Gold was discovered on One Tree Hill in 1854. The site has been worked intermittently until fairly recent times. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p53 Though still a working mine, One Tree Hill Mine at Smiths Gully, now stands in a tranquil reserve surrounded by bush and native animals - in contrast to its heyday. In the mid 19th century, when the mine was part of the Caledonia Goldfields, hundreds of men in search of their fortune worked the alluvial gold in the Yarra River, its tributaries and the reefs that made up the goldfields. Miner Stan Bone, assisted by Wilfred Haywood, is the last of the independent gold miners in the area and still uses the quartz crushing battery as miners did when gold was first discovered in the area in 1851.1 Stan, who is the last of six generations of miners in his family, was aged 17 when he began mining on his father Alex’ mine, The Golden Crown in Yarrambat. These days, after blasting the gold-bearing rock in Mystery Reef, one of the four reefs at One Tree Hill, Stan transports it around five kilometres by tip truck to the Black Cameron Mine for crushing. There he uses water from the waterlogged mine, (which still contains gold), as the Happy Valley Creek at One Tree Hill is usually dry.2 The One Tree Hill Mine has been worked for close to a century since it opened around the late 1850s.3 The Swedish Reef was its most productive reef and one of the largest in the area. Around 1859, extractions included 204 ounces (5.8kg) of gold, won from 57 pounds (26kg) of stone.4 Then during World War Two, Stan’s uncle, Bill Wallace, and Alex Bone, closed the mine. In 1973, Stan, with his Uncle Bill, reopened the Black Cameron Mine and worked there until 1988. Stan resumed mining One Tree Hill in 1998. As late as the 1920s gold was picked up by chance! When crossing a gully on his way to vote at the St Andrews Primary School, Bill Joyce picked up some quartz containing gold. This site was to become the Black Cameron Mine. The Caledonia Diggings, named after Scotland’s ancient name by local Scots, began around Market Square (now Smiths Gully) and included Queenstown (St Andrews), Kingstown (Panton Hill) and Diamond Creek. There were also poorer bearing fields in Kangaroo Ground and Swipers Gully (now Research). * None of these compared in riches to the Ballarat and Bendigo fields5, but the Caledonia Diggings continued intermittently for close to 100 years. Gold was discovered in Victoria following a bid to stem the disappearance of much needed workmen to the New South Wales diggings. Several businessmen offered a reward of £200, for the discovery of gold within 200 miles (322 km) of Melbourne. Late in June 1851, gold was first discovered at Andersons Creek, Warrandyte. Then in 1854, George Boston and two other men discovered gold at Smiths Gully. Gold transformed the quiet districts, with a constant flow of families and vehicles on the dirt tracks en route to the Caledonia Diggings. Three thousand people worked the gullies in Market Square, including about 1000 Chinese miners. The square established its own police, mining warden, gold battery, school, shops and cemetery and grog flowed. Market Square flourished until the middle 1860s. Bullocks transported quartz from the Caledonia Goldfields to the crushing machinery at the Queenstown/St Andrews Battery, near Smiths Gully Cemetery. It was destroyed by bushfire in 1962. By the late 1850s, most early alluvial fields were in decline, but minor rushes continued until around 1900 and some until the early 1940s. Some miners did well, although most earned little from their hard labour in the harsh and primitive conditions.6 But according to historian, Mick Woiwod, the gold fields helped to democratise society, as individuals from all walks of life were forced to share experiences, and the ability to succeed, depended less on inherited wealth or social rank.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, gold mining, one tree hill mine, smiths gully

BHS CollectionNine typed pages of notes on a preliminary draft for a brochure on the Bendigo Diggings. First part is the objective which is to preserve the mining history and to have exhibits in the places they were used, e.g. quartz mining machinery exhibited in a quartz mining area, not on an alluvial field. Part B is historical notes on the area. Part C is the Site - Victoria Hill area. Part D is Stage One which consists of carpark area, technological museum, restaurant, mineral haulage line, picnic ground, earthworks and planting over the area. Part E is Stage Two which will consist of the open-air exhibits, in the area surrounded by the mineral haulage line, and the Central Nell Gwynne mine on the west side of the site. Part F is Stage Three which will consist of the winery, the steam tram track, the lake, the wildlife sanctuary and various buildings associated with gold mining. Part G is Costing with the prices to be filled in. Parts H and I are the Appeal and the Committee. Details to be filled in. Notes prepared by Albert Richardson.mining, marketing, victoria hill, victoria hill, the bendigo diggings - preliminary draft for brochure, aust national travel association, tullamarine jetport, emu bottom homestead, kyneton historical museum, chinese joss house, eaglehawk museum, whipstick scrub, cairn curran reservoir, castelmaine historical museum and market hall, national trust, ballarat hiatorical park, echuca's hopwood gardens, swan hill folk museum, gibson's mount alexander no 2 squatting run, captain brown, chief commissioner wright, hustler's reef, thomas hustler, mining board, drainage of reefs act 1862, first world war, bendigo amalgamated goldfields, second world war, sandhurst, w c vahland, battery trams, horse trams, steam trams, electric trams, central nell gwynne mine, theodore ballerstadt, george lansell, new chum hill, ballerstadt's open cut, 180 mine, new chum syncline battery, william rae, victoria quartz, wittscheibe's 'jeweller's shop', luffsman and sterry, gold mines hotel, adventure, bendigo and district tourist association, bendigo city council, bendigo branch of the royal historical society of victoria, professor brian lewis, school of architecture and building at the university of melbourne, taylor horsfield, lord robert cecil, south australian gold commissioner

6 page document plus map: indenture, gold mining lease dated 9th August 1960, between the Crown and North Deborah Mining Company, carrying on operations in the Parish of Moorarbool West . Key on map indicates depth to which land may be excised. On map: Mining District of Ballarat, County of Grant, Parish of Moorarbool West. Total area: 285 acres 1 rood, 20 perches. Vol 334, Fol 202.bendigo, mining, deborah gold mines