opinions please . is this a shaft ?

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I inspected a rural property recently that is up for sale

Its in an area where gold mining was carried out around 1890 - 1900

I found this feature where someone has dug what i think may have been a shaft then lined it with a rock wall , neatly cemented in place

the rock wall is dug into the side of a hill and maybe was to prevent cave-ins from the hill above it

If it was a mineshaft it has been filled with rubbish and rocks , maybe to make it safe at a guess.

anyone seen similar , would it have been a shaft or maybe part of someones attempt at building a stone house / shed ?

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Looks like the top of a shaft, could be someones attempt at a well.. line the top of it so the dirt dont fall in when your dragging your bucket ?

what is the surrounding ground like and are there any quartz seems nearby?

 

[HeadsUp]

Looks like the top of a shaft, could be someones attempt at a well.. line the top of it so the dirt dont fall in when your dragging your bucket ?

what is the surrounding ground like and are there any quartz seems nearby?

there are massive amounts of crushed quartz all around it that i assume may have been excavated from seams in the hills around it , and maybe there was old leads under this ground , the shaft is right on the edge of a hill where it meets a large flat area that could be alluvial wash.

there was another shaft that looked the same but fitted with a pump on top , i could see the shaft went down nearly two metres and then it seemed to go horizontally but that could have just been ground that was undermined by water , so i am uncertain if the pump was for dewatering the shaft and drive , or if it was used as a well.
It was full of water but to me the jury is out which one it was.

I think the original settler of the property was chinese , there is a stone cottage built on the property dating from 1900 , and there are hundreds of wild shallots / spring onions growing all over the yard around the cottage which tends to support the chinese aspect.

hoping someone may have seen similar stonework to confirm construction techniques used in that time

ps , as far as i can see the land is too ratty to be used for farming , so if someone settled there it must have been for mining ? ?

 

[Guest]

I have seen something similar but more like a very large bath tub shape up on the high bank of a creek with an eroded gully next to it. I was thinking it may have been used to hold water to sluice, as the creek only runs after rain, & the eroded gully may have been where a sluice system was set up? They could have been filling it from the waterholes + catching water from rain to enable sluicing in drier times? Your area sounds a lot different but the construction looks similar & the one I seen was in an area of historic high Chinese population too. Be interesting if anyone knows for sure.

 

[loamer]

I have seen similar - it was built into the side of a hill below the diggings and was used to load drays with quartz and/or wash dirt. There is an example at Sydneham Hill (Vic) and also a couple to the west of Tarnagulla (Vic). A real mystery but the ground as described and sounds very nice.

Speaking of Chinese - don't be fooled by the 'they only dug round shafts' and 'European's only dug square shafts' nonsense you will no doubt hear.

 

[HeadsUp]

I have seen similar - it was built into the side of a hill below the diggings and was used to load drays with quartz and/or wash dirt. There is an example at Sydneham Hill (Vic) and also a couple to the west of Tarnagulla (Vic). A real mystery but the ground as described and sounds very nice.

Speaking of Chinese - don't be fooled by the 'they only dug round shafts' and 'European's only dug square shafts' nonsense you will no doubt hear.

This one has steep hillside on the high side of it so wouldnt have been used for loading , but yes , a bit of a mystery.

The history in the area supports mining activity , and there is a gold mine 6 km away that is named with a european first name and chinese surname , the cottage is named with the same first name " xxx's cottage "

i tried searching on Trove for history about the guy or the mine but have no references so far.

 

[loamer]

Got me snookered. But it seems like a lot of work for what? If it is any help, tracking down an old 'forgotten' Chinese mining site and when it got down to roughly where it was, gridding was used to determine the most likely site by a process of plotting metalic objects on a map of a scale of 1 x 4m square with ratios of: 0, 1-2, 3 - 4 etc. Plus broken china, glass etc on the ground. It worked. You may be able to try the same through here as there are numerous forgotten mining sites.

 

[G0lddigg@]

this looks very similar to an old battery site in Hepburn, at first I thought it was an old house foundation but after some research and returning to the site I was able to find the race to it and there was a kind of water outlet half way down the hill. there were four similar corners like yours and they tended to build the battery on these foundations then move them as new leases and opportunities arose.

they kind of look like this

 

[HeadsUp]

this looks very similar to an old battery site in Hepburn, at first I thought it was an old house foundation but after some research and returning to the site I was able to find the race to it and there was a kind of water outlet half way down the hill. there were four similar corners like yours and they tended to build the battery on these foundations then move them as new leases and opportunities arose.

they kind of look like this
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/357/1378107405_water_wheel_battery.gif
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/357/1378107301_battery.jpg

great pictures . that bottom one is heavy engineering sheer beauty to behold

interesting that the top pic shows water flowing through the holes in the bottom of the stamper , i wasnt aware of that being done but its logical , using water as a filter and for moving the product into a sluice once it was crushed down small enough to pass through holes in the bottom.

I would think though that they would have to poke a steel rod through the holes to unblock them quite regularly ( from the outside )

 

[G0lddigg@]

agreed it would get blocked for sure especially with the timber breaking down into splinters all the time, great concept though i love looking at the old diggers ingenuity.

 

[misscadillac1964]

I have an interesting bit at the front of my place, big pile of rocks but if you walk on it it seems hollow underneath. and you can see down between some gaps but I'm not sure how far yet. I'm going to eat my weetbix one day shortly and see if I can move the bigger rocks and hopefully I find something interesting!!

You'd better buy it Heads!!

 

[HeadsUp]

I have an interesting bit at the front of my place, big pile of rocks but if you walk on it it seems hollow underneath. and you can see down between some gaps but I'm not sure how far yet. I'm going to eat my weetbix one day shortly and see if I can move the bigger rocks and hopefully I find something interesting!!

You'd better buy it Heads!!

why , does your womans intuition say there is stil payable gold leads 2 metres under the surface ?

re your rock pile , can you post a photo of it ?

do you think it was once a structure of something that fell down over time ?

is it rough random shaped rocks of all sizes and shapes or could the rocks been chosen carefully for their shape to be used as a building material for a structure of some kind ?

you never know what could be laying hidden underneath ancient layers of foliage

 

[misscadillac1964]

I actually know NOTHING about any of this i just have a million wonderful theories!

Apparently theres a fault line very close to here... as in a few kms - fault lines often lead to gold? i've read. Also I know there is water going through the front section of this place (underground) as i was told thats where its been tested to put a bore. this big pile of rocks follows the line of where the water is meant to go.. pluuuuuus i've read majority of the mines that were around here were good in payout but never really got used to full potential because of the ground water. Good ole google!!
me + water + me inbetween fault line and where they mined + SURELY i'd HAVE to be able to find SOMETHING! i'll be devastated if I dont you know that right?? hahaha
I could be very very very wrong (probably! but hey a girls gotta have something to keep her occupied!)

anyhoo! rocks are just random - nothing uniform about them at all. just looks out of place where it is, and sounds hollow. I've got an engine inspection cam haha i can't see bugger all down there so I am going to have to move rocks. I went for a play there one night a while back and a centipede ate me, so its definitely a daytime operation
I shall take some piccies!

 

[HeadsUp]

I actually know NOTHING about any of this i just have a million wonderful theories!

Apparently theres a fault line very close to here... as in a few kms - fault lines often lead to gold? i've read. Also I know there is water going through the front section of this place (underground) as i was told thats where its been tested to put a bore. this big pile of rocks follows the line of where the water is meant to go.. pluuuuuus i've read majority of the mines that were around here were good in payout but never really got used to full potential because of the ground water. Good ole google!!
me + water + me inbetween fault line and where they mined + SURELY i'd HAVE to be able to find SOMETHING! i'll be devastated if I dont you know that right?? hahaha
I could be very very very wrong (probably! but hey a girls gotta have something to keep her occupied!)

anyhoo! rocks are just random - nothing uniform about them at all. just looks out of place where it is, and sounds hollow. I've got an engine inspection cam haha i can't see bugger all down there so I am going to have to move rocks. I went for a play there one night a while back and a centipede ate me, so its definitely a daytime operation
I shall take some piccies!

Don't be afraid of throwing theories and questions at the wall here , some will stick , some will slide down and go "plop" when they hit the floor but even the oldest pro' miner can learn something from newbies . " out of the mouths of babes " and all.

Don't be afraid to shine forth and courageously go where no Cadillac has gone before , boldly asking innocently practical questions that stimulate thoughts and ideas in gray matter previously unnacustomed to such cerebral meanderings.

Re' fault lines . I read that big fault lines never contain gold but many small ones do . Go figure

Re' ground water , I wonder how many mines that were abandoned due to unavailability of suitable pumps in the goldush days have been missed by modern mining companies , and could still have potential for reworking...can't discount the opportunity .

Re' your rock formation that caught your eye , explore away and don't let a few dead leads faze you , successful miners jumped in and had a good crack at it , those who persevered with resiliance are more likely to come out grinners.



Ps . I think there is a large emotional aspect to prospecting

How we manage our thoughts and emotions is a significant factor in outcomes

I try to be unaffected by small defeats or disappointments and look at them as being "experimental tests and checks" that create fertile foundations of knowledge for future reference

 

[Heatho]

Does the property have a creek, river or other water source? If not I'd say it was a well. My mates place had a lot of Chinese working there in the late 1800's, there are no wells at all. It's on a nice river with plenty of water. Are there any other diggings on the property? Mullock heaps? Machinery?

Miss C, the pile of rocks sounds like a mullock heap to me, all that stuff dug up from underground had to be dumped somewhere, that would be a great place to start looking with a detector, lots of people find gold in mullock heaps.

 

[HeadsUp]

Does the property have a creek, river or other water source? If not I'd say it was a well. My mates place had a lot of Chinese working there in the late 1800's, there are no wells at all. It's on a nice river with plenty of water. Are there any other diggings on the property? Mullock heaps? Machinery?

there are two "shafts" lined with rock around the top of them like in my photo , they are only 20 metres apart

there are several other pits dug into the hills that have been filled in with rubbish , they might extend only a few feet or they could be shafts that go for hundreds of metres

i cant tell how far they go , there are no mullock heaps below them but there is mega heaps of crushed quartz ( white quartz with rough unpolished edges ) scattered all over the property.

if it was mined then its befuddling why the miner would go to the trouble of spreading the quartz all over the property rather than just dumping it in piles somewhere , unless a subsequent owner tried to tidy the place up.

there are no mines listed on the google earth gold maps i have for that exact property but there are several within 6 km

i will do more research with the NSW mines people

thanks folks

 

[HeadsUp]

agreed it would get blocked for sure especially with the timber breaking down into splinters all the time, great concept though i love looking at the old diggers ingenuity.

looks like there was a steel boot on the bottom of those wooden hammer posts so you wouldnt be getting wood splinters , the hammer posts wouldnt last a day otherwise

must have been one of the very first versions of a battery and you can see how they evolved with time by comparing the two photos

its great to see how their engineering developed , the current younger generation seem to take technology for granted these days

 

[G0lddigg@]

agreed it would get blocked for sure especially with the timber breaking down into splinters all the time, great concept though i love looking at the old diggers ingenuity.

looks like there was a steel boot on the bottom of those wooden hammer posts so you wouldnt be getting wood splinters , the hammer posts wouldnt last a day otherwise

good point, would ave been iron feet back then,

 

[misscadillac1964]

pics soon Heads! I need to catch up on work haha you lot are very distracting!!

 

[Toothpick]

Could be? though with those stacked rocks in the wall may be an old cellar? 8)