UNLISTED BRITANNIA MINE WORKINGS

BRITANNIA SPUR TRACK WALHALLA, BAW BAW SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

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  • History

    UNLISTED BRITANNIA MINE WORKINGS - History

    “On the back of rich reef discoveries at Walhalla, prospectors moved out looking for similar finds. A small reef, the Britannia, was discovered on the bank of Stringers Creek West Branch in 1865 and in the general excitement of the times a well-capitalised company was formed to purchase the property and work the reef. This find immediately attracted other prospecting parties who took up ground on the line and around the company’s ground. The Britannia Reef QMC set about opening the reef and erected expensive plant but due to poor management and a lack of gold the operation was short-lived, and was finished by 1867. Nothing came of these early speculative shows, but a succession of small, ill-fated mining ventures kept a thin mining presence within the Study Area into the 1890s at least. It is interesting to note that no records of any gold production at all have been located for any of the numerous mining operations within the Study Area. Discoveries to the north such as the Fear Not Reef in 1875, itself ill-fated, and revivals at the British Queen saw miners regularly trudging through the area.

    The voracious appetite of the large Walhalla mines for timber saw the Long Tunnel Company extend their timber tramway through the Study Area in the late 1870s, and contract timber cutters swarmed over the area, denuding the hillsides as they worked further north into the 1890s. The split timber was sent back to Walhalla on horse-drawn skips along the tramway. The timber cutters, mostly of Italian or Swiss-Italian origin, lived out in the bush in rough temporary camps, only coming into town for provisions. One of these timber cutters was Giovanni Guatta, and in the early 1900s, after the axes had ceased ringing and the mines in the Study Area were abandoned, he leased a small area of land at the junction of Fear Not Creek and Stringers Creek West Branch. There he had a comfortable three-roomed hut and grew vegetables in terraced gardens, trekking from Walhalla to the farm on weekends to tend his crops. He held the lease into the 1930s, but with the passing of Giovanni, the bush cloaked the sites and it is only following wildfire such as that of January 2009 that the visual evidence of all this activity is briefly revealed to the casual eye.”

     

    Quoted from Heritage Action Plan for Fear Not Creek Sites Walhalla Historic Area, LRGM – Services for Parks Victoria, August 2010.  A more comprehensive history is also included in that document.

    Interpretation of Site

    UNLISTED BRITANNIA MINE WORKINGS - Interpretation of Site

    The site shows a number of developmental phases, from early reef workings resulting from a rush to the area in the wake of substantial gold-bearing reef discoveries at Walhalla, to the timber tramways that fed the Walhalla mines’ need for timber for the boilers, underground propping and construction, to the later farmlets on sections of the river by Walhalla residents.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    UNLISTED BRITANNIA MINE WORKINGS - Heritage Inventory Description

    Surface workings and adit at 451487E 5802855N, surface workings and shaft at 451457E 5802685N. Updated 15/06/2022 - Access is across the West Branch of Stringers Creek from Britannia Spur Track, just before it crosses the creek. The workings were previously mapped in 2010, not long after bushfires, and entry was easy and lines of sight were generally good. Since that time, there have been numerous tree falls and much new growth over the whole area. The hillsides are very steep and access was extremely difficult. The site shows a timber tramway cutting and several open adits. The northern section contains the Britannia Adit, Britannia Shaft (open to about 10m depth) and the Britannia battery site. Further north again are traces of a timber cutting or mining camp, and Guatta’s farm.
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