Peter the Great, White Jacket and Blue Jacket Mines and Alluvial Workings

Eaglehawk-Neilborough Road EAGLEHAWK NORTH, GREATER BENDIGO CITY

All information on this page is maintained by Greater Bendigo City. Click below for their website and contact details.

Greater Bendigo City

Peter the Great (Right Hand Branch) Mine, Dam and Alluvial Workings

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • Physical Description 1

    Peter the Great, White Jacket and Blue Jacket Mines and Alluvial Workings - Physical Description 1

    [Peter the Great Gully (right hand branch)]

    Towards the head of the gully there is a shallow dam which still retains water. The nearby puddling machine site has almost vanished, but in the gully downstream from the dam there is a band of shallow alluvial workings. Further upstream, at the junction of Peter the Great and Blue Jacket gullies, are twelve small mullock heaps, partially bulldozed to fill the shafts of some shallow reef workings. The largest of the heaps has a radius of 20 metres and stands 5 metres high. There are no machinery footings associated with this heap.

    [Peter the Great Gully (left hand branch)]

    Puddling machine No. 1

    On the south side of a track leading generally west and about 300 metres from Neilborough Road is an outline of a puddling machine. The inner mound of this machine is still visible, but has weathered badly, partly filling the puddling trench. There is no sign of the wooden pivot post.

    Puddling machine No. 2

    This is located about 100 metres south of Puddling machine No.1. The puddling machine's outline is very weathered and has a large tree growing from it.

    Puddling machine No. 3

    This is located 10 metres east of Puddling machine No. 2. Half of the puddling machine's outline has been sluiced away. What survives is very weathered. Upstream from the puddling machine site a low earthen embankment has been placed across the gully. The dam's outlet channel has been repaired with concrete.

    Puddling machine No 4

    This is located 300 metres north of Puddling machine No.1, behind and to the west of private land. The inner mound of the puddling machine has been quarried, leaving only the outer mound to mark the site. The puddling machine site has a large tree growing on it and is associated with a small dam.

    Alluvial workings

    The western side of the right branch of the gully at a point just downstream from Puddling Machine No.1 and as far as its junction with the main gully has been extensively sluiced hydraulically to bedrock. Downstream (south and east) of Puddling machine No 3, is a patch of shallow alluvial holes which have been sunk through a half-metre surface layer of compacted cemented gravels. There are some 40 holes visible, covering an area 70 by 30 metres. The shape of the holes range from circular to rectangular in shape. Most of the holes have silted up. The gully is relatively undisturbed.

    [Blue Jacket Reef]

    About 100 metres east of Whipstick Road and close to the Raywood Channel, there is a puddling machine. The inner mound of the puddling machine has been quarried out, and only sections of the outer mound has escaped being eroded away. About 100 metres further down the gully, and running across the gully in a roughly north-south direction there is a line of shallow reef working on the northern extension of Blue Jacket Reef.

    Physical Description 2

    Peter the Great, White Jacket and Blue Jacket Mines and Alluvial Workings - Physical Description 2

    [Peter the Great Gully (right hand branch)]

    The Blue Jacket Reef Mining Heritage Area is bounded on the west by Lennon Road between Prowse Road and the junction of One Eye Gully and Opossum Gully, on the south by an eastern branch of One Eye Gully, on the east by a line 75 metres east of the reef workings in one of the northern branches of One Eye Gully, extending northwards to the reef workings in Blue Jacket Gully and then further north and east at the same distance along Blue Jacket Gully and Peter the Great Gully to a cross track between the Eaglehawk-Neilborough Road and Whipstick Road, on the north by this cross track, on the north west by a line 75 metres north west of Peter the Great Gully and Mosquito Gully to a point on the line of Lennon Road extended.

    [Peter the Great Gully (left hand branch)]

    The site is situated at the head of the leftmost branch of Peter the Great Gully, extending 500 metres from north to south and for 50 metres either side of the centre line of the gully.

    [Blue Jacket Reef]

    The site is bounded on the west by the Raywood Channel and extends for 75 metres north and south on either side of the main line of the gully for a distance of 250 metres.

    Physical Description 3

    Peter the Great, White Jacket and Blue Jacket Mines and Alluvial Workings - Physical Description 3

    [Blue Jacket Reef]

    The provenance of the puddling machine is unknown. There is no firm evidence of the existence of a dam in the gully in the vicinity of the puddling machine, so it is possible that water for puddling was obtained from the Raywood Channel, in which case the machine was not in use before 1886. The site is unusual in being upstream from the reef workings, and therefore suggests that the alluvial and reef workings were unrelated.

    The reef workings may be as early as 1865.

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Greater Bendigo - Marong Heritage Study 1999

    Author: Andrew Ward and Associates
    Year: 1999
    Grading: Local

• Attachments
  • Peter the Great (Right Hand Branch) Mine, Dam and Alluvial Workings
    
  • Peter the Great (Left Hand Branch) Alluvial Workings
    
  • Blue Jacket Reef (White Jacket Gully) Mine and Alluvial Workings
    
• Location map
• Explore related places
  • Show:
    -- select -- Nearby Places Same era

  • ONE-EYED GULLY ALLUVIAL WORKINGS - PUDDLER 4

    

    Victorian Heritage Inventory
  • WHITE GULLY ALLUVIAL WORKINGS

    

    Victorian Heritage Inventory
  • PETER THE GREAT DAM

    

    Victorian Heritage Inventory

  • 
    'Altona' Homestead (Formerly 'Laverton' Homestead) and Logan Reserve

    

    Hobsons Bay City
  • 
    1) SWEENEY'S COTTAGE, 2) BARN, 3) GLASSHOUSE, 4) GOLDEN ASH TREE, 5) LEMON SCENTED GUM TREE, 6) PEAR TREE, 7) PINOAK TREES, 8) YELLOW BOX TREES, 9) OTHER MATURE PLANTING AND 10) GARDEN

    

    Nillumbik Shire
  • 
    1) WINGROVE COTTAGE AND 2) TWO PENCIL PINE TREES, 672-674 MAIN ROAD, ELTHAM

    

    Nillumbik Shire
• Public contributions