Bendigo General History - Department of Planning and Community ...

The total number of miners is as follows:
European Chinese Total for the Subdivision
Alluvial miners 500 50 550
Quartz miners 200 200
Total 700 50 750
The machinery is as follows:
Alluvial Mining:
Puddling mills, 20 at work, 25 idle
Quartz Mining:
Steam engines, 5 at work, 2 idle, 60 stamp heads, 70hp
Total value of machinery £12,500
Square miles of alluvial ground, 50
No of distinct auriferous reefs, 20
A new lease of ground has been applied for on the Welbaum Reef.
Hart’s patent machine is at present stopped for want of water; it is the general opinion among the
miners of this district that it has proved itself to be a complete failure. 1
March 1867:
Kangaroo Flat Subdivision [N G Stephens]
The total number of miners is as follows:
European Chinese Total for the Subdivision
Alluvial miners 850 600 1450
Quartz miners 1300 2 1302
Total 2150 602 2752
The machinery is as follows:
Alluvial Mining:
Puddling mills, 80 at work, 250 idle
Quartz Mining:
Steam engines, 39 at work, 26 idle, 712 stamp heads, 1242hp
Total value of machinery £145,500
Square miles of alluvial ground, 7
No of distinct auriferous reefs, 75
This subdivision has suffered much less than Eaglehawk from the absence of water, consequent upon
the fact of several of the companies being able to supply from their water shafts; but many of the
machines having to depend upon rainfall, are still idle. The main lines of reefs continue to yield well
and steadily, and in many instances better returns have been obtained at great depths from second
reefs than the first reef gave. The Hustler’s, North Hustler’s, Great Extended Hustler’s, and the
Comet Company’s claims have yielded largely, and proved how rich our quartz lodes are at the
greatest depths. On the Victoria Reef, the Adventure Company, the Advance Company, and the
Price Alfred Company, and other private claim, prove a source of great profit to their owners; while
the Energetic Company, lately crushed 1,294ozs. from 55 tons of stone, a result hitherto unsurpassed
in this district. This result was obtained from the Hercules Reef, cut at a perpendicular depth of 305ft,
in the Energetic’s ground. Most of the claims on the New Chum are yielding well, and prospecting is
being actively carried on by the Young Chum Company, Alliance Company, and Great Britain
Company. 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. 2
1867: Whilst Sandhurst bewailed the lack of a permanent water supply and feared for the crippling effect
on local mining, curiously, the industry itself was beset by an over-abundance of water below. By
1867 the effects of an absence of legislation covering underground drainage were assuming serious
proportions ... Claimholders whose shafts had not yet reached the water-line or were not affected by
water, were not prepared to contribute towards the continuous pumping as was required by those
shafts badly effected by water such as the rich claim of Lazarus and Gibbs on the New Chum Line.
The owners had taken £80,000 worth of gold from it, but after reaching a hundred feet or so below
the water-level it had to be temporarily abandoned because adjacent claim-holders refused to
contribute towards drainage. As a result, the whole line soon became flooded and unworkable, and
lay idle for two years. 3
1867: Raywood. The Nil Desperandum Company was soon in need of a crushing plant. At first their quartz
was carted to Elysian Flat and crushed at Robert’s battery. In mid-1867, the company purchased a set
1 Mining Surveyors’ Reports, Dec 1866
2 Mining Surveyors’ Reports, March 1866
3 Cusack, 1973, p136