5.6 million ounces - Victoria's 3rd highest past producer

A gold-bearing quartz vein was first discovered at Specimen Gully at the northern end of the Castlemaine goldfield in July 1851. Upon the announcement of this discovery, the first gold rush commenced at Golden Point on Forest Creek where alluvial gold was easily found in shallow shafts. Within the first three years the whole alluvial drainage system was explored by up to 30,000 miners at any one time. Some 4 million ounces are estimated to have been produced from the field up to 1864.

Gold mining, Chinese encampment, Guildford near Castlemaine, c. 1861 (photo by Richard Daintree, courtesy of State Library of Victoria).

The surface alluvial was richer and more extensive than at Ballarat or Bendigo. These alluvial gravels could be mined quickly by individual miners, with the proceeds remitted out of the district, with less incentive for the formation of mining companies.

By contrast, Ballarat and Bendigo were not "small man" fields and soon required deep sinking by organised mining companies. Hence these two towns developed active stock markets to finance mining investments, while Castlemaine's stock market was smaller and short lived.

The hilly terrain at Castlemaine provided large areas for prospecting by tunnelling and shallow shaft sinking without the need for deep sinking, which would have required company organisations to fund the steam pumps and winders. The quartz mines were generally described as "fabulously rich" with grades of ounces per ton, but volumes were not great, as individuals could not mine lower grade ore bodies economically.

The fresh rock (below about 30m) at Castlemaine was harder than at Ballarat or Bendigo, which discouraged deep prospecting. By 1860 the quartz mines of Castlemaine had been worked out down to the water table, where each had stopped, at an average depth of 40m. There was little quartz mining activity through the 1860s.

The lack of water on the goldfield during summer also seriously impeded early alluvial mining which became a seasonal subsistence occupation for the common miner. This pattern continued until the construction of an extensive system of water channels in the early 1870s dramatically changed the nature of alluvial mining. The ability to mine larger volumes of washdirt was achieved when hydraulic sluices and dredges were introduced into the district late in the century.

At Ballarat the Deep Lead alluvial mines were a source of wealth through the 1860s which fed money into quartz mining ventures.

There was a boom in quartz mining at Castlemaine from 1870 because capital became available under new leasing regulations. Companies were organised and prospecting shafts were sunk to around 120m. It took about three years to install new plant and sink the shafts. Each project was under-capitalised, the plant was usually inadequate for dewatering and badly located.

Speculators took up most of the new leases and after the collapse of the boom in 1873 the source of funds dried up and a mining depression occurred. The majority of the leases were declared void and the Castlemaine goldfield suffered an image problem for many years following the dishonest share dealings associated with this speculation.

This situation was exacerbated by the common practice of "shepherding" whereby lessees were able to hold leases over prospective areas with minimal work.

By June 1875 many miners had left to cultivate their selections under the new Land Act and a number were temporarily employed excavating the contour races for the goldfields water supply. After three years of inactivity, mining took off in 1878 with a return to the old alluvial areas by hydraulic sluicing using the new goldfields water supply. The terrain gave adequate heads for sluicing, unlike at Ballarat or Bendigo. This distracted all available labour and capital from quartz mining as sluicing was much more profitable.
 

Hydraulic sluice mining at Moonlight Flat, east of Castlemaine, ca 1900. Gravel was excavated by an high pressure water nozzle and transported by gravity to a pit at the base of the scaffolding. When the pit was full, a "jet elevator" used hydraulic pressure to raise the gravel to the top of the scaffolding where a sluice box concentrated coarse gold. (Photo; Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum collection, source Clive Willman; Geological Survey Report No. 106)

In the mid 1880s the "Dead Cat boom" saw many quartz leases amalgamated and packaged up for floating in London. There was a three-year hiatus, with work on the leases generally suspended, while the capital was raised. Quite a few missed out, and those that did float saw nearly all of the funds raised going to the vendors rather than being applied to exploration and development.

The mines that raised funds found that existing shafts and appliances were unsuitable and generally had to start again sinking a larger cross-section shaft with new equipment. By the end of 1890 only 3 mines were working on the field, Francis Ormond, United Ajax and South Wattle Gully.

The Bendigo goldfield had proved to be a temporary stimulus to Castlemaine but ultimately became a curse to its neighbours. Bendigo's rich and predictable saddle reefs not only drained investment capital away from Castlemaine but also influenced the thinking of Castlemaine miners.

It was often assumed that the saddle reef model could be applied universally without regard to the variety of more complicated fault-controlled structures which dominated in places like Castlemaine.

From 1900 on, the same malaise of increasing labour costs and fixed gold price affected Castlemaine, Ballarat and Bendigo. The Garfield mine closed in 1912 with its shaft at 300m. Except in Bendigo, where Bendigo Amalgamated Goldfields was formed, the First World War ended quartz mining in Victoria.

The 1930s revival occurred across the state. In Castlemaine it proved how inadequate previous prospecting had been, with discovery of the Wattle Gully lode at a depth of only 130m beneath mines which till then terminated near the water table about 60m in depth. Other mines were promoted but not properly tested.

This had a parallel at Bendigo where the Deborah line of reef was discovered, which was to sustain mining into the early 1950s. The Wattle Gully became the State's leading gold mine, closing in 1965.

Sources and background information:

Willman, C. 1995, Castlemaine Goldfield, Geological Survey Report 106.

Baragwanath, W. M. 1903, Geological Surveyor Memoirs #2 The Castlemaine Goldfield. (can be downloaded from the DPI Online Bookstore)