GOOD HOPE MINE

MCMILLAN TRACK AND GRANT HISTORIC RESERVE WONGUNGARRA, WELLINGTON SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

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  • History

    GOOD HOPE MINE - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site: During the great reefing rush of 1864, four reefs were worked on the Good Hope spur. The reef in the Good Hope mine was the only one on the Crooked River field that showed any permanence. At surface and shallow levels, it was far less rich than many others; but at depth, it proved its worth. It went on to be the longest-worked and deepest of the Crooked River mines. Its best years were 1865-70, and when the original Good Hope Co. gave up in 1877, the mine had yielded nearly 20,000 oz of gold.The Good Hope Co. erected a 12-head battery (powered by a portable 10-hpsteam engine, soon replaced by a 15-hp horizontal engine) on Good Hope Creek in 1865, to crush for the Collingwood and Uncle Tom reefs as well as its own. Due to a limited supply of water, only eight head of stamps were usually employed. Pumping machinery and settling boxes were erected to keep the water supply to the battery constant. In 1866, a Chilean mill, percussion tables, and a furnace were added to the plant; these proved very effective in retrieving gold from the pyritic ore.The mine was worked by a series of tunnels from the east side of the spur. In 1868, driving began for a fourth tunnel, lower than the first three, but the rock proved too hard and driving was discontinued in 1870. Pumping and winding machinery, and the small engine from the battery, were installed in a chamber cut in the No. 3 level of the original tunnel in 1869. The mine was yielding '2 oz stone' (ore yielding 2 oz per ton) at a depth of 620 ft, in 1871. From 1873, the Good Hope Co. struggled to find a run of gold in its mine. It was let on tribute to a party of ex-employees in 1877, but returns continued to be 'miserably poor'. In 1878, the tributers re-tried the lower tunnel (650 ft above Crooked River), abandoned ten years earlier, with promising results. A new company—the New Good Hope Co.—was formed to continue working the mine from that tunnel (the No. 4), bringing in an expensive National rock drill for the purpose. An air receiver and air pump (driven by the portable engine removed from No. 3 tunnel) was installed at the mouth of No. 4 tunnel. The mine continued to use the original treatment plant, and constructed a dam in 1884 to enable crushing in dry weather. The new company failed to find gold when it finally struck the reef, and was re-formed and recapitalised in 1885. A winding plant and air compressor were installed at a cost of £3000, but returns were sporadic until 1888 when good gold was struck at a depth of 780 ft. The company repaired its battery and installed two Watson and Denny's pans for pyrites treatment. No record has been found of the mine's operation during the 1890s—nothing, in fact, until 1905, when the Good Hope Consolidated Co. first rated a mention.In 1906, Dunn wrote that the old workings (four adits) had produced a total of 23,357 oz from 14,461 tons of stone. At that time, the No. 4 adit was 1,112 ft long, and plant at the tunnel mouth consisted of a 4½-hp Otto oil engine and dynamo, which worked an electric drill and lighting in the mine. The original four adits and plant appear not to have been worked beyond 1906, when a new adit was commenced on the opposite side of the spur. see 'good hope consolidated mine', below.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    GOOD HOPE MINE - Heritage Inventory Description

    Features include: Mine workings - adits, mullock heaps, shafts, plant, ore trucks, trolley wheels and iron rails. Tracks - network linking various workings. Inclined tramway - well defined with platforms and winch remains. Battery - intact but collapsed, boiler setting and in situ cornish boiler, horizontal steam engine and stampers. Water supply dam - breached stone retained dam and race.

    Heritage Inventory Significance: National EstateHistorical significanceùas the main quartz mine of the Crooked River goldfield.Scientific significanceùas a rare type of site: ie., a largely intact early (mid-1860s) battery.Archaeological potentialùyesNetwork valuesùas part of the Good Hope network of sites, which is one of the key attractions of the Grant Historic Reserveùalso as part of the overall site network comprising the Grant Historic Reserve: mining settlements, cemeteries, quartz mines and alluvial mining landscapes, all overgrown but linked by a navigable network of carting tracks.

    Heritage Inventory Site Features: Features of the Good Hope mine site include mine workings, tracks, inclined tramway, intact battery (including boiler and steam engine), water supply dam and race, and hut sites.Mine workings - Four levels of workings. Features and artefacts include adits, mullock heaps, shafts, and items of plant, including ore trucks, trolley wheels and iron rails.Tracks - Network of tracks linking the various workings.Inclined tramway - Well-defined tramway with three winching platforms and remains of a winch on one of them. Battery - The battery appears to be more-or-less intact but has collapsed and is now very overgrown. The main visible features associated with the battery are:Boiler setting and in situ Cornish boiler - The boiler has a diameter of 5¢ ft and is approximately 23 ft long. The boiler still has its fire-box door and was manufactured by 'Enoch Chambers, Melbourne and Prahan'. The stone boiler setting measures 10 ft x 23 ft, 6 ft high and has 2ft-thick walls. The rear of the boiler setting is obscured by thick blackberry growth but a short stone flue appears to lead to a stone chimney stack base. The flue takes a right-angle after leaving the rear of the boiler. Horizontal steam engine - The engine lies on its side, is partly buried, and a tree has grown around part of the fly wheel. The engine is 17 ft long, single cylinder (1¥ ft diameter, 3¢ ft long), and was manufactured by Canal Basin Foundry Co., Engineers, Glasgow. The fly wheel is spoked and 10¢ ft in diameter. Stampers - Two battery boxes (four head to a box; eight stampers in all) and a jumble of stamper rods are visible. The lifters are on screw tappets. Also observed were a cam shaft, drive shaft with three pulley wheels, and an iron grinding wheel. Water supply dam - Upstream from the battery are a breached stone-retained dam and a water race. Hut sites - Upstream from the battery are the remains of a stone fireplace and at least three hut sites.The battery site dates to 1865. Originally, a portable engine powered the plant, but was soon replaced by a 15-hp horizontal engine. Only 8 stampers were observed; another battery box of 4 heads must have been removed or obscured. The grinding wheel would have formed part of the pyrites treatment plant: either the 1866 Chilian mill, or the 1888 Watson and Denny's pans. The water supply dam was constructed in 1884.

    Archeological Potential: Potential (area)

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    GOOD HOPE QUARTZ GOLD MINING PRECINCT

    

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    Victorian Heritage Inventory
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