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ROSE, THISTLE AND SHAMROCK BATTERY
CEMETERY LANE HARRIETVILLE, ALPINE SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

ROSE, THISTLE AND SHAMROCK BATTERY

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Statement of Significance
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Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The Rose Thistle & Shamrock mine was the largest recorded gold-producer and had the deepest workings in the Upper Ovens gold field. The mine was worked almost constantly from 1860 until 1934. One of the mine's most productive periods was during the 1920s when 46,000 ounces of gold were obtained from 49,000 tons of quartz ore. The precinct contains a wealth of archaeological evidence of the evolution of quartz mining and mineral processing technologies

How is it significant?
The Rose Thistle & Shamrock Quartz Gold Mine Precinct is of historical, archaeological and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
The Rose Thistle & Shamrock Quartz Gold Mine Precinct is historically and scientifically important as a characteristic example of an important form of gold mining. Gold mining sites are of crucial importance for the pivotal role they have played since 1851 in the development of Victoria. As well as being a significant producer of Victoria's nineteenth century wealth, quartz mining, with its intensive use of machinery, played an important role in the development of Victorian manufacturing industry. The Rose Thistle & Shamrock precinct is quite different from other Alpine mining sites in presenting an easily interpreted sequence with each mining period surviving as a virtual time-capsule with its own mine workings, machinery relics, and engineering works. The educational value of the precinct is enhanced by its proximity to a major highway, ease of access, and natural setting in the rugged foothills of the Australian Alps.

The Rose Thistle & Shamrock Quartz Gold Mine Precinct contains a wealth of archaeological evidence crucial to an understanding of the development of mining and ore treatment technologies between 1860 and 1934.

[Source: Victorian Heritage Register]

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