ONE TREE HILL QUARTZ WORKINGS

290 ONE TREE HILL ROAD SMITHS GULLY, NILLUMBIK SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

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    ONE TREE HILL QUARTZ WORKINGS - History

    Contextual History:History of Place:
    Heritage Inventory History of Site:
    1855: Gold discovered at One Tree Hill or Distil Creek, which became the richest place on the diggings. First village at Caledonia rush was known as Market Square, on east side of Ruggy's Gully, where it joins Old Caledonia Gully, about 1½ miles above Queenstown.
    August 1859: Yield of gold from Swedish Reef on One Tree Hill is greater than ever: 15 lb weight of gold extracted from 60 lb of quartz.
    1859+: One Tree Hill workings, near Queenstown, are on three parallel reef lines, known as Swedish, Moonlight, and Buck reefs respectively. The hill forms part of divide between Watson's Creek and Diamond Creek, the gullies trending NW and S carried alluvial gold, with some nuggets, an unusual occurrence in the goldfields to the east of Melbourne.
    1903: One Tree Hill contain mines in the hands of small parties, none of which is doing very well.
    1904: Hidden Mystery mine, One Tree Hill, meeting with encouraging prospects.
    1908: Madame Dobson Co., One Tree Hill, erected crushing plant but, other than milling remnants of stone from the old slopes, little or nothing was done.
    1913: Gerlach & party, One Tree Hill, are extending tunnel in a quest to reach Swedes lode.
    1919: The One Tree Hill group of reefs have (in the past) been worked from open stopes on the surface to an adit driven from Fern Tree Creek about 250ft below the cap of the hill. On the north side of One Tree Hill, about 200ft below the crown of the range, an adit known as Gurlach's has been driven to cut the One Tree Hill reefs on their northerly extension beyond the open stopes. A Melbourne company is at present exercising an option over this ground. Homeward Bound line of reef, between open stopes and Gurlach's adit, currently being prospected by shaft, about 100ft deep. Lancashire Lass line, between Homeward Bound and Gurlach's, yielded up to 20 oz/ton to shallow depths.
    1922-3: A fourth line of reef, the Mystery, was discovered at depth on One Tree Hill—between December 1918 and July 1922, 152 tons from the Mystery Reef returned 440 oz. The workings on the hill include shafts on the various lines, with the present working adit from the western side of the hill; also a short adit and a lower main adit from the eastern side of the hill (see plan on file). Kenny advised that if further development of the One Tree Hill reefs was successful, a five-head battery could be erected at 'the old battery site on the western side of the hill'—presently crushing at Queenstown government battery?
    1932: Smile of Fortune Reef, One Tree Hill, outcrops about ¼ mile NW from Swedish Reef workings surface workings extend along the line for a distance of about 150ft—present owners of the mine are testing the reef at a lower level by sinking a shaft on the north end of the old workings, to a depth of 93ft mine is equipped with a 25-hp crude oil engine and compressor plant. Queenstown State battery is a short distance away by a fair road.
    March 1942: At Smyth's Gully, near Queenstown, some rich returns have been obtained. A crushing from the One Tree Hill mine returned approximately 115 oz of gold from 21 tons of stone.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    ONE TREE HILL QUARTZ WORKINGS - Heritage Inventory Description

    Quartz workings: concentrated patch of reef workings on the side of the track leading to the One Tree Hill main tunnel. Workings include shafts and stopes./nOne Tree Hill Adit: adit, mullock heap, large dam embankment and carting track.

    Heritage Inventory Significance: Site to be protected and nominated to the Victorian Heritage Inventory Site 1.0 has Historical significance: early quartz mining location, later associated with the Queenstown Government Battery. Scientific significance: well preserved quartz workings with possibility of habitation sites

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