TALLANGALLOOK CREEK ALLUVIAL WORKINGS
HELLS HOLE CREEK ROAD BONNIE DOON, MANSFIELD SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
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TALLANGALLOOK CREEK ALLUVIAL WORKINGS - History
Contextual History:History of Place:
Heritage Inventory History of Site:
Gold first found in Hell's Hole Creek (the steep upper reaches of Tallangallook Creek) in 1851. The diggings were for a short time called 'Wilkenson's'. In 1860, Hell's Hole Creek was rushed for about four miles down from its source, with digging confined to the creek bed and banks. Glen, Dry, and Brankeet creeks also formed part of the Hell's Hole diggings. The creeks were largely deserted by the end of 1861. In the late sixties and early seventies, Hell's Hole Creek again received attention and gave steady returns to sluicers. Hell's Hole Creek was little mentioned in the records of this period, and it seems likely that it was included under the general designation of Dry Creek. The Dry Creek area thrived during the early–mid seventies, with Chinese miners in the majority. Alluvial mining was on the wane by 1877, as reef prospecting on the highlands proved successful.
In 1888, Hell's Hole Creek was renamed Tallangallook Creek. Quartz mines came and went, and a small handful of persevering alluvial miners persisted along the creek into the 1890s. A Sludge Board inquiry in 1906-7 found that hydraulic sluicing, without elevation, had been carried out for years in Tallangallook and Dry Creeks. These activities presumably continued. Records show that sluicers were active on Dry and Glen creeks during the 1930s, and some mining is likely to have occurred on Tallangallook Creek at that period.
References:
Department of Mines Annual Report, 1907, pp. 74-6
Flett, J., The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria, Poppet Head Press, Melbourne, 1979 pp. 120-21
Mining Surveyors' Reports (Kilmore Division), January 1861; (West Buckland Subdivision), August & October 1861; (Jamieson Subdivision), March & September 1867; (Jamieson North Subdivision), September 1869; (Dry Creek Subdivision), June 1874, September 1888
Wylie, A., Gold in the Shire of Mansfield: An outline of the smaller discoveries, Mansfield Historical Society, 1987, pp. 5, 8, 22, 24Heritage Inventory Description
TALLANGALLOOK CREEK ALLUVIAL WORKINGS - Heritage Inventory Description
Undisturbed workings. Hillslope sluicing is free of blackberries; bank sluicing is beginning to be overwhelmed by the plants.
Heritage Inventory Significance: National Estate The site has: Scientific significance because of its rarity, intactness, and visiblity Network valuesùwith Cocker's sluice hole and alluvial workings on Clear and Dry creeks.
Heritage Inventory Key Components: Hillslope sluicingùA series of small sluiced holes or open cuts with stone-retained pebble dumps and long tailraces. The workings are free of blackberries. Sluicing water was supplied by a water race which runs along the slope above the open cuts. Some of the tailraces are 2 m deep and all appear to link into a lower race. Bank sluicingùThe eastern bank of Tallangallook Creek has been extensively quarried leaving faces (5-6 m high), large stone-retained pebble dumps and short tailraces. The southern end of the workings is relatively free of the blackberries which have virtually obscured the workings near the junction with Clear Creek.
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TALLANGALLOOK CREEK ALLUVIAL WORKINGSVictorian Heritage Inventory
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