ALCHEMIST CO

40 DONALD MCLEANS ROAD SPRINGDALLAH, GOLDEN PLAINS SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • History

    ALCHEMIST CO - History

    Contextual History:History of Place:
    Heritage Inventory History of Site:
    Alchymist Great Extended Gold Mining Company
    Alchymist Company
    1855: first lease taken up (Reference: Dickers Mining Record,p63, in P. Milner, TR-93/16)
    06/1864: lower down the lead from the Magnum Bonum; fitting up an engine (Reference: Mining Surveyors and Registrars Reports, Smythesdale Division, in P.Milner, TR 86/4,p730)
    09/1864: machinery completed including a very good steam engine (Reference: Mining Surveyors and Registrars Reports, Smythesdale Division, in P.Milner, TR 86/4,p732)
    12/1864: one of the only companies using steam power on Derwent Jack's Lead; still driving for the gutter (Reference: Mining Surveyors and Registrars Reports, Smythesdale Division, in P.Milner, TR 86/4,p735)
    02/1865: second lease taken up (Reference: Dickers Mining Record,p.63, in P.Milner, TR-93/16).
    03/1865: driving (Reference: Mining Surveyors and Registrars Reports, Smythesdale Division, in P.Milner, TR 86/4,p738)
    06/1865: broken into the gutter and obtained good prospects (Reference: Mining Surveyors and Registrars Reports, Smythesdale Division, in P.Milner, TR 86/4,p740)
    15/08/1865: steam engine, pumps, winding gear, puddling machines (Reference: Dickers Mining Record, p.49,in P.Milner, TR-93/16).
    22/08/1865: three compartment shaft, 8 ft 6 inches by 3 ft 6 inches clear, down 130ft; using a 12 inch by 30 inch horizontal high pressure steam engine, a Cornish flue boiler: 17 ft by 5ft with an exhaust steam feedwater heater, 10 inch draw lift with 6 foot stroke, so worked as to give the envine drivers a rest on Sundays, two 16 ft diameter puddlings machines belt
    07/1865-08/1865: recorded production of 43ozs 7dwt 23gr (or 1.350kg) (Reference: GEDIS, Ballarat Mine Data, October 1993).
    09/1865: have been getting paying wash-dirst for several weeks and the claim looks promising (Reference: Mining Surveyors and Registrars Reports, Smythesdale Division, in P.Milner, TR 86/4,p743).
    03/1866: ground abandoned; to be taken up again with machinery already on it (Reference: Mining Surveyors and Registrars Reports, Smythesdale Division, in P.Milner, TR 86/4,p747).

    Heritage Inventory Description

    ALCHEMIST CO - Heritage Inventory Description

    The mullock is the only substantial feature at this site. It was 25m x 20m and up to 3.5m high. A depression overgrown with introduced plants and blackberries is located at the east end of the heap, and there is a scatter of quartz in the grass to the east of this depression.

    Heritage Inventory Significance: -

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