YOUNG AUSTRALIAN MINE SITE

GLENDART TRACK DARTMOUTH, TOWONG SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

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  • History

    YOUNG AUSTRALIAN MINE SITE - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site:
    The Young Australian mine was founded on the same line of reef as the La Mascotte in 1883, and it was heralded as the most promising mine on the field. Crushing machinery for the mine - an eight-head battery and a 12-hp steam engine by Robey & Co., Lincoln, England - came over the Gibb, pulled by 86 bullocks, in early 1884. It was the first battery to crush for the public on the Dart River field. The 'elaborate gold-saving measures' taken by the company in setting up its plant were in vain: the mine closed within six weeks of the battery's commencement, due to poor yields. The Young Australian was worked on tribute later in the 1880s.
    The existing remains apparently relate to a later (20th-century) phase of the site's history. The 1927 Dodge chassis and engine suggests that the cyanide works, at least, dates to the Dart River mining revival of the later 1930s.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    YOUNG AUSTRALIAN MINE SITE - Heritage Inventory Description

    Features are: a battery, oil engine, cyanide works, mine workings and miner's camp.

    Heritage Inventory Significance: National Estate The site has scientific significance because of its intactness and rarity.

    Heritage Inventory Key Components: Battery - On a benched platform (measuring 25 m x 15 m), low down in the gully at creek level, is a wooden-framed 10-head battery. Two of the stamper stems have been removed; the cam shaft is still present and has a 5ft-diameter flywheel. Battery engine - The battery was powered by a single cylinder horizontal oil engine, which remains on the site. The engine has a 4ft-diameter fly wheel; the cylinder is 2 ft long and 8 inches in diameter. Cyanide works - Below the battery is a six-cylinder car engine and part of the chassis of a 1927 Dodge. The engine drove an agitating plant for three adjoining cyanide vats. The galvanised iron cyanide vats (now partly decayed) are set in a stone-retained platform. All the agitating arms have been removed but the iron framework and pulley system are still in place. The cyanide works is largely obscured by manferns.

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