GOLDEN RIDGE MINE
GOLDEN RIDGE TRACK DARGO, ALPINE SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
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GOLDEN RIDGE MINE - History
Heritage Inventory History of Site: In 1900, a government battery was erected at Livingstone Creek on Dargo High Plains, as an aid to quartz prospectors. Several reefs were opened up as a result. One of them appears to have been the Golden Ridge, although the only reference to that mine is a fleeting reference dated 1907, stating simply that the mine was working. Although the site is locally known as the Golden Ridge, it is possible that its remains relate to a later mining operation, that of Chambers and Martin. From about 1916, they worked a quartz mine 'in very mountainous country above the snow line', equipped with a battery and winding machinery, both driven by steam. The mine was still operating in 1918, when regular Department of Mines reports ceased.Heritage Inventory Description
GOLDEN RIDGE MINE - Heritage Inventory Description
Features of the Golden Ridge battery and mine site are a battery site, portable steam engine, cyanide works, mine workings, and vertical boiler and winch.Battery site-The battery has been removed, leaving only an excavated platform. All that is visible are some decaying bedlogs and protruding bolts. Near the battery platform is a stone blacksmith's forge.Portable steam engine-The single-cylinder engine has been moved a short distance from its original location and now lies partly sunk in swampy ground. It still stands on its iron wheels but its flue is missing. The boiler and smoke box have partly rusted out and no inspection mark could be found. Diameter of cylinder, 10 inches, length 11/2 ft; total length of engine, 12 ft. The engine's 5ft-diameter fly wheel has been removed and lies nearby in the swamp. Various fragments lie around the engine, including a plate of the cylinder bearing the inscription 'The Deming Co., P105'.Cyanide works-To the south-east of the battery site is a relatively large heap of tailings (approx. 20 m diameter x 2 m high). A rusted galvanised iron drainage vat, measuring 121/2 ft in diameter, is at the base of the heap, with two similar soakage vats on the heap. Near the soakage vats is a 3ft-diameter galvanised iron water tank.Mine site-The main feature of mine workings on the spur above the battery is a large, intact mullock heap with four major dumping lines, each about 50 m long. The shaft has been filled, but is now slightly subsided. Near the shaft is a stone blacksmith's forge.Vertical boiler & winch-The plant is located 200 m south of the mine. The vertical boiler has a diameter of 4 ft and stands 10 ft high, and is complete with flue and damper. According to the inscription on the plate, the boiler was inspected in either 1913 or 1918. On the northern side of the boiler is a well-preserved double-cylinder winch. The cylinders are of 6-inch diameter and 1 ft long. The 2ft-diameter drum still has its brake lining. The manufacturer's mark on the winch reads 'Hampson and Halliday, Engineers, Footscray, Melbourne'. The winch would have been used to extract ore from an open stope, 200 m down the spur.
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GOLDEN RIDGE BATTERYVictorian Heritage Inventory
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GOLDEN RIDGE MINEVictorian Heritage Inventory
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