LUCK'S ALL MINE

A1 TRACK GAFFNEYS CREEK, MANSFIELD SHIRE

All information on this page is maintained by Heritage Victoria. Click below for their website and contact details.

Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • History

    LUCK'S ALL MINE - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site:
    The Luck's All mine was the principal quartz working on the Big River goldfield, and one of the last to cease operation. The mine was in work from 1865-86, 1903-5, and 1913-15. During the initial period, the Luck's All Co. paid dividends of £60,000. Gold production from the mine totalled 14,016 oz. According to Milner, the mine is significant for being the northernmost extension of the same dyke formation worked on Morning Star Hill and at the Loch Fyne mine near Matlock.A 4-head, water-powered battery was installed at the fledgling mine in 1865, and was added to almost immediately by a 12-head battery (with foundations laid for four more heads) and a 16-hp steam engine. A tramway between mine and battery, 266 yards in length, was constructed the same year, and extensive tramways to convey timber and firewood were built in 1869. After languishing in the late 1860s, yields revived in 1871. The waterwheel and smaller battery were removed to the reefs at Acheron in 1875. By the early 1880s, the Luck's All was the only Big River quartz mine still operating. It recorded its last crushing as in 1883; mining ceased in 1886.The Luck's All mine continued idle until 1899, when prospecting recommenced. The mine was again in production between 1903-5 and 1913-15, returning modest yields from small crushings.
    
    References:
    Australian Mining Standard, 1 June 1899, p. 103
    Milner, pp. 20-23
    Mining Surveyors' Reports (Big River Subdivision), March & June 1865, December 1869, June 1871, March 1876, December 1882, September 1885, June 1886; (Alexandra Subdivision), June 1875
    Murray, pp. 22-4

    Heritage Inventory Description

    LUCK'S ALL MINE - Heritage Inventory Description

    The Lucks All mine workings feature two adit levels, a tramway formation, machinery site, and associated mine workings nearby.

    Heritage Inventory Significance: State. The sites are relatively intact. The site has scientific significance, because of the rarity of the extant machinery, and historical significance as the principal mine on the Big River gold field.

    Heritage Inventory Key Components: Tramway - starting at a point near the entrance to the upper adit, there are traces of a short self-acting tramway which conveyed stone down to a machinery site about 50 m below (at 190.539). Machinery site - this site contains an early Cornish boiler (probably the original 1865 one), a Canal Basin Foundry double-acting horizontal steam engine, and parts of an 8-head Langlands stamp battery. The steam engine is one of only a few such engines now extant from this manufacturer, though they were once much more common, and it is remarkably well preserved. Mine workings - in the gully to the north is another adit and mullock dump which probably belonged to the Ariel Co., which drove a tunnel in 250 feet during 1865 before abandoning their work.

• Location map
• Explore related places
  • Show:
    -- select -- Nearby Places

  • LUCK'S ALL MINE

    

    Victorian Heritage Inventory
• Public contributions