interred at the end of lives in which they contributed so much to Beechworth during and after the colonial gold rush.

The commemoration was hosted by Kathryn Chivers, descended from a Chinese-born family, and Beechworth History and Heritage Society.

Cemetery Trust chair Rosemary Barnett and trust member Lorraine Lucas also attended.

BHHS secretary Peter Kenyon introduced the commemoration and Kathryn spoke about its significance before Janice, from Beechworth’s Chinese community, spoke about the ceremonial protocols.

Gifts of food, wine and incense were placed on the altar and ceremonial paper money was lit in the burning towers.

Historian and writer Vivienne McWaters also spoke at the gathering.

On Saturday, Lorraine and Ross Lucas led a guided tour of their packed collection of historic Beechworth photographs in the Hotel Nicholas.

This was the first of the National Trusts’ Australian Heritage Festival local events hosted by Beechworth History and Heritage.

Those attending heard about many of the Beechworth plateau's 61 hotels - a good number of which are shown on the hotel’s walls - offering stabling, food, drink, a possible bed and entertainment at the height of the Ovens goldfield rush in the 1850s.

They were also shown poignant historic photographs of Waywurru and Dudhuroa people at Wangaratta and elsewhere in the North East taken by Thomas Washbourne in 1865-66.

These images have recently come into hotel's collection with advice from Waywurru researcher, historian and storyteller Megan Carter.

On Sunday, society president Jamie Kronborg led a guided walk among Beechworth’s historic trees, recounting stories of botany and science.

He described to the tour group how the town's exceptional tree-lined streets and colonial-era parks were planned and planted.

The group also ‘met’ Ferdinand von Mueller, colonial-era government botanist, saw his gifts to Beechworth, including a row of massive Sequoiadendron giganteum, or redwoods, in Town Hall Gardens, and heard about his 1890 address to the town in which he described Beechworth’s beauty.

The society’s next event, a walk exploring Beechworth’s art history, will be held on 16 May.

Go to www.trybooking.com/eventlist/digbeechworth for tickets. All funds support the Society’s heritage advocacy work.