I dont doubt what you are saying mate its just what I was told. I agree they are always around diggings
loamer said:The Myth That All Round Holes Were Dug By Chinese By Stephen Barnham
Introduction:
A new folklore is gaining factual status throughout the Victorian population in the 20th and 21st centuries concerning shallow alluvial gold diggings. It is a very popular belief that simply says: it is a round hole and therefore dug by Chinese. This is not universally true. The fact is early diggers did not have the experience to decide how a hole should be dug other than the obvious of going down. The width of the hole was often determined by the depth required, the number and the energy of the diggers involved.
The reality out in the goldfields:
European shafts during the gold rushes tended to be round or at least not square or rectangular. We will get to squared off holes in due course.
Should anyone want to argue this on the basis of commonly accepted fact, all they need do is get out into the goldfields and study the numerous holes in numerous locations. Alluvial holes in shallow as well as being in stable ground are round or roundish. There are many thousands of them. If the round hole equals dug by a Chinese digger always holds true then Europeans on the goldfields were a small minority. Those people who do not have the time or means to check for themselves can study early goldfields photographs or the pictures made by S. T. Gill. Guess what, most holes are round holes and rarely is a Chinese person in sight.
Still not happy? Would you argue that the majority of holes have collapsed and the squared shape is now deformed to appear round? A fair argument. If the thrown out earth were on either side likeyou would expect with a grave then that is a fair call. That does not work too well with a windlass when the dumped earth, by the nature of the windlass, can only be dumped on one side or the other meaning the two opposing heaps could be at a round hole.
Exploring those thousands of holes will show the dumps around each shaft are exactly that, around each shaft. This circumstance becomes quite evident to any observant prospector who has worked around shallow diggings.
Examination will frequently show that the hole centre and the spoil heap crest has a fairly even radius. If it really comes down to proving a point, then randomly dig out some shafts in shallow ground (three or four metres at the most) and you will find that as you remove the accumulated soil you will be standing in a cylinder. Depending on the depth, if the shaft showed prospects, you will find the bottom has been opened out in a bell shape to get at the greatest wash area or it has been driven along the run of gold.
Some speculations:
This paragraph is purely some opinions and to promote some thought and research. Round holes dug by Europeans were probably dug because of preceding experience. The round shape of shafts or holes might come from people doing what they know; so what would that be? A typical hole of this type was commonly dug for use as a well. People tend to work as they know and only modify their approach as needed. People tended to dig round or roundish holes. If you have ever sunk a shaft you will know by experience that having flat squared off sides is not as easy at it seems.
The problem of deeper and unstable ground:
As the shallow ground of Ballarats Golden Point and Gravel Pits was followed deeper into wet and unstable ground, problems arose that needed solutions. One problem was how to shore up the typical diggers hole, which is round, in unstable ground.
On the surface these shafts usually snake across the country following the deepest ground which marks where an old stream once ran. That stream has collected and concentrated the gold along its course, usually on or very near the bottom. Overall this is called a lead with the deeper channel called the gutter. The bottomed shaft would have the lower most layer checked for gold; if any good, tunnels would be driven to follow the gold that was revealed. This process works safely only if the ground is solid; if the ground was loose or wet, chances are you would end up dead under a collapse of earth.
In the deeper ground and wetter conditions, in the early experience of Ballarat, round unsupported holes proved dangerous. Professor Weston Bate, in his book Lucky City, tells briefly how the innovative digger John Wood-Beilby went to the trouble of squaring off his workings so that saplings cut to length could be used to line and brace the sides against collapse. This might not be the first time it was done but it's certainly an early account of tackling the problem. Various and quite sophisticated methods were developed to defeat the inflows and support the shaft walls. Beyond this engineering and safety necessity, shallow holes tended to remain round and that is the vast bulk of them.
The Chinese are said to have dug round holes for the superstitious reasons of avoiding corners. There might be some truth in this, but they are also a very practical people with centuries of experience behind them. The Chinese were technically innovative with windlasses and pumps and for the most part worked together in well organised work groups using systematic mining rather than hit or miss guess work. Fortunately the Chinese are increasingly given the public credit they deserve for their organisation, ingenuity and cultural contributions via displays at Bendigo, Ararat and a museum in Melbourne. An area of research that could be done would be to look into the extent that Chinese market gardens staved off dietary related diseases in the European diggers. The Chinese successfully set up market gardens in many environments that we would regard as hostile for farming and they did this without any experience in a country where the seasons are back the front and many trees drop their bark instead of their leaves.
echidnadigger said:My memory of puddlers is a little vague now days but if memory serves me I am pretty sure cyanide was used in the process to break up the clay. If this was the case then it stands to reason that cyanide may still be present at some level in close proximity to the old puddlers. If there is an imminent threat to a prospectors health and well being then I would also say stay well clear of working the ground around and down hill from any puddler. I also believe in protecting the heritage of these areas and dont want to give anyone a reason to exclude us from these areas, because of the act of digging around them. If someone could elaborate on the facts of the operation of puddlers I would like to hear from you. Thanks
Diggerdom said:echidnadigger said:My memory of puddlers is a little vague now days but if memory serves me I am pretty sure cyanide was used in the process to break up the clay. If this was the case then it stands to reason that cyanide may still be present at some level in close proximity to the old puddlers. If there is an imminent threat to a prospectors health and well being then I would also say stay well clear of working the ground around and down hill from any puddler. I also believe in protecting the heritage of these areas and dont want to give anyone a reason to exclude us from these areas, because of the act of digging around them. If someone could elaborate on the facts of the operation of puddlers I would like to hear from you. Thanks
I can clarify a couple of things about the use of cyanide for you. It was usually used in specially constructed concrete vats, mainly for treating crushed quartz from reef mining. I have not heard of it being used in puddlers, which are used for liberating alluvial gold from clay. Cyanide in aqueous solution (I.e. dissolved in water) is unstable unless the solution is alkaline and decomposes quite rapidly into hydrogen cyanide (cyanide gas) in neutral or acidic solutions. In modern applications of cyanide in gold mining, lime or sodium hydroxide are added to the slurry to maintain an alkaline environment and slow the degradation of the cyanide. It is therefore unlikely that you will be exposed to cyanide poisoning from old plants as it has most likely broken down.
Having said that, your are correct to use caution as there are definitely some hazards associated with poking around old tailings dams. As well as the likelyhood of mercury being present, various minerals were present in gold reefs, including arsenic and antimony. For example, Eaglehawk in Bendigo has a lot of arsenopyrite in the quartz along with the gold. The arsenopyrite interferes with cyanidation, so the quartz was roasted first to reduce the pyrite. When the roasted quartz was then cyanided, the iron from the reduced pyrite reacted with the cyanide, creating ferro-cyanate, which is quite distinctly purple. If you drive around Eaglehawk you can still see piles of purple sand - this is the tailings and they are quite high in arsenic.
dwt said:G0lddigg@ said:those trees are bloody everywhere around ballarat creswick. I was told they were origibalky some tyoe of medicine that tye chinese used
weird how they are normally around old workings,and that shaft in the pic sceams Europeans, the Chinese dug round holes so evil spirits didnt hide in the corners of a square shaft!!!!!! correct me if im wrong 8)
Goldtarget said:dwt said:G0lddigg@ said:those trees are bloody everywhere around ballarat creswick. I was told they were origibalky some tyoe of medicine that tye chinese used
weird how they are normally around old workings,and that shaft in the pic sceams Europeans, the Chinese dug round holes so evil spirits didnt hide in the corners of a square shaft!!!!!! correct me if im wrong 8)
Native cherry or ballart cherry. Early diggers on the goldfeilds would chew the red berries. They are native to Australia and mostly will only be in bushland as the foliage is toxic to live stock, so mostly eradicated from grazing areas. The fact it grows in high mineralisation and shallow ground is why it thrives in gold bearing areas but occurs in at least three states. Alot of older prospectors called them money tees as the theory that is general accepted is gold can be found in good quantities nearby. This claim is prob for the most part unsubstantiated, however more often than not larger and older trees will be found near worked alluvial deposits and fields. This species is quite difficult to grow outside of is natural conditions despite its reputation for use in furniture and wooden items due to its varying colour of the timber it produces. Personally i tend to agree with the Olds timers, which when you think about it makes sense, as it is shallow rooted it needs a reasonable amount of water to grow and is often found in natural watercourses and depressions where we as prospectors like to find shallow gold. I would call it an excellent indicator of the soil type and topography when searching for gold. Hope this helps.
Hotrocks said:What a great thread this is! I v'e been detecting since 1985 ( not always successfully) and I picked up a few tips from this. I would like to contribute a lazy mans pointer to finding gold.....Where she was is where is. Great posts guys, well done.
Hotrocks ( 81 this year and still swinging, sadly only with a detector)
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