Golden Gully alluvial workings SITE NO. & NAME: 1.1 GOLDEN GULLY ALLUVIAL WORKINGS LOCATION: Golden Gully, Diamond Hill area HI No. H7724-0049 DIRECTIONS: Runs along the east side of Woodward Road MUNICIPALITY: City of Greater Bendigo LAND STATUS: Unreserved Crown Land/proposed Diamond Hill Historic Area HISTORY: Sept/Oct 1851: Fredrick Fenton and Stewart Gibson ... (squatters) ... in their slab homestead on Bullock Creek veiwed events with increasing satisfaction. Each morning their drays went lumbering south piled high with carcasses to feed the hungry throng on the other side of the mountain. One day they rode down to Mt Alexander to see the diggings. They tried their hand at dishing and noticed how closely the yellow clay and white quartz gravel resembled that of Bendigo Creek on the northern fringe of their range. Soon after , either in late September or early October, they rode over the range to the Bendigo Valley and there, so Fredrick Fenton claimed later, began tapping the outcropping quartz in what became known as Golden Gully and found gold. However, shearing was in the offing; already they had despatched their overseer, “Happy Jack” Kennedy to recruit shearers from among the less successful diggers at Buninyong. So they said nothing about their find.1 Dec 1851: It was almost mid-December 1851 when Assistant Commissioner Horn rode out of the Government Camp at Mount Alexander and headed north with instructions to establish a first government camp on Bendigo Creek. Horn set up his camp on the eastern side of the creek and overlooking Golden Gully ... before the year was out the dashing Captain Dana ... replaced him. ... At Bullock Creek Commissioner Gilbert set up camp and by February, Ousley Cockburn was similarly established at the Sheepwash. Their task was mainly to ensure that trouble did not erupt at the washing-places.23 March 1852: March moved into April. The heat grew less but the drought persisted. The Sheepwash was dry; the nearest water was at Bullock Creek or Emu Creek, many miles off; only the stream of diggers flowed abated into the Bendigo Valley. Golden Gully was honeycombed, almost deserted and presently, it was Peg Leg’s turn. {Accounts differ concerning the order in which the various gullies were opened up. K.McKenzie Clarke, who was on Bendigo from the outset, claimed New Chum was the next, along with Spring Gully and Tipperary Gully; then successively, Long Gully, California Gully, Eaglehawk, Devonshire and Peg Leg. Others place Peg Leg much earlier) ... Lucky diggers who struck “the pockets of Peg Leg” made fortunes in minutes 4 Jan 1860: No 1. or Kangaroo Flat Division [Edward T Harper]: Glasgow Reef, Golden Gully--The claims on the northern end of the line are briskly working, and some are doing well. Ness and Company’s claim yielded at the last crushing 6oz. to the ton ... Fagg and Company have left off working the quartz, which was increasing in richness, in consequence of the water. They are now sinking a water shaft and erecting a whim ... The pumping engine is near to completion. The Golden Gully Company are still lifting good stone; but have no water with which to crush. The Glasgow Reef United Company intend to commence their operations in raising quartz, etc, on Monday, the 20th of February.5 April 1860: No 1, or Kangaroo Flat Division [Edward T Harper]: Glasgow Reef--The pumping engine is nearly completed, and the claims to the N. and S. of it are briskly engaged in sinking their main shafts for the extraction of quartz, which at a depth of 130 feet was found very rich. The water level here is about 110 feet. Fagg and Company have been constantly taking stone from a depth of 75 feet, which averaged 5oz.per ton. Ness and Co. to the east, have crushed 14 tons, averaging 3 1/2oz. The Golden Gully Company have been constantly at work, stone yielding about 1oz. per ton. 6 March 1867. Kangaroo Flat Subdivision [N G Stephens]--During the past quarter prospecting claims taken up on the following new reefs: Adam’s Reef, Golden Gully; Railway Reef, Tipperary Gully; Mill’s Reef, in Maiden Gully; and Prussia Reef, Myers’ Flat; and a payable reef found on private property at Lockwood.7 1 Golden Gully alluvial workings June 1868: Sandhurst Division--The following companies have been raising very good stone: Exhibition Company, near the Big Hill ... The Perfect Cure company ... The C.C. Company, New Chum Reef ... Burrows and Co ... at the Gold Dust Reef near the Campaspe. The Moon Reef Company ... The Belle Vue Company, Golden Gully ... The Argus Company, Alliance Company, Lady Barkly Company, Young Chum Company, and the North Johnson’s Company have been getting first-rate stone.8 1871:In Bell and Watson’s claim on the Golden Gully Line five reefs had been discovered, each richer than its predecessor. On the same line, at Sailor’s Gully, the Argus mine had, in 1871, recovered the largest lump of gold in quartz to be found in the colony, and in July, on the Hustler’s Line, Collmann and Tacchi had struck an extremely rich reef at the 650 foot level. The mines on which the investors had their sights set, and whose richness had precipitated the investment flurry, were located in the northern part of the field.9 August 1871: Towards the end of August 1871, attention suddenly switched to the south, following a rich discovery in the G.G.Consolidated claim on the Glasgow Line. The discoveries created as great a furore among investors and mining interests as did the spectacular “cakes” being turned out by the northern mines. Generally, the southern sector of the field had been neglected. Now, there was a wild rush to peg claims along its reefs. Suddenly, it was remembered that Golden Gully had been perhaps the richest gully on Bendigo, its gold shed from these same reefs.10 September 1871: The reefs in Golden Gully, Spring Gully, Milkmaid’s Flat, and Big Hill, have attracted considerable attention.11 June 1874: At Spring Gully three companies have taken up sluicing claims (quite a new thing in Sandhurst), and, with the aid of the water from the reservoir at the head of the gully, are pretty confident of doing well.12 June 1875. Sandhurst Division [N G Stephens]: A few parties are engaged in sluicing, and this branch of mining may be expected to increase.13 1876: Returning from a world trip in 1876, George Lansell visited Nevada and California to inspect mining methods there, and was greatly impressed by the recently-introduced diamond drill, being used extensively in prospecting ... On returning to Sandhurst, he proposed the immediate despatch of a geologist or mining engineer to California to investigate American methods with a view to local adaptation. Lansell offered to pay one-third of the nominee’s expenses if the struggling School of Mines could raise the balance. Somehow, it managed to do so and eventually Gustave Thureau, later Government Geologist and Inspector of Mines in Tasmania ... sailed for the “Eureka State” ... [he concluded that] ... Many American methods ... could be introduced with profit to local mining--the business-like approach of mine-managements; the much more effective winding and hoisting equipment; the use of air-compressors, percussion power-drills and steam generators that were more efficient than the single-or double-tubed Cornish boilers still in use in Victorian mining. Labour-saving equipment unknown in the Bendigo mines was in everyday use there. Drills used for boring blasting- holes penetrated 9 feet 3 inches in an hour--a distance achieved in Sandhurst mining only by two miners each working a full ten hour shift. He believed Californian methods of gold extraction would considerably reduce the average loss of 25% gold--sometimes as high as 50%--accepted in local mining. Above all, Thurea was impressed by the diamond-drill, worked with water and compressed air, then, still something of a novelty. Aware of the great problem that prospecting at depth posed in the Bendigo mines in terms of time, cost and sheer physical effort, he strongly recommended its introduction. As a result the Victorian Government secured three steam-operated surface drills for hire to the mining companies. Lansell used the diamond-drill very successfully in some of his mines and the outstanding success with it by the G.G.Consolidated Company, led at a time, to a strong revival in Golden Gully Stocks. However, in general, it did not prove wholly suited to horizontal prospecting of the kind demanded by the Sandhurst mines, and as a result, tended to lose favour.14 Dec 1876: Sandhurst Division [N G Stephens]--The Morning Light Co., in Golden Gully, last week obtained 336ozs. of gold from 10 tons of dressed pyrites.15 December 1876: Londonderry Tribute, Garden Gully Reef - New and powerful machinery erected on the company's ground.16 2 Golden Gully alluvial workings Dec 1877. Sandhurst Division [N G Stephens]--The most noticeable thing in connection with mining affairs during the past quarter is the completion of the Coliban scheme, whereby a large supply of water is now available for sluicing. In consequence claims have been taken up for that purpose, but little, however, has been done in that way as yet.17 March 1878: Since the introduction of water from the Coliban, several sluicing parties have been formed, and on the whole I think they are doing pretty well. They will probably be more successful as they get used to (what is in this district) a comparatively new branch of mining, and when their appliances are more perfect.