BOYCE'S FIND QUARTZ WORKINGS

THREE BRIDGES ROAD BRIAGOLONG, WELLINGTON SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

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    BOYCE'S FIND QUARTZ WORKINGS - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site: In 1894, a rich gold-bearing reef was struck in the sandstone on Gladstone Creek, near Blink Bonny Gully. The reef was worked by the Jorgensen brothers and another miner named Boyce, and was called Boyce’s Find. Working by shallow shafts, they obtained several hundred ounces of nuggetty gold over a couple of years. Here, it seemed, was the long-sought source of the coarse alluvial gold on Gladstone Creek. The main significance of the 1894 find, though, was that it was the first Victorian discovery of a gold-bearing reef in Devonian rock—that is, ‘younger’ rock than the types in which gold was usually found. Geologists ‘experienced considerable astonishment’ and were forced to re-examine their theories as to where gold might be found: large tracts of Victoria that had previously been branded non-auriferous took on a new allure.In 1899, the Jorgensen brothers were still at work on the Boyce’s Find claim, and sixteen years later were driving a tunnel in quest of further deposits of the rich matrix formerly worked by shallow shafts. No record exists of their success or otherwise. Gladstone Creek is still noted as the site of one of only a handful of Upper Devonian gold occurrences in Victoria.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    BOYCE'S FIND QUARTZ WORKINGS - Heritage Inventory Description

    The current mine consists of an adit below the track, a small mullock heap, rails, and a modern shed. Lower down the slope, close to the alluvial workings, are several collapsed adits with quite extensive mullock heaps.The collapsed adits and mullock heaps are the remains of workings by the Jorgensens, Boyces, and others, between 1894 and WWI.

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  • GLADSTONE CREEK ALLUVIAL WORKINGS

    

    Victorian Heritage Inventory
  • BOYCE'S FIND QUARTZ WORKINGS

    

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