Mining activities in the area date back to the late 1800’s when many hundreds of Chinese miners searched for gold among the banks of Plenty River. One popular area was known as Smuggler’s Gully, a farm area recently owned by Walter Stuchbery and family, and now part of Plenty Gorge Park. During the 1940’s and 1950’s there were four operating goldmines in Yarrambat. Mines like Golden Crown, Golden King, Golden Stairs and Golden Gate were well known names in the district and provided employment for many Yarrambat residents.
The Golden King mine was located on the eastern slopes of North Oatlands Road hill was founded in 1939 by Bill Clayton senior. Bill’s brother, Wilfred, had established the Golden Crown mine on the north side of North Oatlands Road in 1937 and convinced his brother to try his luck across the road. Diggings commenced on the main shaft and gold-bearing ore was transported to the State Battery at Queenstown (St Andrews) for processing. In 1941 Bill purchased two four-head batteries and a large tin shed from a mine at Spargo Creek, between Daylesford and Ballan, and re-assembled them on the site of the Golden King mine.
Several large wooden poppet-heads were constructed over the shafts and during the following decades hundreds of tons of ore were crushed, yielding many thousands of ounces of gold. Originally the battery was powered by a 15hp. kerosene engine, but in 1954 with the arrival of electricity, a 15hp. electric motor was installed.
Mining operations were scaled down in the late seventies, the wooden poppet-heads removed and replaced with the smaller iron poppet-head now located at the Yarrambat Primary School. The origins of this later poppet-head are unknown.
During the 1960’s and 1970’s the Golden King was operated by Bill senior’s sons, Bill junior and Desmond before it finally closed down in 1984. The main shafts were filled in and capped in 1994 thus ending an era in Yarrambat’s history.
The battery-shed and remaining four stamp battery have been reconstructed at the Yarrambat Heritage Museum by the Yarrambat Historical Society Inc. as a working display, and together with the relocated poppet-head at the Yarrambat Primary School are the only remaining traces of the golden era in Yarrambat. ( Source – Mr Des Clayton, 1997)
Image: Gold Battery, Yarrambat Historical Society. The Clayton Goldmine battery operated from the 1930’s, originally driven by steam then electricity. Reflections of Diamond Valley Collection. Yarra Plenty Regional Library DV_A_00031
Find out more at the Yarrambat Historical Society
I remember Bill Clayton Jr , Bill Wallace, Stan Bone and others who worked the different adjoining mines at Yarrambat in the 1960s (Bill Wallace, and more recently Stan Bone also worked others, like the One Tree Hill gold mine near St Andrews – Bill later worked with me at the Black Snake copper mine at Deddick). As a young teenager I would take my bike from Ivanhoe in the guards van of the train to diamond Creek station, then ride my bike up Ironbark Road to the northernmost mine (Wallace’s), and flash the master switch at the timber poppet head to let them know I was climbing down the ladder of the 100 m shaft. Hard hats, required by the mining inspector, were swapped for felt berets at the bottom of the shaft. The mine rails for the mine carts had been recovered from the alluvial gold mine tunnels on the west bank of the Plenty River to the west – lighting was by carbide lamp (water dripped onto carbide to produce acetylene gas, which came out of the nozzle and was lit). The ore consisted of numerous quartz veins only millimetres thick throughout the host rock (a “stockwork”), and attractive “wire gold” was sometimes seen ( I still have a sample). Grade control consisted of smashing the ore in a mortar and pestle and panning the powder. The ore was crushed in a ?5-head stamp battery with mercury plates and a Wilfley table, in a building next to and north of the road (North Oatlands Rd??) some distance south of the poppet head – in those days there was no taxation on gold income, and the government even paid a small surcharge per ounce if one produced less than 500 ounces per year.
Bill Clayton on the south side of the road did not have a large headframe like Wallace but appeared to mine using successive windlasses – it was claimed that this cost less, and whenever the shafts got too deep and were closed by the mines inspector, he would simply start a new windlass shaft. Previously the Claytons had worked the Golden Stairs mine further south by a tunnel driven west at gully level. Another story was that Wallace had loaned a horse to Clayton, who he considered had mistreated it, and the two had fallen out – reputedly the mine workings were interconnected and blasts were sometimes timed for when the other was seen going down his shaft.
There were other gold mines no longer working further to the east – the Pioneer mine on Pioneer Road (I nearly fell down the shaft in the middle of the then track), and further east on the hill at Diamond Creek (the Union and ?Doritt, and the Diamond Creek mine). The father of a friend (Carr?) was a mining engineer who looked at the feasibility of re-opening the Diamond Creek mine in the 1950s. Another minor mine occurred well south of it on the opposite side of the creek, where a tunnel was driven west? into a hill – I met a wombat in the end of the dead end tunnel in the dark and he scared the hell out of me and a friend. Yet another mine also worked in the 20th century was just north of Diamond Creek township.
Things were more casual in those days – you could buy your gelignite and detonators at the local hardware store, the requirement being that the former went in the car boot and the detonators in the glove-box.
Thanks for sharing mhughes,
Are you still local? Could i possibly buy you a beer/coffee whatever you poison is and catch up for a chat about local workings? I’d be happy to pay for your time. Unfortunately, so much of this knowledge is lost in time. I really appreciate you putting some time aside to share.
The rails taken to put in the mines was that taken out of the alluvial mine, Mud crab? Did you ever work that mine or find out what type of material they were chasing out there?
Kind Regards,
B Jarvie
MHUGHES, awesome write up and some absolute priceless history!
As B Jarvie said thanks for sharing.
i am searching the local history of mining in the local surrounding area, there would have to be ALOT of lost information from the area and even more “un-documented” mining activity i am sure of it! again thanks for sharing your knowledge!
BJarvie, i would have a guess that we share a hobby and probably our local area! you mentioned an alluvial mine called mud crab, i have not heard of mud crab mine but i do know of red crab mine which is located in plenty gorge park closer to doreen/mernda than the “golden series” of mines.. if you want to chat further and possibly share some of our local knowledge let me know.
cheers folks.
hello, i am doing a project on the area and was wondering if you have anymore information on redcrab mine, thanks
Hi Mary,
Please contact Yarrambat Historical Society https://yarrambathistoricalsociety.org.au/
Wikinorthia Administrator