BULL GULLY MINING COMPLEX
OFF GRAVES TRACKS ADELAIDE LEAD, CENTRAL GOLDFIELDS SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
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BULL GULLY MINING COMPLEX - History
Battery: One at Koetong is in the course of construction, and another at Mariners Reef, Maryborough, is being overhauled with a view to being put in commission. [Mines Department Annual Report, 1916, p.12]. Local information suggests this may have been the site of private battery. The above information, taken from the 1916 Annual Report, shows that a government battery was also erected in the area in 1916. The Mines Department report gives the battery’s location as Mariners Reef. Eucalyptus Distillery: Local information suggests the plant operated c.1930s/1940s Cyanide Works: Cyaniding commenced c.1987 and continued to First World War. Recommenced in the 1930s when the price of gold rose dramatically Puddling Machine Site: The state of preservation suggests the puddler operated in the twentieth century) House site: Looking carefully, you will see some low stone and mud walls. These ruins are all that remain of the family dwelling of Thomas Rice. The name Thomas Rice is synonymous with the discovery of gold in Maryborough. Brothers Thomas and William Rice were in transit from Avoca to Yandoit in June 1854, when they found 24 ounces of gold in a short time, in an area off the Avoca Road, starting a minor rush. [Exploring Maryborough and District, Maryborough Field Naturalists Club Inc]BULL GULLY MINING COMPLEX - Interpretation of Site
The site has a palimpsest of uses that spring from the gold mining, both alluvial (represented by the puddling machine site) and quartz mining (represented by the battery site). Cyaniding is a sub-branch of the quartz mining industry, the cyanidation process, was introduced in the years leading up to the First World War. Cyaniding was a cheap, simple and very effective process of retrieving the fine gold (invisible to the naked eye) from crushed quartz (tailings). The distilling of eucalyptus oil has been carried out in the Box-Ironbark forests of Victoria since the 1870s. Its expansion in the 1890s into a significant industry was a local response to the declining fortunes of the region's quartz gold mines. Thrown out of work, some miners turned to eucalyptus oil production, finding all the necessary ingredients in their backyards. The forests around Bendigo, Inglewood, Wedderburn, Maryborough and St Arnaud contained large tracts of oil-rich Blue and Green Mallee, as well as steam boilers and large dams abandoned by quartz miners
Heritage Inventory Description
BULL GULLY MINING COMPLEX - Heritage Inventory Description
Crushing machinery - loading ramp, stamper foundations, intact stome boiler setting (containing cornish boiler) and remains of short flue and stone base for collapsed brick stack. Dam - large full dam SiteCard data update on 28/06/2024: The historic features recorded in the early 1990s still survive. The site has been developed as a picnic with an interpretation trail that takes visitors to the various historic features Battery (Local information suggests this may have been the site of private battery. The above information, taken from the 1916 Annual Report, shows that a government battery was also erected in the area in 1916. The Mines Department report gives the battery’s location as Mariners Reef. More historical research required on the battery]. Ramp - On the south side of Battery Dam are the remains of an earth ramp measuring 60ft x 30ft and standing 5ft high. At the base of the ramp is a single row of narrow slots which would have once housed the wooden mortar stumps for 15-head of stamps. The stumps had been set in clay rather than the usual rough concrete. Running parallel to the slots is another narrow depression which would have contained a thick wooden bed-plate or bearer. A 1-1/2 inch tie bolt survives at each end of the bed-plate depression. Below the stamper foundations is a lower floor which contains an arrangement of wooden bearers and iron tie bolts. Boiler setting, flue and stack base - 5 metres to the east of the stamper foundations is a relatively intact above-ground stone boiler setting. The walls of the boiler setting stand to a height of 5ft and are 30ft long and 2-1/2ft thick. The rear wall of the boiler setting has been demolished and rubble has partly covered an iron damper plate. A short 6ft long flue, indicated by a line of stone rubble, runs to the site of a stack base (mound of stone rubble). Insitu stone work suggests that the stack base was approximately 12ft square. A line of brick rubble runs south from the base showing where the brick stack had fallen. Cornish Boiler - The boiler setting still contains the shell of a 28ft long, 6-1/2ft diameter Cornish Boiler. The boiler has only one inspection mark - BIA 5465, TP120,WP180, 25/9/22. Sections of the red brick lining between the boiler and the stone walls still survive. In front of the boiler setting is a partly buried 12ft square concrete slab. Tubular Boiler - Near the insitu boiler is an intact Tubular Boiler. According to local information this boiler was a recent introduction to the site. Battery Dam - Large full dam lies to the north of the battery site. Eucalyptus Distillery (Local information suggests the plant operated c.1930s/1940s]. A few metres to the north of the boiler setting are four circular vats. Three of the vats are open, the fourth is still covered by its concrete lid. The vats, set one foot apart, have an internal diameter of 6-1/2ft and their walls appear to be made up of three components: an outer lining (two courses of red bricks), middle lining (shell of an iron boiler) and an inner lining (one course of red brick). Running parallel to the eastern side of the vats is a 35ft long, 3ft wide concrete strip. Given there is no crane post, this narrow slab is probably part of a gantry system. On the western side of the vats is a T-shaped condensing pit which is 2-3/4ft wide with 13 inch wide concrete rendered brick walls. The west arm of the condensing pit is 33ft long and 3-1/4ft deep and the south arm is 18ft long and 6ft deep. Cyanide works [Cyaniding commenced c.1987 and continued to First World War. Recommenced in the 1930s when the price of gold rose dramatically) Cyanide works - 18 metres to the south of the battery is an extensive spread of tailings. On the tailing heap is a single row of six 20ft diameter cyanide vats. Each of the vats have a well defined narrow trench running around their perimeters indicating that they were once brick-lined. This interpretation is supported by scatter of red bricks around the vicinity of the vats. At the base of the tailings dump are two circular drainage vats: the eastern vat has a diameter of 16-1/2ft and has had its bricks removed, the eastern vat is somewhat smaller (13-1/2ft diameter) and still retains its concrete-rendered brickwork. Between the two drainage vats are the remains of two small circular brick/concrete rendered structures. One has been demolished to ground-level, the other is intact and is 4ft wide and stands 1-1/2ft high. These two small structures mare probably sumps. Puddling machine(The state of preservation suggests the puddler operated in the twentieth century) Puddler - 50 metres from the cyanide works is a large dam. On the southern end of the dam’s embankment is a well defined and relatively intact 22ft diameter puddler. The puddler’s inner mound is pronounced and the puddling trench is deep with sheer sides. There are no traces of any pivot post or slabbing. Most of the puddler’s wash has been quarried. House site - Near the south-west corner of Battery Dam are the stone footings of a L-shaped two- or three- roomed house. The stone and mud walls are 1ft thick, approximately 30ft long and in some places still stand to a height of 2ft. There is no sign of any fireplace.
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LONG GULLY PUDDLER & DAMVictorian Heritage Inventory
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