BEECHWORTH HISTORIC GOLD MINING LANDSCAPE
OFF BEECHWORTH-STANLEY ROAD, BEECHWORTH VIC 3747
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Statement of Significance
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BEECHWORTH HISTORIC GOLD MINING LANDSCAPE - History
The discovery of gold transformed north-eastern Victoria. Payable gold was discovered on Spring Creek in 1852 on David Reid’s pastoral run at May Day Hills. The first gold deposits were found in loose nugget and powder forms in gold bearing soils. A township on Spring Creek was surveyed in 1853 and named Beechworth after the surveyor’s birthplace in England. Gold was discovered eight kilometres south-east of Beechworth in the vicinity of present-day Stanley. The locality was named Nine Mile Creek as it was nine miles from Beechworth. In 1854 the population stood at 650 (Freeman 2002: 39). There were two diggings at Nine Mile – the Upper and the Lower Nine Mile. Gold was discovered soon after in Yackandandah, and nearby Snake Creek (Stanley) and Wooregee in 1853. The initial discoveries of gold were to see an influx of miners and small settlements spring up along creek beds. The gold fields plan of 1857, the ‘Road from Beechworth to Nine Mile Diggings’, shows the diggings along the road at Hurdles Flat, Deep Creek, Europa Gully, Silver Creek as well as the largest settlement of Nine Mile diggings (Figure 4). The Ovens Directory for 1857 lists no less than seven pubs along the route. Butchers, bakers, storekeepers, blacksmiths and boot suppliers all plied their trade along this road in 1857 (Ovens Directory: 1857). The Chinese population was 1000 in 1860, they used dry sinking rather than sluicing and worked the tailings discarded by Europeans. The site card for the VHI site ‘Chinaman’s Flat Alluvial Workings’ (H8225-0041) references their presence on the gold diggings.BEECHWORTH HISTORIC GOLD MINING LANDSCAPE - Interpretation of Site
Gold workings, huts and gardens were marked on the Beechworth to Nine Mile Creek Diggings, 1857 which may have left a signature in buried deposits. However, the subsequent activity of gold mining sluicing that occurred in this area has left a clear mark on the landform. This later activity is likely to have removed any evidence of the earlier activity. Any accumulation of occupation deposits or features associated with the huts and gardens marked on the 1857 plan was probably removed with the metres of topsoils sluiced away and washed down stream. Features associated with gold mining sluicing and quartz mining activity remain. Their presence was verified during the survey; the sluiced edges of the creek valley, the sludge and gravel mounds, the water races cut into rock, soil embankments and terraces. It is possible there are archaeological deposits and artefacts buried in the soils associated with this activity within the site extent. The site extent is defined as the area within Crown land corresponding in part with the RNE listing for Beechworth Historic Park and according to the attached plan.
Heritage Inventory Description
BEECHWORTH HISTORIC GOLD MINING LANDSCAPE - Heritage Inventory Description
From the RNE citation: The historic area consists of both alluvial and reef mining remains. At least nine identified reef mines, operating from the 1860s to the early 1900s, are located in the area. Remains consist of shafts, (included amongst which are a number which have now collapsed) adits, open cuts (including a spectacular near-vertical open cut in the steep hillside at the Rechabite mine, and a half kilometre long near-continuous cut following the line of the exposed Homeward Bound reef). Mullock heaps are another reefing feature; the Homeward Bound heap, approximately 100m long, is particularly distinctive. At the Wallaby mine there is a huge quarry with a tunnel leading out at the bottom. Also at the Wallaby is one of the main features of the various reefing remains, a substantially intact twelve head stamper battery. Powered by a single cylinder steam engine, The battery was built at the old Beechworth foundry and it operated continuously until the turn of the century. In 1908 the timber frame was repaired but the battery finally closed four years later as mining operations came to a virtual end. Remnants of another battery (driven for a time by a water wheel) are found at the Homeward Bound mine. At the Homeward Bound there is also a virtually intact kiln made of bricks and also (as at the Bracelet mine) ruins of buildings. Clear evidence of gardens is found at the Bracelet mine as well. Alluvial mining was carried out in the bed of Nine Mile Creek and adjacent gullies from the 1850s to the early 1920S. Workings are seen along large sections of the main creek bed. Extensive signs of hydraulic sluicing are found downstream of the Homeward Bound: red clay cliffs up to 50ft high, long sluice lines (some straight and some apparently curved to design) and massive accumulations of stones and other tailings, provide dramatic evidence of this form of mining. Numbers of water races and dams (earthworks which were especially important to the alluvial mining operations) are also found. In some sections of the valley there are as many as six tiers of races, one above the other and sometimes only a metre or so apart. In the early years (especially the 1860s) these races involved a far greater capital outlay than the mines themselves. They were frequently conducted by separate companies, competing with each other in some instances to sell water to the mines. They were the main source of controversy and litigation in the area. Select committees were specifically established to investigate the question of water rights in the Beechworth district in 1861 and again in 1866. A number of tracks, used by the miners, are also found within the historic area. The mining remains are set in a steep valley forested with various native species including peppermint, box, blue gum and candlebark. Any areas cleared by the miners for firewood etc have now reverted to bush. The evocative historic area has an aesthetic quality deriving partly from the natural landscape and partly from the forms and locations of the mining sites themselves.
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FINCHAM AND HOBDAY PIPE ORGANVictorian Heritage Register H2450
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NORTH MELBOURNE POTTERYVictorian Heritage Inventory
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STONY CREEK SLIPWAYVictorian Heritage Inventory
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