LONDONDERRY MINE WORKINGS

DONALD TRACK ENOCHS POINT, MANSFIELD SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

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  • History

    LONDONDERRY MINE WORKINGS - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site:
    The Unknown, on the south slope of Railway Creek, was one of the first reefs discovered at Big River, in 1864. The next year, an 8-head battery was erected, enclosed in a weatherboard building and powered by a 30ft-diameter overshot waterwheel. In 1866, the action of the wheel was reversed, the battery foundations improved, and a further 5-head battery and 16-hp steam engine added to the plant.In 1868, the holders of the Londonderry lease purchased the Unknown Co. battery and constructed a tramway thence from their mine on the flank of Mt Terrible, at the head of Railway Creek. According to the mining registrar, 'the shoots, inclines, and trams, through and over which the stuff must pass before reaching the only available machine on the Railway Creek, add a very material item to the cost of raising'. As a result, the battery was moved higher up the creek, closer to the Londonderry claim, in 1871. Two years later the Londonderry mine was virtually amalgamated with its neighbour, the Retriever, when a party of tributers undertook to work the two mines in unison.
    Back on the Unknown Reef, three years' prospecting (after years of abandonment) led to the discovery of rich stone in 1874. Stone was packed to the Londonderry battery for crushing until 1876, when a 5-head battery was again erected on the Unknown Reef. By 1878, the mine was abandoned.The Boscobelle tributers at the Londonderry mine had struggled during the mid-1870s, but again came onto good stone in 1878 and worked profitably until 1882. The Londonderry and Unknown mines were prospected and re-opened in a very small way ('a man and a boy' worked the Unknown) in the mid-1880s. In 1888, the Surprise Co., on the opposite bank of Railway Creek, purchased the 13-head Londonderry battery, apparently conveying ore thence by a connecting tramway.When Murray reviewed the goldfield in 1898, he noted that workings were underway at the Londonderry. The Unknown mine was idle and some of the old main workings had been filled in; about 4,000 oz of gold, he noted, had been won from the mine.
    
    References:
    Milner, pp. 21-3
    Mining Surveyors' Reports (Gaffney's Creek subdivision), December 1864; (Big River subdivision), September 1865, June 1866, March 1867, June 1868, September 1868, March 1869, June & December 1870, December 1871, September 1873, March 1874, March & June 1876, June 1878, September & December 1882, March & December 1885, December 1887, March 1888, December 1889
    Murray, pp. 23-4

    Heritage Inventory Description

    LONDONDERRY MINE WORKINGS - Heritage Inventory Description

    Unknown mine workings - a large quarry, several adits and a shaft. The battery site is apparently situated below the mine on Railway Creek, but has not yet been located./nLondonderry mine and workings - further west from the unknown mine and just above the level of the creek, the track terminates at the lowest adit of the Londonderry mine. This level is no longer accessible. Heritage Inventory Significance: StateHeritage Inventory Key Components: Battery - just above the track, to the east, is a three-pass Cornish boiler, the foundations of a stone chimney and parts of a Young double-acting horizontal steam engine. The principal component remaining is the cast iron frame - it is the only extant example known in Victoria of this once popular London engine maker. Below the lowest adit, and almost at the level of the creek, is an 8-head stamp battery and sections of penstock piping. Hut sites - higher up the creek and north-east of the adit are several open terraces cut into the hillside. These may have been the site for a small settlement. On the slope above is a water race and the site for either the mine or the battery manager's house. This site commands a view all the way down Railway Creek, across the Big River, to the ranges on the other side. Other adit levels - there are at least four other levels further east up the gully to where it forks, together with piles of mullock, a blacksmith's shop, a section of level tramway and ore truck and several small metal fittings. From the middle levels there was an aerial tramway down to the battery site. The cable for this and some of the fittings are still in place. On the ridge separating Railway and Enochs creeks and only a short distance away from Donald Track there is an air shaft.
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