Back to search results
CHRISTMAS FLAT DIGGING
2518-2526 DUNOLLY ROAD-WEDDEBURN ROAD RHEOLA, LODDON SHIRE
CHRISTMAS FLAT DIGGING
2518-2526 DUNOLLY ROAD-WEDDEBURN ROAD RHEOLA, LODDON SHIRE
All information on this page is maintained by Heritage Victoria.
Click below for their website and contact details.
Victorian Heritage Inventory
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
On this page:
Statement of Significance
What is significant?
How is it significant?
Why is it significant?
Show more
Show less
-
-
CHRISTMAS FLAT DIGGING - History
The original discovery of what the discoverer called Byr Lyn, but which the diggers immediately called Berlin, was the opening of Clelland’s Gully by Alexander Clelland on 21 August 1868, from which he received an official reward of £100. Mr Know Orme, the warden, wrote to the Secretary of Mines about the opening of the Berlin field - ‘The Berlin diggings are distant about twelve miles westward of Inglewood, and four from Kingower, and are on Kingdaraar Creek, which flows into the Loddon after a course of about twenty miles. The population of the 15th instant about 400. [ James Flett, 1979, The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria, pp. 292-296]
Please note Kingdaraar Creek now spelled Kangderaar Creek and Berlin Goldfield is now named Rheola.The alluvial gold from the Rheola area was being extracted from shallow deposits and was patchy. The gold ranged from nuggets of more than 90lb. weight downwards. E. J Dunn, Geological Survey of Victoria, wrote the following in 1912 re nugget mining at Rheola - It is remarkable that some very heavy nuggets were found not resting on bedrock but sometimes several feet above it in the gravel. Such was the case with the Viscount Canterbury nugget, found at Rheola, as the famous Berlin rush in now named. On this field the gold was so course that washing the gravel was not resorted to. The top material – drift, gravel and clay, etc – was stripped for 10 to 12feet to the wash-dirt and this later was turned over with a long-handled shovel and thrown back. If there was any gold present it was either seen in the gravel or felt on the shovel.Christmas Flat was opened in 1868. By the early 1870s, the Berlin or Rheola Goldfield had become Victoria’s richest gold nugget field. From the mid 1870s, occasional big nuggets continued to be found in the area, the last famous one being the 875 ounce ‘Hand of Faith’ nugget found in 1980 by Kevin Hillier using a metal detector.Heritage Inventory Description
CHRISTMAS FLAT DIGGING - Heritage Inventory Description
Patches of shallow alluvial sinkings
Heritage Inventory Significance: None
-
-
-
-
-
CHRISTMAS FLAT DIGGINGVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
RHEOLA HILL HISTORIC RESERVEVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
-