LONG TUNNEL EXTENDED GOLD MINE RESERVE
MINE ROAD AND MORMON TOWN TRACK WALHALLA, BAW BAW SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
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LONG TUNNEL EXTENDED GOLD MINE RESERVE - History
Heritage Inventory History of Site: The Long Tunnel Extended Mine was commmenced in 1871 adjacent to the successful Long Tunnel Mine from which it took its name. Between the two mines and the Walhalla mine, almost 47 tons (1.5 million troy ounces) of gold were produced from crushing 1.42 million tonnes of ore. Of this, about 13.7 tonnes of gold were produced from the Long Tunnel Extended Mine. During the years 1885 to 1908 it was one of Australia's principal reef gold producers, being top Victorian producer for six of those years. When the mine closed in 1911, its past dividends were the fifth-highest of any Victorian gold mine. The New Long Tunnel Co. opened unworked ground near the Long Tunnel Extended mine between 1927-38.Heritage Inventory Description
LONG TUNNEL EXTENDED GOLD MINE RESERVE - Heritage Inventory Description
The following description of the Long Tunnel Extended Gold Mine Reserve forms part of its National Estate citation:'The entrance to the mine is from the main adit which was commenced in an earlier operation in 1866 and extends 274 metres to the main shaft and machine chamber. The adit is timbered where required but is for the most part self supporting. It was cleared and regraded after 1975 and a steel rail tramway installed along the main haulway.The machine chamber is an excavation made in 1876 to house a boiler and winding gear for the main shaft, and extended progressively until 1905 to its present size of about 43m x 9m x 4m high, to house five boilers, pumping and winding engines and gear, compressors, air receivers and the like to drive twenty-six rock drills. The equipment, some of which would have had to be assembled inside the chamber because it would not fit through the adit, was removed after the mine ceased operation, but the chamber is in good consition since its partial clearing of fallen debris and stabilisation. The upper surface has been secured in some parts with rock anchors and mesh, and the boiler flue and inclined air shaft are secured with steel mesh. Brick bases of two Cornish boilers have been excavated and partly reconstructed. Short cross tunnels and an exploratory winze are accessible where they extend from the main adit about halfway along its length. They were excavated in 1871 where the adit intersected the reef, before driving further with the adit and excavating the main shaft to expose the reef again at lower levels. The shaft was continuously deepened below the machine chamber until 1908 when a depth of 923 m was reached. After closure of the mine in 1911 and liquidation of the Long Tunnel Extended Company, the workings were taken over by the Long Tunnel Company which mined down to 1120 m before operations ceased in 1914. Workings below the main adit level were extensive but are no longer accessible.A separate Renown adit tunnel excavated in the 1930s has been recently discovered and its history authenticated with one of the miners concerned. It is proposed to open this to the public and to excavate a short underground link to the main adit so that it can form part of underground tours of the Long Tunnel Extended Mine. This is not expected to seriously diminish the National Estate values of the mine if it is appropriately interpreted.Outside of the mine the Long Tunnel Extended Mine Reserve contains a stamper battery and other mining machinery, tramways, a museum collection of mining equipment, and several buildings reconstructed from photographic evidence.'
Heritage Inventory Significance: National EstateThe following statement of significance forms part of the site's National Estate citation: 'The Long Tunnel Extended Mine, within the registered Walhalla Conservation Area, was one of the three highly productive major underground mines on the Cohen's line of reef at Walhalla, and for six years was the richest and most successful gold mine in Victoria. As such it illustrates the reason for Walhalla's existence and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of underground gold mining as practised in this part of Victoria. (Criterion D2)Through the unusual construction practised in this group of mines, involving access from the surface through a near horizontal adit to a large machine chamber excavated deep underground, Long Tunnel Extended Mine is important in demonstrating a process which is no longer practised nor open to view in the other associated mines. It is of exceptional interest because it not only involved the use of winding and dewatering equipment within the chamber, but the housing of boilers underground to generate steam to drive the winding and pumping equipment and the rock drills, with the need to constantly convey timber for fuel through the adit, and to exhaust the boilers through a brick lined shaft driven more than 140 metres to the surface above. (Criterion B2)As the mine represents construction and operation over a period from 1865 to 1914, with adjacent workings which can be compared in the now reopened Renown Adit from the 1930s, the site contributes to a wider understanding of the history of mining and is frequently visited by mining students. (Criteron C2)'
Recorded by: David Bannear
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FORMER WALHALLA POST OFFICE AND RESIDENCEVictorian Heritage Register H0583
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WINDSOR HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0326
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WALHALLA BANDSTANDVictorian Heritage Register H1315
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