CHINESE HAND-PUDDLERS AND HUTS SITE
LINCOLN GULLY ROAD CRESWICK, HEPBURN SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
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CHINESE HAND-PUDDLERS AND HUTS SITE - History
This small but unique site was occupied and used by Chinese miners at times between 1880 and 1910, when numerous larger ‘horse drawn’ puddlers were in use in the area. The mils developed by innovated Chinese who lacked land, water and grazing rights and capital for horses. It was first chanced upon after a fire in 2010. There were some 10 circular trenches visible at this puddling site, now reduced to 6 or 7 through damage from road works, piping (from Lincoln storage). The remnants of small two hut sites on the east side of the site are now piles of slat rubble. Larger materials such as bricks and quartz stones have been removed. The uniqueness of the site has attracted much interest from local Goldfields historians, and a video of the site and hand-puddling principle was produced in Creswick (Van Beeren and Henderon 2018).CHINESE HAND-PUDDLERS AND HUTS SITE - Interpretation of Site
The human-powered mills were probably developed and used as small and inexpensive versions of the many hundreds of horse-powered puddling mills used in the Creswick area by mainly European miners in the later 1800s and early 1900s. These mills would require much less water than used by standard horse drawn mills. Currently the place has light road traffic on Lincoln Gully Road through the Creswick Regional Park, and is sometimes used by gold fossickers and walkers. The site is 100m south of the Creswick – Melbourne Rd, and 300 m from the old Koala Park /picnic are that lies north of that road. The Goldfields Walking Trail runs parallel to Creswick Creek and through the Koala Park. There was an area of land designated on maps as a ‘Chinese Camp’ on between Creswick Creek and Old Melbourne Road, northeast of this mill site, near Creswick Creek (Wettenhall 2016). This land set aside as a Chinese Cam may have been used by workers at the Puddling Site, but the camp was resumed by the Foresty agency in the early 1900s (Turnbull 2012).
Heritage Inventory Description
CHINESE HAND-PUDDLERS AND HUTS SITE - Heritage Inventory Description
A strip of land about 100m x 30m wide along east side of Lincoln Gully Road, south of junction with Old Melbourne Road. There are 6-9 circular trenches (3 m diameter and 3-40 cm deep) – each a remnant of a hand-drawn mill used for puddling dirt for gold. Some of these ‘rings’ are more distinct than others. Also within and outside the site are many remnants of small water races, old shafts and materials (shale, brick fragments and quartz) – the ruins of small Chinese living huts.
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