Department Of Mines Geological Survey Victoria 1912

[stevewilko]

This "Nugget Book" is a record that was kept by the Victorian Mines Department.
Both alluvial and quartz reef nugget finds were recorded.

All records are for nuggets found that were greater than 20oz weight. WooHoo!
Not all nugget finds of the time were declared.

This manuscript {link here) was however, a list compiled from several different sources; -
This document has approximately 70 pages......

https://geoscience-unclassified.s3....128250&Signature=DMKEbW1HVWDm5+hRa8qBpYifG1A=
Depth: Shallow finds of the day were recognised to be anywhere up to 30 feet Deep.
Thinking about this and reading the document I realised that I could compile only the stated shallow depths suitable for a detectorist.

I thought this would lead me to better qualify the gold areas that were 'proven as holding very shallow big gold opportunity'.
I compiled a precis list of suitable detecting depth finds accordingly.

Hopefully it addresses the often asked question here as "can anyone tell me an area to go to to detect?"

Note there are areas that are more general or of a district notation overall.
Kangderaar was a district that includes, as we know them today as Fortunate, Clellands, Gilmores, Catto's Paddock, Berlin Flat, Langdons Flat, Rheola Hill, Chapel, Tylers Flat, Christmas Flat, Humbug Hills, Hard Hills, McIntyres and Kingower.

Knowing this and researching further you can sort it out. Can't do it all for you! ha ha.
Note - It is for you to understand where you can go legally to detect. -- State Park, private land and reserves etc. This is not my license to you to go anywhere you might like according to our enforced rules where applicable.

Here it is as my pdf document. You can print it and use it.
Good Luck
Wilko.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:b4a40e64-3760-31c9-96cc-476c9a07e531
Accordingly
Beware of this resource as "quote"
"There is a tragic side to nuggets also, for in the early digging days the sudden acquisition of more or less wealth in the form of a nugget often caused the mind of the finder to become unhinged. Crimes were also committed to obtain possession of nuggets". E. J. DUNN. 31.8.12.

 

[user 4386]

This is a geographic plot of nuggets greater than 50 oz, taken from the same source.


I've never understood why they call it the Golden Triangle rather than the Golden Quadrilateral....

 

[Redfin]

How times change, downloadable content.
I've had this report, and others, since the 1980's. I used to spend a lot of time at the state library in Melbourne, and the Mines Dept which was in the Gas & Fuel building in Flinders St.
Can't recall how much it cost to print.

 

[Hawkear]

How times change, downloadable content.
I've had this report, and others, since the 1980's. I used to spend a lot of time at the state library in Melbourne, and the Mines Dept which was in the Gas & Fuel building in Flinders St.
Can't recall how much it cost to print.

Back even earlier, in the 60s the Mines Dept had a museum in Russell St, where I used to go there from my job at the GPO at lunch time and drool over the mineral and some gold specimens. I particularly liked the fluorescent specimens glowing in their UV cabinet.
I also started buying the wonderful full colour geological maps that I could go out into the country and follow up. Not quite sure what I was looking for then maybe thought the rocks would be the same colour as on the geology maps.
Makes me think whether the on line content we get today has the same ability to excite and start young people on a life long interest compared to having a physical experience like the museum provided then.

 

[user 4386]

Back even earlier, in the 60s the Mines Dept had a museum in Russell St, where I used to go there from my job at the GPO at lunch time and drool over the mineral and some gold specimens. I particularly liked the fluorescent specimens glowing in their UV cabinet.
I also started buying the wonderful full colour geological maps that I could go out into the country and follow up. Not quite sure what I was looking for then maybe thought the rocks would be the same colour as on the geology maps.
Makes me think whether the on line content we get today has the same ability to excite and start young people on a life long interest compared to having a physical experience like the museum provided then.

And I used to go to where they were before Russell St - a beautiful building that was demolished in the 1960s. It was also the State Assay Laboratory (hence the chimney).

 

[Greenhornet_au]

Very nice building, big pity it was removed.

 

[Hawkear]

This is a geographic plot of nuggets greater than 50 oz, taken from the same source.

View attachment 3837
I've never understood why they call it the Golden Triangle rather than the Golden Quadrilateral....

I presume the following is the numerical summary of those nuggets greater than 50 oz by locality.
This is from my dog eared old 60s issue of the Victorian prospectors guide published by the Vic Dept of Mines.
It is interesting to see that a notable field like Castlemaine had only one nugget mentioned at the bottom.

 

[user 4386]

I presume the following is the numerical summary of those nuggets greater than 50 oz by locality.
This is from my dog eared old 60s issue of the Victorian prospectors guide published by the Vic Dept of Mines.
It is interesting to see that a notable field like Castlemaine had only one nugget mentioned at the bottom.

View attachment 4080

That is largely a function of geographic terminology - these localities were those given by the finders and often different names are partly the same place. Castlemaine town area was not a huge producer and much around town was finer gold derived from its main producing area upstream to the east, the Chewton-Fryerstown gold belt, only about 5 km east of the centre of town and 1 km east of the present Castlemaine town boundary (16 nuggets greater than 50 oz). The first town on the Castlemaine goldfield, then called the Mt Alexander goldfield was actually at Chewton. The first rush was the Forest Creek diggings, halfway between Castlemaine and Chewton!, so 2,5 km from each of them. The very first discovery at Castlemaine was at Specimen Gully (Campbells Creek), 6 km north of Chewton and 5 km northesast of present Castlemaine. The same occurred elsewhere (eg Hepburn vs Daylesford, Tarnagulla vs Poseidon, Newstead is the same place as Green gully). Places slightly further out but isolated like Waanyarra and Laanecoorie would probably sometimes be assigned to nearby Tarnagulla or Poseidon. Also, the importance of nuggets was not a function of only those over 50 oz - the Castlemaine area produced huge numbers of nuggets smaller than that (it was the third largest alluvial gold producer in Victoria - about 150 tonnes). And of course the records are very incomplete for nuggets, since a large proportion were found before people kept records of anything except the giant nuggets in the first couple of years. Later as giant nuggets became less common, smaller nuggets tended to be recorded (e.g. probably one reason for records of the smaller nuggets from Jericho and Woods Point in the rugged mountains northeast of Melbourne - fields only discovered nearly a decade later when shallow gold was declining on the central Victorian fields. Also I know of many localities where large nuggets were recorded but are not listed (eg Enochs Point on the Big River). Lastly, do you accurately tell the government the exact locality of gold nuggets found now.....?

 

[UnderEmployedGeo]

Enoch's Point hey? That is interesting...

That is largely a function of geographic terminology - these localities were those given by the finders and often different names are partly the same place. Castlemaine town area was not a huge producer and much around town was finer gold derived from its main producing area upstream to the east, the Chewton-Fryerstown gold belt, only about 5 km east of the centre of town and 1 km east of the present Castlemaine town boundary (16 nuggets greater than 50 oz). The first town on the Castlemaine goldfield, then called the Mt Alexander goldfield was actually at Chewton. The first rush was the Forest Creek diggings, halfway between Castlemaine and Chewton!, so 2,5 km from each of them. The very first discovery at Castlemaine was at Specimen Gully (Campbells Creek), 6 km north of Chewton and 5 km northesast of present Castlemaine. The same occurred elsewhere (eg Hepburn vs Daylesford, Tarnagulla vs Poseidon, Newstead is the same place as Green gully). Places slightly further out but isolated like Waanyarra and Laanecoorie would probably sometimes be assigned to nearby Tarnagulla or Poseidon. Also, the importance of nuggets was not a function of only those over 50 oz - the Castlemaine area produced huge numbers of nuggets smaller than that (it was the third largest alluvial gold producer in Victoria - about 150 tonnes). And of course the records are very incomplete for nuggets, since a large proportion were found before people kept records of anything except the giant nuggets in the first couple of years. Later as giant nuggets became less common, smaller nuggets tended to be recorded (e.g. probably one reason for records of the smaller nuggets from Jericho and Woods Point in the rugged mountains northeast of Melbourne - fields only discovered nearly a decade later when shallow gold was declining on the central Victorian fields. Also I know of many localities where large nuggets were recorded but are not listed (eg Enochs Point on the Big River). Lastly, do you accurately tell the government the exact locality of gold nuggets found now.....?