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EAGLEHAWK GULLY WESTERN DAM PUDDLER
GRAVES TRACK ADELAIDE LEAD, CENTRAL GOLDFIELDS SHIRE
EAGLEHAWK GULLY WESTERN DAM PUDDLER
GRAVES TRACK ADELAIDE LEAD, CENTRAL GOLDFIELDS SHIRE
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Victorian Heritage Inventory
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EAGLEHAWK GULLY WESTERN DAM PUDDLER - History
Eaglehawk Gully would have been opened during the mid 1850s. As miners traced the leads through new ground, they left behind a wildness of shafts, uprooted and burnt trees and mounds of clay and gravel. This ‘worked-out’ ground was taken over by puddlers. Whereas the first miners had been content to deal with the washdirt from only the very bottom of the gutter, the puddlers often treating everything from the surface to a depth of twenty feet with their horse-powered washing machine. The history of alluvial mining in Eaglehawk Gully is not well documented and only one newspaper reference to the gully was found in TROVE - The death of a puddler named Thomas Brown, who was working a claim In Eaglehawk Gully. Mr O'Leary, Inspector for Mines for the Maryborough Division, who had examined the mine produced a portion of the rope, which was used In the shaft, and declared to the jury It was quite rotten, and wholly unfitted for the use In a shaft of the depth of this one, viz. 168 feet. [MAM 20/3/1874, P.2]. This report suggest those involved in operating puddling machines were probably quartz prospecting/mining when there was no water available for their machines. Due to the poor preservation of Eaglehawk Gully, this site was dealt with separately rather than lumped together with other recorded sites.EAGLEHAWK GULLY WESTERN DAM PUDDLER - Interpretation of Site
The site demonstrates the processing of alluvial gravels by a puddling machine. It has an associated hut site and two dams. Nearby is an adit that has been sealed.
Heritage Inventory Description
EAGLEHAWK GULLY WESTERN DAM PUDDLER - Heritage Inventory Description
Puddler - well defined but partly quarried puddler associated with extensive surfacing.
Heritage Inventory Significance: Regional
SiteCard data copied on 09/07/2024: As part of the inspection the two sites were combined as H7623-0129. It is reasonable to think that the puddling machine and associated hut belongs to the first phase of mining and the prospecting adit came later. The new extent is smaller than the original which makes it more easily located and thus protected by the land managers. Puddling machine site - On the western end of the dam’s embankment is a well defined, but partly quarried 22ft diameter puddler. The puddling machines inner mound trench is discernible. The puddler is associated with two dams. The gully below the dam, the most easterly of the three gullies that make up the head of Eaglehawk Gully, has been extensively surfaced. Near the road is the stone footings of a small stone hut. The puddling machine site is in poor condition. It is associated with two dams. It is likely that the hut remains are associated with the operation of the puddling machine. Adit - On the west side of the gully, 30 metres from Western Dam, is an open adit. There is a narrow cutting leading from the adit. The cutting runs for approximately 27 metres before terminating at a small intact mullock heap with several short dumping lines. The adit has been sealed. The cutting and mullock heap have not been disturbed.
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FOUR MILE FLAT PUDDLERVictorian Heritage Inventory
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EAGLEHAWK DAM PUDDLER NO. 1Victorian Heritage Inventory
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EAGLEHAWK GULLY ADIT NO.1Victorian Heritage Inventory
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