RED HILL SLUICING SITES
CASTLEMAINE HISTORIC AREA IRISHTOWN, MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE
Statement of Significance
The Red Hill Hydraulic Gold Sluicing Site consists of a large sluicing pit containing a network of pebble dumps and tail races. The slopes of the hill below the pit have been extensively ground sluiced, and the gullies draining from the northern and southern sides of the hill have been deeply excavated by high pressure water. The water was brought to area by a race constructed by the River Loddon and Tributaries Water Company in the early 1870s. This race was re-used and repaired in 1906 and 1937. The hill also has a number of house sites, an extensive network of water races and sluice heads, and two dumps of iron sluicing pipe.
The Red Hill Hydraulic Gold Sluicing Site is of historical, archaeological and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.
The Red Hill Hydraulic Gold Sluicing Site is historically and scientifically important as a characteristic and well preserved example of an early 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. Hydraulic sluicing of alluvial gold deposits is an important key ingredient in an understanding of gold mining technology as it was employed in country where water was plentiful and perennial.
The Red Hill Hydraulic Gold Sluicing Site is archaeologically important for its potential to yield artefacts and evidence which will be able to provide significant information about the cultural history of gold mining and the gold seekers themselves.
[Source: Victorian Heritage Register.]
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RED HILL HYDRAULIC GOLD SLUICING SITE
Victorian Heritage Register H1230 -
CHAPEL HILL CO. MINE
Victorian Heritage Inventory -
RED HILL STONE STRUCTURES
Victorian Heritage Inventory
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