PINCHGUT GULLY
GOLDEN REEF ROAD DEREEL, GOLDEN PLAINS SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
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PINCHGUT GULLY - History
Contextual History:History of Place:
Heritage Inventory History of Site:
Pinchgut Quartz Reef, No. 4 or Southern Division, Ballarat.
09.1867: a Geelong Company has taken possession of this reef and proposed working it on a grand scale.
03.1868: company formed to work the reef, some well known people are among the shareholders.
09.1868: success of the Geelong Co. has led to the re-occupation of 5 other reefs in the Mount Misery Ranges.
Pinchgut Gully, referred to as Growler’s Hill in the September 1889 report, Rokewood, No. 4 or Southern Division, Ballarat.
C1855: first worked.
06.1860: has been occupied by various old ground parties from time to time since it was first worked; a few patches along the gully are being worked.
04.1861: two or three small companies have obtaining about £5 per man per week.
06.1861: majority of claims are paying very fair wages and a couple as high as £5 per man per week.
07.1861: exceedingly dull.
11.1861: 8 or 10 puddling companies are doing pretty well at 3 to 4 pounds per man per week working the old ground at Pinchgut and Spring Creek.
03.1862: quite a lot of miners are prospecting in this area.
12.1862: Chinese are now almost in exclusive occupation of the wet gullies in this neighbourhood.
09.1889: surface rush to this locality; the largest nugget of 48 ozs was found by Thornton and party, the prospectors, who have a block claim and are erecting a puddling machine and sluice; Wakeling and Sons found a 16 ozs nugget, other parties found pieces up to 4 ozs; about 1000 ozs has been found altogether.
12.1889: rush has subsided and only the local parties are at work, 2 of whom are erecting puddling machines, with one achieving moderate success; Wakeling and Son found a 10 oz nugget; a total of 135 ozs has been found, and all of it from just below the surface.
Pinchgut Gully, No. 4 or Southern Division, Ballarat.
FRIAR TUCK COMPANY.
06.1865: boring for deep ground after several unsuccessful attempts at bottoming shafts.
Pinchgut Gully, Humbolt Reef, Rokewood, No. 4 or Southern Division, Ballarat.
GERMANIC CONFEDERATION QUARTZ MINING AND CRUSHING COMPANY/
AUSTRALIAN QUARTZ MINING COMPANY
11.1859: working vigorously and intend to purchase 35-40 horsepower steam engine for 24 head battery
04.1860: almost completed the erection of their crushing plant.
06.1860: a battery of 12 stamps has been at work for a few weeks and is crushing 150 tons per week; the blankets originally installed have been replaced because they were letting half of the gold escape; the system has been altered to shaking tables and ripples; the last weeks crushing produced only 30 ounces from 130 tons, if the 40 tons of mullock is subtracted the yield is 7dwt per ton, this could just be made to pay.
07.1860: yields of 4 to 5 dwt per ton are not very encouraging; poor yields are due to their inability to procure the machinery necessary to work and drain the portion of the reef found to be payable.
08.1860: yield 7 dwt per ton.
09.1860: new owner the Australian Quartz Mining Company purchased the company and paid its liabilities; trial crushing produced 10 dwt per ton.
11.1860: yields descried by the manager as satisfactory; contemplating the purchase of larger machinery and erecting another 12 head battery, which would make a total of 24.
06.1861: suspended operations and intend winding up after the failure of repeated trials and considerable expenditure.
Pinchgut Quartz Reef, or just Pinchgut Reef, No. 4 or Southern Division, Ballarat.
ROKEWOOD QUARTZ-MINING COMPANY.
ROKEWOOD QUARTZ AND ALLUVIAL COMPANY. (I have assumed that this is the same company.)
06.1868: struck a lode at a depth of 23 feet, it is estimated to yield 2 ozs per ton; a crosscut is being put in to determine the width of the vein.
09.1868: success of the Geelong Co. has led to the re-occupation of 5 other reefs in the Mount Misery Ranges. (assumed that this is the company)
12.1868: completed their machinery and commence crushing.
TRENDE AND PARTY
1907 to 1922: recorded production of 15.216 kg.
NORTH GOLDEN REEFS
1910: recorded production of 0.033 kg.26
WAKELING AND SONS
1889: recorded production of 0.809 kg.26
DEREEL PROSPECTING COMPANY
1914; recorded production of 0.003 kg.26
GOLDEN REEFS Co. / DEREEL GOLD MINING CO.( operated from the same shaft)
15.01.1910: contractors putting in the tunnel struck mineralised stone.
07.05.1910: had a better clean up which produced a yield of 43 ozs from 31 tons; the company is in a good financial position and will erect a 10 head battery as soon as possible; to date the stone has been carted to the government battery, which is a mile or two away.
21.05.1910: most promising mine yet opened in this district.
04.06.1910: crushing looks set to eclipse previous yields; the quantity of stone and the amount of gold in the stone looks to be increasing; the battery is being dismantled and moved nearer to the tunnel.
03.07.1910: crushed 20 tons at the government battery for a yield of 2 ozs per ton; contractor started erecting a 10 head battery.
03.09.1910: have been running the battery for two weeks; and have a yield of 90 to 95 ozs from 101 tons, which gave a profit of £300 or half the cost of the battery.
1909 to 1916:recorded production of 40.684 kg.
1936 to 1938: recorded production of 4.961 kg.33
THORNTON AND PARTY
1889: recorded production of 1.493 kg.33
ORIENTAL (GREAT NORTHERN), HANLON, SANDHURST QUARTZ, and CONEY’S GOLD MINING SYNDICATE are all shown on, Finlay, I.S., Plier-Malone, E.N.M., Cochrane, R.M., Buchnall, M., Douglas, P.M. and Caluzzi, J., 1992, Ballarat Deep Leads and Mines, Geological Survey of Victoria 1:100,000 Deep Leads Map 6, sheet 1, Department of Energy and Minerals, Victoria. However no production is recorded in the Ballarat Mines Database.Heritage Inventory Description
PINCHGUT GULLY - Heritage Inventory Description
Approximately 10 shafts located in the west side of the gully. Most are surrounded by mullocks heaps which are 10 to 15m in diameter. The largest is the Golden Reef mine. The age and condition of the features at this site correspond with the date of the last period of operation of this mine in 1938. The shaft is 3.4m by 1.4m with a depression where a pump bob pit may have been running south from its east side. An area, 30m by 25m, from which the mullock has been removed is on the east of the shaft, orientated north-south. The timber stumps for a battery box are 5 metres further east, some concrete and rock walling is next to these stumps. East again is the remains of the tailing heap which contains some pieces of rusting corrugated iron cyanide tanks. The entrance to a collapsed adit is located below this site in the bank of the creek. An open adit located a further 300m south runs west for nearly 100m, but apparently it does not connect with the workings of the Sandhurst Quartz mine, which are 100m west of the creek at this point. The four shafts at the site of this mine are open and have been explored as far down as the first level by local children, who gained access by climbing down the toe holes in the side of the shafts.
Heritage Inventory Significance: Not relevant
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PINCHGUT GULLYVictorian Heritage Inventory
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