NEVER MIND WORKINGS

KELLY CREEK TRACK MATLOCK, MANSFIELD SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

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  • History

    NEVER MIND WORKINGS - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site:
    Never Mind Reef ('a fine-looking reef') was struck in mid-1864, below the junction of Gooley's Creek, on the south bank of the Goulburn River. The surface stone was very rich in find gold, and seventeen claims were marked out along the reef's course soon after its discovery. The prospecting claim was at first opened up by tunnels at levels of about 100 and 180 ft on the Never Mind spur. A water-powered battery of eight heads was installed by the prospecting company in 1865, and the initial crushing averaged more than 2 oz per ton. A further 8-head Langlands battery was added the following year. At the same time, flood gates were fitted to the race which fed the waterwheel, and a blacksmith's shop and retorting and smelting furnace were constructed. Stone was passed down chutes from a series of open cuts to a tunnel beneath, and thence by a tramway in trucks to a self-acting tramway, which finally led to the battery. In 1867, the original battery was improved, the race was improved to give more fall, additional buildings were constructed, and the tramway was upgraded.
    Prospects in the Never Mind Prospecting Co. were 'not very brilliant' in 1868 (yields having dropped to about 2 dwts per ton), and the mine was let on tribute; but things failed to improve. Holt & party, further along the reef on ground originally known as the Sons of Freedom claim, ran a tramway from their mine to the Never Mind battery in 1871. Other mines on the Never Mind Spur during the 1870s,including the New All Nations and Lady Franklin, may also have crushed at the Never Mind battery. The battery and tramways were overhauled by the St Osyth Co. (Never Mind tributers) in 1875, but no success resulted from their venture. After being a long time idle, the Never Mind was again re-tried during a prospecting surge in the mid-1880s, this time as the Abo mine, and a New Abo Co. (and machine) was active in 1889.
    
    References:
    Dicker's Mining Record, 6 March 1866, p. 159
    Holliday notes, p. 5
    Milner, p. 13
    Mining Surveyors' Reports (Wood's Point Division), September 1864, September & December 1865, December 1866, March & June 1867, June 1868, December 1870, September 1875, September 1885, September 1886, December 1889

    Heritage Inventory Description

    NEVER MIND WORKINGS - Heritage Inventory Description

    Features of the Never Mind mine site are mine workings, a dam, tramway formation, building sites, and a water race.

    Heritage Inventory Significance: State

    Heritage Inventory Key Components: Mine workings - at the head of the workings is a large open cut. In the gully below this are two long adits which probably connect with air shafts which open out on the spur above the open cut. The upper adit appears to have been the main working level, although the quartz may have been shot down to and trucked out along the lower adit, as it is from here that the tramway to the battery commences. Dam - below the second adit, from which water flows, there is a dam, the wall of which is breached. Tramway - at the northern end of the dam wall is a tramway formation which runs down to the battery site on the eastern bank of Gooley's Creek. The site of the battery appears to have been washed or sluiced away. Building sites - in the gully between the two adits is an unusual and quite extensive thicket of deciduous trees, within which there appear to be a great many house/building sites, seeming to represent a small settlement formed here at the time the mine flourished (the construction of 'buildings and a house' was mentioned in July 1867 [Dicker's Mining Record]). Water race - along the eastern margin of the creek is a raceway which has later been extended across Johnson Hill Track and around the slope behind the township so as to allow sluicing along the Goulburn River further downstream. North Never Mind workings - along the track back towards Johnson Hill, and on the slopes above, are a number of small adits, trenches, tracks and building sites which are presumably connected with the northerly extension of the Never Mind reef. The longest adit is at the level of the track and runs almost due east for about 40 m.

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