DEPTFORD PROPRIETARY MINE

DEPTFORD ROAD DEPTFORD, EAST GIPPSLAND SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

DEPTFORD PROPRIETARY MINE

Statement of Significance

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  • History

    DEPTFORD PROPRIETARY MINE - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site: The Deptford Proprietary GMC was formed, with a capital of £12,000, in 1891. A small battery, steam engine and 8-ton boiler were installed the following year. Three quartz lodes were worked in the company's lease: the Tubal Cain, Success, and Duke of Edinburgh. Yields from the Tubal Cain tunnel, west of the Nicholson River, went as high as 7½ oz to the ton, but the main workings were on the Success lode, worked by tunnel and shaft (to 495 ft) from the east side of the river for yields of up to 4 oz per ton. A bridge was built between the two, but floods carried it away in 1894 and it was replaced by a cable tramline. The same floods damaged the crushing works, and they were substantially rebuilt in 1895, with a new 8-head Jacques battery. According to Fairweather, though, the new battery performed so badly that the Jacques Co. was asked to take it away.Overall, the company averaged nearly 1 oz to the ton, but calls on shareholders outweighed dividends paid. In 1896, the Deptford Proprietary mine was sold to a London company, but the river broke through into the Success workings soon after and the lease was abandoned.
    References:

    Victorian Heritage Inventory, Heritage Victoria (online).

    Fairweather,K McD, Bedrock, 1986.

    
    

    Heritage Inventory Description

    DEPTFORD PROPRIETARY MINE - Heritage Inventory Description

    Site Description & Interpretation of Features: The site is divided by Nicholson Track, with mine workings on the hillside above the road and the battery and shaft below. The mine workings surveyed are only one of several locations worked by the Deptford Proprietary Company. Features include a 16ft-long multi-tubular boiler (bulldozed against a square iron water tank);the decaying mortar blocks for five head of stampers; hut or building platforms; downstream of the battery site are several stone-retained platforms; mine workings upstream of the battery is a filled (but subsiding) shaft; mining machinery near the shaft is a stone boiler setting, with walls at one side and rear still standing; at the rear of the boiler setting is the 7ft-square, 3ft-high stone base of a chimney stack, still bearing traces of its circular iron stack; also near the boiler setting is the skeleton (inner tube) of a 21ft-long, 5ft-diameter Cornish boiler. The workings on the hillside show today as a series of long trenches heading up the slope. These trenches may include collapsed adit portals and stopes. On the north side of the western end of the trenches is a deep open shaft and mullock dump. Two probable benched building sites were noted, but no evidence of machinery was seen anywhere above the track. Close to the track and below the bottom trench is a subsiding area of mullock that may represent a former shaft position. Mullock is dumped alongside and downhill of each trench, and a large fan of mullock spreads down to the bank on the west side of the track. A small, side-cut track crosses the workings. The main features of the battery site below the track (east side of track) are three rectangular benches cut parallel to the Nicholson River and stepping down to the south. The northern bench formerly contained the winder and other machinery, the centre the main shaft, and the southern the stamp battery. These are described in detail in a separate gazetteer (Proprietary Mine Battery, Shaft and Winder Site). Condition Of Features: Workings: Good archaeological condition. Impact Of The 2007 Fire/Flood: The 2007 bushfires burnt through the mine workings on the west side of Nicholson Track, but the battery, shaft and winder sites on the east side of the track were untouched. No impact on the mine workings was noticed. The floodwaters of the 2007 floods entered the battery site and left piles of debris at the eastern edge. Mullock dumps beside the river were scoured. Significance Ranking: Regional. Recommendations: No recommendations. The lower (battery) site may retain some vulnerability to fire, as some combustible materials (bedlogs etc) may still exist. The lower benches may also be vulnerable to future trackworks, from materials being pushed off the track. Assessed By: Robert Kaufman & Andrew Swift DATE: 24 May 2008
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