SURFACE HILL

SURFACE HILL HISTORIC AREA AND OFF SEBASTOPOL-SMYTHESDALE ROAD SMYTHESDALE, GOLDEN PLAINS SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

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  • History

    SURFACE HILL - History

    Contextual History:History of Place:
    Heritage Inventory History of Site:
    01.1860: at Surfacing Hill, Mr. Lock was preparing for a similar experiment to that being undertaken by the Black Hill Puddling and Sluicing Co.
    03.07.1875: Mr. Bowden and his party of 16 men had constructed fluming to give them an extra sluice head of water. Surface Hill was being mined at this time. The ground was 16 feet deep and a report how the dangerous pillars of earth left from the old workings had to be felled.
    to 1880’s: surfacing and sluicing of the hills was undertaken during the months of the year when rainfall provided sufficient water; sluicing was the main form of alluvial mining at this time and good rainfall had meant that it continued for nine months in the Smythesdale District during 1888.
    1890's: Sluicing of the hills and along the creeks continued during the 1890’s and when water was available parties were active at Black Hill, Scarsdale and at Watson’s Hill and Fraser's Hill, Smythesdale.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    SURFACE HILL - Heritage Inventory Description

    This site covers an area of 73 ha. The main feature at this site is the large open-cut created by the sluicing activities together with the stacks of water worn quartz stones separated from the alluvial wash during the sluicing operations. Numerous water races remain from the sluicing and surfacing, which involved digging up the top layer of material at the site and washing it through a sluice. Of particular interest is the tunnel that was used to take water from one part of the open-cut to another. Some large blocks of conglomerate, called cement by the miners, which could not be broken up by sluicing still remain. There is only a remnants of the large quantity of gravel which was washed from the hill. The majority of the gravel having been removed and used for road making. Around the perimeter of the open-cut there are several deep shafts, both round and rectangular. There are also a few piles of stones from the chimney's house sites./nOf particular interest are the orchids, wild flowers and mosses that have colonised this site since mining finished and created an environment suited to plants that are normally found in the Otways.

    Heritage Inventory Significance: State

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