Notes about Warrandyte Goldmining
LocationThe main mining areas were on the south side of the Yarra from Black Flat to Gold Memorial Drive. Many claims were spread around the Fourth Hill area from Whipstick Gully to Anderson's Creek.
Alluvial gold
Is that which has eroded put of reefs and washed down into rivers and creeks. It was also found in many gullies, such as Specimen, Whipstick, and Ross. Most alluvial gold was worked out of the gullies by the mid-1850s.
Coffer (Box) Dams
These were used for alluvial mining and built
along the shallow sections of the Yarra. The walls were made from two parallel
rows of saplings, separated and reinforced with stones. The water was drained
out of the box with “California pumps” leaving the riverbed clear where it
could be scraped for alluvial gold - a wooden dam built by driving piles into
the riverbed so soil on the bottom could be washed for gold. Used as early as
1856 – some remnants remain.
Seam gold
Became practicable when machinery to crush the
rock was improved, using crushing batteries. There was a shift from individual
miners to company mining. Gold was embedded in rock and found in lines, reefs
or veins in quartz in the ground. Reef mining continued until the Caledonia
mine closed in 1912.
The last crushing battery was just east of the Bridge and closed down in 1925 – it was originally powered by a waterwheel, later by a steam driven engine
Poppet
A structure
similar to a windlass but much larger, built over a mine shaft, used to
mechanically lift rock up the shaft
See the printed publication : "Digging into History - Goldmining in Warrandyte", by Diane Baird, 2007, available from the Warrandyte Historical Society.
1855 Mining Licence, valid for one month!