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Victoria’s Mining Heritage

CENTRAL VICTORIA

The Goldfields region of central Victoria is Australia’s premier gold heritage region offering spectacular historic cities and towns.  Easily accessible from Melbourne, the region entices the visitor with its grand streetscapes, historic architecture, gardens, art galleries, provincial food and wine, festivals and world-class attractions.

Goldfields Tourist Route
Explore the Victorian Goldfields via the circular Goldfields Tourist Route.  Follow the distinctive golden ‘G’ signs along on the trail which takes in important heritage sites, cities and villages including Ballarat, Creswick, Castlemaine, Maldon, Bendigo, Maryborough, Avoca, Stawell and Ararat.

Ballarat
Ballarat has enjoyed a rich and prosperous heritage thanks to the gold rush which began in 1851.  News that the Ballarat region was home to the richest alluvial goldfield in the world resulted in a population explosion as people came from all over the world seeking fortune.  By 1855, Ballarat had grown to a city with a population of 100,000 people.  The city retains much of its rich gold heritage in the form of opulent buildings, fountains, and tourist attractions which celebrate the city’s history.

• Sovereign Hill
  Sovereign Hill is an open air museum that depicts Ballarat’s first ten years after the discovery of gold in 1851 and comprises over 60 historically recreated buildings, with costumed volunteers.  The gold diggings are the centre point of the complex, featuring a winding creek in which visitors are able to pan for real gold.  This area is surrounded by tents and buildings contemporary to the early years of the gold rush.  There are two mines which have guided tours at regular intervals.  It also features steam-driven machinery for pumping water and processing the ore.
• Gold Museum
  The Gold Museum houses an extensive and valuable collection of gold nuggets, alluvial deposits, gold ornaments and coins, featuring the renowned Jessica and Paul Simon collection of gold coins.
• Ballarat Heritage Walking Trails
  A series of three heritage walking trails start in the heart of the city at the Ballarat Visitor Information Centre and highlight the city’s mining heritage.
  Walking trails brochure

Creswick
A number of historic buildings which serve as a reminder of the town’s gold mining history line the streets of Creswick which was built on the proceeds of rich gold deposits mined from the 1850s.

• Creswick Museum
  Creswick Museum is housed in the former Municipal Offices of the Shire of Creswick, situated in the Town Hall complex.  Creswick is the location of the New Australasian No. 2 Mining Disaster which occurred in 1882 with the loss of 22 miners.  Family or mining history research can be undertaken during Museum opening times.

• Berry Deep Leads
  Between 1872 and 1900, more than 30 companies worked Victoria’s richest deep alluvial gold lead system which runs between Creswick and Smeaton to the north.  They produced about 1.7 million oz of gold and have left a distinctive landscape of large mullock dumps.  Two Cornish enginehouses used to pump water from the workings can be seen from the road about 3km west of Smeaton.

Castlemaine
At the peak of the gold rush in the 1850s, Castlemaine was home to almost 30,000 miners and was considered to be the richest goldfield in the world.  Castlemaine’s historic streetscapes are a reminder of its immensely rich gold mining days, with many magnificent public buildings.

• The Gold Rush to Mt Alexander Drive Tour
  The Mt Alexander goldfield opened up in November 1851, and is generally credited with triggering one of the greatest mass migrations in history.  This drive tour of three hours starts and finishes at the Castlemaine Market Building and takes in 16 authentic sites associated with the rush.  Download the brochure (5MB) or audio files for your ipod (135 MB) from the website.

• Castlemaine Town Tour
  This short one hour walk around Castleimaine is a great way to see the town and learn about its fascinating history.  Download the brochure (7MB) or audio files for your ipod (74MB) from the website.

• Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park
  The Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park stretches from north of Chewton, south through the Fryerstown and Vaughan Springs areas.  From 1851 to 1854, this area was the world’s richest shallow alluvial goldfield and home to tens of thousands of migrant gold seekers.  The Reserve contains the remains of the mines and gullies which yielded fortunes and retains much of its gold rush character.  Relics of former mining activities scattered throughout the park include old shafts, tunnels and open cut mines, water races, building ruins, machinery foundations and abandoned machinery.
  Park brochure
  Features of the Park include:
  Garfield Water Wheel
  The remains of the Garfield Water Wheel stone abutments stand in the bush just north of Chewton. The 24m diameter wheel was erected in 1887 and drove a 23 head quartz stamp battery until 1904, when steam took over.  A walking trail explains the links between the mine, the stamping battery and the water wheel.
  Spring Gully Walk
  Contains six quartz reef mines, one of Victoria’s most intact collections with well preserved machinery foundations and mullock heaps.  The mines worked from the mid-1850s to the late 1930s.
  Eureka Reef Walk (pod tour)
  This site boasts some of the earliest quartz mining relicts in Victoria including an exposed reef, foundations of Cornish stamp batteries and a mining village.  These can be explored on a short 1.8km walk.
  Download the brochure (6MB) or audio files for your ipod (55 MB).
• Forest Creek Historic Gold Diggings
  Forest Creek Historic Gold diggings is situated mid-way between Castlemaine and Chewton.  A 400m interpretive walk allows you to discover how miners won alluvial gold from Forest Creek.

Maldon
Maldon proved to be one of Victoria’s richest quartz-mining centres, though with poorer alluvial results than others such as Castlemaine or Ballarat.  In all, over seventy reefs were proven to contain gold deposits. Maldon was undoubtedly a poor man’s diggings, with many excellent yields from very small claims.  Maldon has been perfectly preserved since its mining days and is Australia’s First Notable Town - classified by the National Trust in 1966.

• Maldon Historic Reserve
  This Reserve which surrounds Maldon was established to protect relics from the gold mining era that gave birth to the township - abandoned shafts and tunnels, mullock heap, quartz roasting kilns, stone walls, chimneys and machinery.  Alluvial gold was discovered in the Maldon area in 1853 resulting in a rush of 20,000 diggers.  After the initial rush, companies mined the rich quartz reefs.   Reserve brochure
  Features of the Park include:
  Mount Alexander Diggings Trail
  Traces of abandoned mines, with names like Beehive, Derby Hill, New Chum, Lady Darling and South German, can be discovered scattered amongst the mullock and tailings heaps within easy walking distance of the township
  North British Mine Walk
  Just 2 km south of Maldon, on Parkin’s Reef Road, are the ruins of the North British Mine, one of Victoria’s most intact collections of gold recovery equipment in Victoria.  The remains of stamping batteries and kilns used for roasting the crushed quartz to extract the gold can be seen.
  Carman’s Tunnel
  Located opposite the North British Mine, Carman’s Tunnel is 570 metres long and features displays of gold mining techniques used by miners during the 1880s.  Tours are conducted on weekends and public holidays.  Brochure
  Parkins Reef Walk
  The original mining landscape of mining holes and puddling machines from surface alluvial mining can be seen on this walk which starts at the North British Mine.

Bendigo
Bendigo has a rich and prosperous heritage dating back to the days when gold was discovered in the area in the 1850s.  Since then, Bendigo has been the second highest producing goldfield in Australia and remains the seventh largest in the world.  Bendigo’s rich gold history has produced a city of unparalleled opulence and grandeur. Stunning architecture and manicured gardens are all symbolic of Bendigo.

• Bendigo City Walk Tour
  The grandeur of Bendigo’s historic buildings is testimony to the incredible wealth found in Bendigo’s quartz reefs, which stretched 3,600 hectares underground.  That wealth funded major periods of building activity in the 1880s and 1890s and resulted in fine public buildings which can be seen on this 2km walk which takes two hours.  Download the brochure (5MB) or audio files for your ipod (77MB) from the website.
• Victoria Hill Historic Mining Reserve
  The story of quartz mining on Victoria Hill lies at the heart of Bendigo’s historical status as the world’s richest and deepest reefing field. Gold was discovered on Victoria Hill in 1854, and by early 1855 claims had been taken up over its entire extent.  The mines worked until 1954 and produced over 22 million ounces of gold.  The Reserve features a self-guided walking trail with interpretive signs which passes various mining features including the poppet head tower providing spectacular views over Bendigo, open cuts and crushing machinery.
• Central Deborah Gold Mine
  When gold was first discovered in Bendigo in 1851 it sparked decades of gold mining worth billions of dollars.  Central Deborah Mine was one of the last two commercial mines to cease operation in the wealthy Bendigo goldfields, operating for just 15 years between 1939 and 1954 producing 29,865 ounces of gold.  The Mine features an underground tour which descends 61m below the surface and a longer adventure tour which uses ladders to reach a depth of 85m.

Rushworth
Rushworth became a stopping place in the early 1850s for those travelling between the Bendigo and Beechworth diggings.  7 km south of Rushworth is Whroo Historic Reserve.

• Whroo Historic Reserve
  This reserve encompasses the site of the Whroo township and part of the associated Whroo goldfields.  Alluvial gold was found at the present sites of Rushworth and Whroo in August 1853 and the resultant gold-rush brought thousands of hopeful diggers to the area overnight.  With the winding down of mining activity in the 1890s the town rapidly went into decline and today little evidence of it remains other than the old cemetery.
  Reserve brochure
  Things to Do:
  Balaclava open cut
  This mine is open for inspection through a walkway that goes through a tunnel into the open cut. The mine is a spectacular example of early quartz reef mining.  Puddling machines and remnants of areas of quartz reef and shallow alluvial lead mining areas are also located within the area.
  Whroo Cemetery
  Located on a lonely hillside and containing some 340 graves, the cemetery reflects the harshness of life on the goldfields last century.

Maryborough
Maryborough began life as a gold town shortly after 1854 with the discovery of gold at nearby White Hill and within four months there were more than 25,000 diggers on the diggings.  At first there were plenty of nuggets which encouraged shallow alluvial mining but eventually deep lead mining became prominent.  The mining boom came to and end in the early 1900s, but a range of relics from the era remain along with a number of fine buildings the legacy of Maryborough’s rich past.

• Maryborough Walk and Drive Tours
  Three drive tours take in Maryborough and surrounding mining villages including Timor, Dunolly, Bealiba, Moliagul and Carisbrook.
  Walk Tour

• Grand Duke Mine, Timor
  The Grand Duke Mine worked one of Victoria’s richest deep lead mines at Timor about 8km north of Maryborough and produced 216,000 oz of gold from 1869 to 1896.  It was avery wet mine and a massive Cornish beam engine was imported to keep the workings dry.  The granite bob wall, cock-pit and cylinder bed survive.  Mine brochure

Avoca
Alluvial gold was found at Homebush near Avoca in 1853 and soon after the main lead was discovered.  By mid-1854, the population had grown to 16,000 and Avoca became the centre of this gold mining area.  A number of other rushes took place during the 1850s and 1860s which has left a legacy of historical buildings throughout Avoca.  Later deep leads and quartz reefs were mined by companies but gold mining had virtually ceased by the early 1900s.

• Percydale Goldfield Heritage Trail
  The Percydale Goldfield is located about 5km NW of Avoca on the Pyrenees State Forest.  It was the site of an alluvial rush in 1856 and reef mining in the early 1870s, and a flourishing settlement in the late 1860s.  The Trail is 2km long and includes the Percydale township and Union Jack Mine which was worked from the 1870s until the early 1900s.    Trail brochure

NORTH EAST VICTORIA

Beechworth
Gold was discovered at Beechworth in 1852 on the Ovens River and was followed closely by discoveries at Yackandandah, Nine Mile Creek, Stanley and Wooragee.  Gold mining around Beechworth was alluvial and the area was notable for the extent of the use of hydraulic sluicing as a major method of removing washdirt.  This was replaced by dredging in the 1890s and in the following 60 years dredges worked extensively in the area.  Today, Beechworth is considered to be one of Victoria’s best-preserved gold mining towns, with 32 of its buildings listed by the National Trust.

• Beechworth Heritage Walk
  A free self-guided walking tour brochure of the Central Business District of Historic Beechworth is available from the Beechworth Visitor Information Centre.
• Beechworth Historic Park
  A number of significant gold mining sites are incorporated in sections of the Beechworth Historic Park.  Drive, cycle or walk along the sealed Gorge Scenic Drive for spectacular views of the granite landscape and local gold mining history.  It passes the Powder Magazine erected in 1859 and one of the best examples of its type in Australia.  Park brochure
• Wallaby Gold Mine
  The Wallaby Mine, about 5km east of Beechworth on the Beechworth Forest Drive, was worked from 1869-1912.  A walk features open stopes, water races, tunnels and the remains of a 12 head stamp battery which was used to crush gold-bearing ore.  The mine is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
• Karrs Reef Gold Mine
  This tour travels from Yackandandah to the historic mine site which was worked from 1867-1884.  It passes many historic sites along the way and then goes 150m into the mine, which still has many original pieces of machinery and tools used during this goldmining era on display.
• Eldorado Gold Dredge
  The dredge has remained in its final mooring place at Eldorado 20km west of Beechworth since 1954. It was tied up here after operating for 18 years and winning 70,664 ounces of gold and 1,383 tons of tin concentrate from the rich alluvial plain of Reedy Creek.  An easy 15 minute walk around the pond tells you about the dredge, its operation and the environment.
  Dredge brochure

Bright
During the early 1850s, after the gold rushes in the Beechworth area had subsided, a new, rich gold field was discovered in the Bright area around 1853.  Alluvial gold washed out of the river gravel and was taken first from the Buckland Valley with many other finds along the Ovens River to Harrietville and its tributaries such as Morse’s Creek to Wandiligong.  This was followed by reef mining and the turn of the century saw the coming of huge dredges.

• Bright Historical Museum
  This museum, located in the heritage listed Bright railway station, contains items of local social history, gold mining artefacts, a reconstructed Chinese Joss House and artefacts from Chinese miners, local family histories, and a photographic collection.
• Wandiligong Diggings Walk
  Wandiligong was the site of a small gold rush during the mid-1850s which saw the town’s population climb to around 2,000. The area was the site of extensive mining. The first diggers in 1860s sluiced for alluvial gold with gold pan, sluice box and cradle. Deep mine shafts were then sunk to locate deep leads and a dredge worked the area from 1905-1914.   Walk brochure

Alpine National Park
This magnificent national park contains 10 of the 11 highest mountains in the state and boasts stunningly beautiful alpine topography with dramatic mountain landscapes, wild rivers, impressive escarpments, snow gum forests and open grasslands known as high plains.  A great way to experience the park is to drive the Great Alpine Road Touring Route.

• Pioneer Mine Walk
  The Pioneer Mine, to the west of the town of Mitta Mitta, became one of the state’s largest open-cut mines and with 441 kg of gold produced over 20 years. The Pioneer Mine was the third enterprise in Australia to use large-nozzle hydraulic sluicing and in the early twentieth century dredges yielding 167 kg of gold.
• Oriental Claims Historic Area
  The Oriental Claims Historic Area near Omeo showed sufficient promise to encourage pioneers to forge out an existence in remote mountainous areas.  At its peak, the Oriental Claims was one of the largest gold sluicing operations in the world.  Mining relics and sites can be viewed from taking short walks around the Claims.   An interpretive trail takes you to of the most extensive and rich sites within the Oriental Claims.  Reserve brochure
• Cassilis Historic Area
  The village of Cassilis was named after a small township in Scotland and in the 1800s was a thriving mining centre. It was once home to more than 1000 people, but today there is little evidence of its passing save a lonely cemetery filled with miners and their kin. The Cassilis Historic Area includes the heritage listed King Cassilis and Cassilis mine treatment plants.  Walk the terminating section of the Jirnkee Water Race and admire the historic rockwork along the Charlotte Spur Tack.

SOUTH GIPPSLAND

• Wonthaggi State Coal Mine
  In 1909, a miners’ strike starved the Victorian Railways and Melbourne’s coal industry, forcing a hasty development of the Wonthaggi mines as a public enterprise.  Expansion of the coalfield followed through the 1910s and 1920s, with the establishment of a powerhouse and workshops complex, a brickworks and nine well equipped mines.  The town of Wonthaggi grew to a population of up to 10 000 during this period.  Underground tours now available.  Brochure
• Foster Gold Diggings
  In 1869, gold was found near the mouth of Stockyard Creek (now Foster) sparking a rush of miners.  A settlement of tents and makeshift huts quickly sprung up and the surrounding hills were soon cleared to provide mines with timbers and fuel.  Many of these gold mines were situated within what are now Foster’s Flora Reserves.  Four short walks take you past historic gold mining features.  Reserve brochure

Walhalla
Walhalla, a rich gold producer for 50 years, lives on as a remote and picturesque mountain township.  Alluvial gold was found in Stringers Creek in 1863 and by 1866 numerous mines within the valley were opened.

• Walhalla Historic Area
  Take the historic town walk and learn all about the history of Walhalla, including the Corner Stores Museum, the Old Fire Station spanning the creek, the Mountaineer Brass Band Rotunda, the Mechanics Institute, the Bank Vault, the local Post and Telegraph Office, St Johns Church and the hillside cemetery with its vertical graves.
  .
  Walhalla Long Tunnel Extended Mine
  From its mining lease at the northern end of the fabulous Cohen Reef, the Long Tunnel Extended Gold Mining Company produced 13.7 tonnes of gold, which at recent prices represents a value in excess of $50 million. In the period 1885 to 1911 the mine was one of Australia’s principal reef gold producers, being top Victorian producer in six of those years.  The 50 minute tours extend 300m underground along the tunnel to the large machinery chamber.

Acknowledgement
The Australian Mining History Association gratefully acknowledgements Travel Victoria for the use of a number of photographs on this page which come from their website.