GAFFNEYS CREEK TOWNSHIP

MANSFIELD-WOODS POINT ROAD GAFFNEYS CREEK, MANSFIELD SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

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  • History

    GAFFNEYS CREEK TOWNSHIP - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site: From Lloyd and Combes, "Gold at Gaffneys Creek".The Gaffney Creek goldfield was opened up by men who came across from the Buckland to the Big River in 1857, and then climbed over t he Mt Terrible Range to the Goulburn watershed in 1859. There followed a few lawless years of rich alluvial mining before the reefers got to work. Permanent and law abiding settlement followed.The speculative quartz mining boom of Gaffneys Creek and Woods Point in the 1860s was followed by decades of depression, with most of the mines closed or on tribute. The only miners to prosper were the tributers at the A1 and even they endured many years of barely subsistence earnings. The mining revival at he turn of the century saw some years of prosperity at Dempseys and Rose of Denmark, but by WW1 the A1 was the only profitable mine. After the gold cut out there in the mid-twenties, more years of depression followed until the Victory Reef was discovered in the early years of WW II. The 1940s were rich in gold and dividends for the A1 but then, with rising costs and the price of gold fixed, the mine struggled on against mounting odds, until it closed in 1976 only to be reopened again in the 1980s.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    GAFFNEYS CREEK TOWNSHIP - Heritage Inventory Description

    Old mining township. Some surviving buildings. There are also house sites and numerous water races winding around the contours, some of which still lead from the heads of the gullies above the creek valley to supply domestic water to the hotel and remaining houses. Mining relics include dry stone retaining walls, alluvial workings, battery sites, tramways, tunnels and small mullock heaps.

    Heritage Inventory Significance: State. This settlement was built from the wealth generated by mining on a gold field which has operated for one hundred and thirty years without major disruption.

    Informants: DCNR Historic Places Section/nRecorded by: Supple et al. (LCC Melbourne District 2) Date Recorded: 1989

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