Dr Ralph Birrell (20/3/1927 - 7/6/2014) was a lecturer at the Bendigo School of mines and the author of numerous books about mining in Victoria, particularly Bendigo, and books on various elements of Bendigo history. New Bendigo Gold Project The Bendigo goldfield is centred on the urban area of Bendigo (population approximately 60 000) in central Victoria, 130 km north west of Melbourne, Australia. Gold was discovered at Bendigo in 1851 and production continued through to 1954. The Bendigo goldfield is the second largest goldfield in total gold produced in Australia, after Kalgoorlie's Golden Mile with a total production of 22 million oz. The geology of the Bendigo Field consists of a series of tightly folded, interbedded sandstone and shale sediments. Within the sediments the gold mineralisation is hosted in quartz reefs or ribbons closely associated with anticline axes and reverse faulting. The gold within the quartz reefs is typically both coarse grained and erratically distributed.Three letters from Bendigo Mining N.L. 14th May 1998, 3 November 1998, and 22nd. April 1999, to Mr. Ralph Birrell from Bendigo Mining N.L. regarding the next meeting of the old miners club to be held at Bendigo mining's site offices. Signed by Shelley Saunders, Community Affairs Co-ordinator. On bottom of page: Registered and Secretarial Office, 61-65 Bull Street, Bendigo Vic 3550. Carshalton Site Office, Coonooer Street, Kangaroo Flat, Vic 3555.bendigo mining n.l., bendigo, mining, gold, kangaroo flat, ralph birrell, old miners group

This image is a reproduction of an 1899 original depicting the 'Williams Good Luck Mine' on the Mopoke Reef (also called 'Morepork Gully') in the Dingle Ranges, approximately three miles from Beechworth. A large opening to a mine can be seen behind the men in the photograph, with a wheeled cart on a track leading to the men's position, where the soil and rocks have been hauled away. This photograph interestingly contains dogs alongside the miners. While dogs have been recorded as deterrents to thieves in the Victorian goldfields, these dogs appear as companions to these men. Following the discovery of gold at Beechworth in 1852, rushes quickly followed at surrounding creeks and gullies in the district. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, small syndicates of miners continued to work old or abandoned quartz reefs, often persisting without the assistance of heavy machinery to remove the large amounts of rock, in order to obtain yields at ever greater depths. The group of miners in this photograph are Mr. Roger Williams and Sons, who revived operations at the ‘Old Good Luck’ mine on the Mopoke Reef in the Dingle Range near Beechworth around 1892, working the site for more than two decades. An emigrant from Cornwall with experience in the tin mining industry, 19 year old Roger Williams senior sailed to New Zealand in 1840, then to Australia where he spent time in the Bendigo Gold Fields before settling in Beechworth in the early 1860s. Mr Williams senior worked on various mining activities in the district, including the Rocky Mountain Tunnel project. Conversant with the character of gold-bearing reefs in the area, the syndicate dug an eight hundred foot tunnel, digging down as far down as two hundred feet with little capital save their labour, to connect and provide better working access to the mass of reefs and veins in the vicinity. Progress was hampered by poor air quality charged with fumes from dynamite and large quantities of rock had to be crushed to obtain payable yields. The Victorian Goldfields are filled with ruins and remnants of the area's rich mining history, ranging from small alluvial diggings to the remains of huge mining companies. Site names often changed several times throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some sites were abandoned and forgotten, others were worked continuously over many decades. The names of mines were often repeated at different locations throughout the Victorian Goldfields. For example, there is a Mopoke Gully heritage mine near Fryers Creek, Victoria. 'Mopoke' is a common onomatopoeic name for Morepork and Australian Boobook owls.This image has historical, social and research significance for patterns of emigration during of the Victorian Gold Rush, and the historical, social and environmental impacts of mining at Beechworth at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As gold became scarce and government support and large company investment waned, poor hard-working miners laboured intensively to make a living through periods of high unemployment. This image can be compared and studied alongside other historical mining photographs and objects in the Burke Museum Collection. It has potential to improve our understanding of miners working conditions and the shifting character of mining in the Beechworth district.Sepia coloured rectangular photograph printed on gloss photographic paper mounted on card. Obverse: Williams/ Good/ Luck Reverse: A02498/ 1997. 2498/ Good Luck/ Mine/ 1899/ Mopoke. burke museum, beechworth museum, beechworth, gold fields, gold rush, victorian gold rush, gold ming history, colonial australia, australian gold rushes, mining technology, beechworth historic district, indigo gold trail, migration, indigo shire, good luck gold mine, victorian goldfields, mining syndicates, gold fever, quartz-mining, small-scale mining, old good luck mine, mopoke gully, quartz reefs beechworth

A pictorial history of the heyday of the Walhalla-Wood's Point gold belt in the 1860's-1960'sHardcover. The cover is a gold colour. The front cover has a photograph of a group of miners in front of the entry to a mine. On the top entry timber piece is a sign saying "Old Mine". The beginning of the wording is obscured by one of the miners standing in front of the entry. There is also an old mining trolley standing on tracks which lead into the mine.There is also an old gold mining dish sitting on a rock to the left of the entry into the mine.On the back cover is a photograph of Walhalla in modern times as well as a photograph of the publisher of this book. There is also a blurb about the publisher.Stamp of the Marysville & District Historical Society Inc / P.O. Box 22 / Marysville 3779gold, gold fields, gold mining, a1 mine settlement, aberfeldy, beardmore, black river group, coopers creek, donnellys creek, enochs point, fulton creek, gaffneys creek, gooleys creek, jamieson, jordan valley, kevington, knockwood, matlock, ten mile, walhalla, wood's point, history, victoria

BHS CollectionPhotocopy of a newspaper article titled Old battery to charge-up tunnel tourism. There is a photo of a Thompson's Foundry battery which is being re-erected at the site of the North British mine on Parkin's Reef, near Carman's tunnel. The battery was recovered from a deep gully at Bola Creek. Other works include restoration of quartz roasting kilns and cyanide vats. Written at the top of the article is a date 11/1/85.bendigo, history, long gully history group, the long gully history group - old battery to charge-up tunnel tourism, thompson's foundry, parkin's reef reserve, conservation forests and lands department, carman's tunnel, north british mine, carman's tunnel committee, dr doug kemsley, the prospectors' and miners' association of victoria, mr ken garden

BHS CollectionThree photocopies of a newspaper article titled Old Battery to charge-up tunnel tourism. The date 11/1/85 is written at the top of the article. There is a photo of the battery mentioning it was the Thompson's Foundry battery and it was being re-erected at Maldon, near Castlemaine. It has been in far of Victoria to crush rock taken from mines there. The battery will be one of the attractions in the Parkin's Reef Reserve being developed by the Conservation, Forests and Lands. Also mentioned is the work of volunteers, grants they received, restoration and tourism.bendigo, history, long gully history group, the long gully history group - old battery to charge-up tunnel tourism, thompson's foundry, parkin's reef reserve, conservation forests and lands department, carman's tunnel, north british mine, parkin's reef, carman's tunnel committee, dr doug kemsley, prospectors' and miners' association of victoria, ken garden, north british mine, george ellis

Titled French's Corner and Village Parliaments. French's Corner was once the meeting place of the old Cornish miners where they used to discuss local and international affairs. Headings of the paragraphs are - Teetotallers - Most of Them, Pre-Federation Days, A Shoemaker's Group, Last of his Group, Smith with Curving Nail and Shoeing Force. At the end of the article is a photo - Looking south from the Blacksmiths Shop up the main street of Long Gully.bendigo, history, long gully history group, the long gully history group - french's corner and village parliaments, manchester arms hotel, french's hotel, mr french, uncle tom foss' shop, phillpot's smithy, a crossley

Copy of a newspaper article titled Old battery to charge-up tunnel tourism. Date written on the paper is 11/1/85. The Thompson's Foundry Battery was re-erected in the Parkin's Reef Reserve after being used at Bola Creek near the NSW border. A team of volunteers and a Grant had it moved to Maldon where it was set up and the area made attractive for tourists.bendigo, history, long gully history group, the long gully history group - 10 head battery, thompson's foundry battery, parkin's reef reserve, conservation forests and lands department, carman's tunnel, north british mine, parkins reef, carman's tunnel committee, dr doug kemsley, prospectors' and miners' association of victoria, mr ken garden

Two copies of pages, one from Victoria: Its Mines and Minerals page 40, dated June1, 1899 and one from Special Edition Australian Mining Standard, page 41, dated June 1, 1899. Page 40 has a picture of Lansell's '180'. Reports on yields, dividends, depths, where the gold was found, amount of gold per load, and working the mines. Mines mentioned are: Tribute Company, North Old Chum, The 180,The Victoria Quartz New Chum United, The Great Central Victoria, Victoria Consols, The Adventure, The Try-Me-Well, The Advance, The Cinderella, The Hercules Group, Ironbark Co, Victoria Gold Mines Co, Hercules & Energetic, Great Extended Hercules, The Pearl, New St Mungo, The Extended South Devonshire, Duchess Tribute, The Duchess of Edinburgh Co , Freeman & Co, The Danes. Albert Richardson Collectiongold mining, miners' safety cage, victoria: its mines and minerals, victoria: its mines and minerals, special edition australian mining standard, tribute co, mr w w barker, mr hicks, lansell's 180, north old chum, mr john wybrants, victoria reef, ballerstedt, geo lansell, victoria quartz, victoria hill, great central victoria, new chum united, mr j h craig, victoria consols, the adventure, try - me - well, the advance, the cinderella, the albert, the hercules group, ironbark co, the victoria gold mines co, the hercules and energetic, the great extended hercules, the pearl, new st mungo, the extended south devonshire, duchess tribute, the south devonshire, the duchess of edinburgh co, freeman and co, the danes

Black and white reproduction of photo from 'Back to Eaglehawk' back Oct. 1928. Large group of children, four adults in background. Outside. Banisters in background, brick wall at side. Approximately ninety children, youngest ones seated on ground at front, cross-legged. Inscriptions: on front - 'California Hill State School, 1928', 'JH Biggs, Health Inspector'. RHSV stamp (under photo). California Hill State School. 'The California Gully State School (or the Bell topper Hill, as the old Cornish miners names it) is one of the oldest in the district. Some of the prominent men of Bendigo today who attended that school include Cr. JH Curnow, Mr Jtn Smalley, and Mr EE Heitman. Mr. George Evans, a native of the district, is now in charge of the school. Miss FE Darvall is the head of the infant division. Other teachers are Miss RE Nicholas and Mr WR McClelland. Scholars on the roll at present number 105.person, group, students of cal. hill state.school

Photographic Album - 19th Century Portraits. This album is in a handsome leather tooled cover with brass ring clasp - pages have gold edging to match the gold tooling on front cover.This album comes from ''Old Box 94'' which generally contains ephemera from Merle Bush. However, this album has no identifying inscriptions (but see the following notes). There are approx 44 portraits of children, males, females, mixed groups taken by a range of studio photographers (Sandhurst, Melbourne, Stuttgart and possibly from other cities?) There appear to be no inscriptions on the reverse of these photos - but not all have been removed for checking. One photograph (R Dermer Smith, Sandhurst has a photograph Number #753 on reverse and show a man/boy?, woman and child on the front verandah of a house. There are 6 loose cards within the book which may give some indication as to the family connection; 1. Mr W Tainsh - Echuca; 2. Frau Pastor Leypoldt - Lutheran Parsonage, Bendigo; 3. Miss H Janie Schleiger; 4. Citizens' Life Assurance Co Ltd - Represented by A A Brooker(?); 5. Card with inscription in German below print of ? Luther) and handwritten text in German on reverse (difficult to read), date 11/11/83; 6. black bordered card ''In Memoriam'' (no name).cottage, miners

This image is a reproduction of an 1899 original depicting the 'Williams Good Luck Mine' on the Mopoke Reef (also called 'Morepork Gully') in the Dingle Ranges, approximately three miles from Beechworth. The foreground of the image is littered with piles of smashed rock and detritus, known as ‘mullock’, beside a reinforced mine shaft, a vertical access passageway allowing miners to enter the mine and haul ore out using lifting technology such as a poppet heads, whims or windlasses. A group of miners and a dog appear close to an open-sided miner’s hut. Following the discovery of gold at Beechworth in 1852, rushes quickly followed at surrounding creeks and gullies in the district. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, small syndicates of miners continued to work old or abandoned quartz reefs, often persisting without the assistance of heavy machinery to remove the large amounts of rock, in order to obtain yields at ever greater depths. The group of miners in this photograph are Mr. Roger Williams and Sons, who revived operations at the ‘Old Good Luck’ mine on the Mopoke Reef in the Dingle Range near Beechworth around 1892, working the site for more than two decades. An emigrant from Cornwall with experience in the tin mining industry, 19 year old Roger Williams senior sailed to New Zealand in 1840, then to Australia where he spent time in the Bendigo Gold Fields before settling in Beechworth in the early 1860s. Mr Williams senior worked on various mining activities in the district, including the Rocky Mountain Tunnel project. Conversant with the character of gold-bearing reefs in the area, the syndicate dug an eight hundred foot tunnel, digging down as far down as two hundred feet with little capital save their labour, to connect and provide better working access to the mass of reefs and veins in the vicinity. Progress was hampered by poor air quality charged with fumes from dynamite and large quantities of rock had to be crushed to obtain payable yields. The Victorian Goldfields are filled with ruins and remnants of the area's rich mining history, ranging from small alluvial diggings to the remains of huge mining companies. Site names often changed several times throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some sites were abandoned and forgotten, others were worked continuously over many decades. The names of mines were often repeated at different locations throughout the Victorian Goldfields. For example, there is a Mopoke Gully heritage mine near Fryers Creek, Victoria. 'Mopoke' is a common onomatopoeic name for Morepork and Australian Boobook owls. This image has historical, social and research significance for patterns of emigration during of the Victorian Gold Rush, and the historical, social and environmental impacts of mining at Beechworth at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As gold became scarce and government support and large company investment waned, poor hard-working miners laboured intensively to make a living through periods of high unemployment. This image can be compared and studied alongside other historical mining photographs and objects in the Burke Museum Collection. It has potential to improve our understanding of miners working conditions and the shifting character of mining in the Beechworth district. Black and white rectangular reproduction photograph printed on matte photographic paper.Obverse: Williams Good Luck Mine Beechworth / Roger! / Reverse: 6858 / burke museum, beechworth museum, beechworth, gold fields, gold rush, victorian gold rush, gold ming history, colonial australia, australian gold rushes, mining technology, beechworth historic district, indigo gold trail, migration, indigo shire, good luck gold mine, victorian goldfields, mining syndicates, gold fever, quartz-mining, small-scale mining, old good luck mine, mopoke gully, quartz reefs beechworth

This image is a reproduction of an 1899 original depicting the 'Williams Good Luck Mine' on the Mopoke Reef (also called 'Morepork Gully') in the Dingle Ranges, approximately three miles from Beechworth. The foreground of the image is littered with piles of smashed rock and detritus, known as ‘mullock’, beside a reinforced mine shaft, a vertical access passageway allowing miners to enter the mine and haul ore out using lifting technology such as a poppet heads, whims or windlasses. A group of miners and a dog appear close to an open-sided miner’s hut. Following the discovery of gold at Beechworth in 1852, rushes quickly followed at surrounding creeks and gullies in the district. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, small syndicates of miners continued to work old or abandoned quartz reefs, often persisting without the assistance of heavy machinery to remove the large amounts of rock, in order to obtain yields at ever greater depths. The group of miners in this photograph are Mr. Roger Williams and Sons, who revived operations at the ‘Old Good Luck’ mine on the Mopoke Reef in the Dingle Range near Beechworth around 1892, working the site for more than two decades. An emigrant from Cornwall with experience in the tin mining industry, 19 year old Roger Williams senior sailed to New Zealand in 1840, then to Australia where he spent time in the Bendigo Gold Fields before settling in Beechworth in the early 1860s. Mr Williams senior worked on various mining activities in the district, including the Rocky Mountain Tunnel project. Conversant with the character of gold-bearing reefs in the area, the syndicate dug an eight hundred foot tunnel, digging down as far down as two hundred feet with little capital save their labour, to connect and provide better working access to the mass of reefs and veins in the vicinity. Progress was hampered by poor air quality charged with fumes from dynamite and large quantities of rock had to be crushed to obtain payable yields. The Victorian Goldfields are filled with ruins and remnants of the area's rich mining history, ranging from small alluvial diggings to the remains of huge mining companies. Site names often changed several times throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some sites were abandoned and forgotten, others were worked continuously over many decades. The names of mines were often repeated at different locations throughout the Victorian Goldfields. For example, there is a Mopoke Gully heritage mine near Fryers Creek, Victoria. 'Mopoke' is a common onomatopoeic name for Morepork and Australian Boobook owls.This image has historical, social and research significance for patterns of emigration during of the Victorian Gold Rush, and the historical, social and environmental impacts of mining at Beechworth at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As gold became scarce and government support and large company investment waned, poor hard-working miners laboured intensively to make a living through periods of high unemployment. This image can be compared and studied alongside other historical mining photographs and objects in the Burke Museum Collection. It has potential to improve our understanding of miners working conditions and the shifting character of mining in the Beechworth district.Sepia coloured rectangular photograph printed on gloss photographic paper mounted on card.Obverse: Reverse: A02497/ 1997.2497/ 'Good/ Luck/ Mine'/ Morepork/ Gully/ Mrs Joyce/ Bright/ Tunnel/ 800 ft/ 1899. burke museum, beechworth museum, beechworth, gold fields, gold rush, victorian gold rush, gold ming history, colonial australia, australian gold rushes, mining technology, beechworth historic district, indigo gold trail, migration, indigo shire, good luck gold mine, victorian goldfields, mining syndicates, gold fever, quartz-mining, small-scale mining, old good luck mine, mopoke gully, quartz reefs beechworth