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SPRING GULLY CO. MINE
CASTLEMAINE HISTORIC RESERVE FRYERSTOWN, MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

SPRING GULLY CO. MINE

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Statement of Significance
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Statement of Significance

The Spring Gully Quartz Gold Mines consists of six main quartz mines. All the mines have undisturbed mullock heaps, and four have mining machinery foundations. The main mine (the parent company) of the network is the Spring Gully Company, which has the most comprehensive range of mining relics, include stone, brick, concrete and timber engine and battery foundations. The Spring Gully Quartz Gold Mines contain relics of quartz mining carried on at the site between mid 1850s and the late 1930s. During the reef's main mining period, at the turn of the century, it was the district's premier gold producer.

The Spring Gully Quartz Gold Mines are of historical, archaeological and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.

The Spring Gully Quartz Gold Mines are historically and scientifically important as a characteristic example of an important form of gold mining. Gold mining sites are of crucial importance for the pivotal role they have Played since 1851 in the development of Victoria. As well as being a significant producer of Victoria's nineteenth century wealth, quartz mining, with its intensive use of machinery, played an important role in the development of Victorian manufacturing industry. The Spring Gully Quartz Gold Mines are important for its manifestation of this facet of gold mining. The mining network is also significant because of its ability to illustrate a mining sequence that spans some 80 years, and the phenomenon of a quartz mining boom, when the success of one mine inspired the formation (and the nomenclature) of a host of new companies.

The Spring Gully Quartz Gold Mines are archaeologically important for its potential to yield artefacts and evidence which will be able to provide significant information about the technological history of gold mining.

[Source: Victorian Heritage Register.]

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