Peter and Vicki's Travel Blog: Deep... Dark....Dirty.....Awesome!

Loved our adventure down the Central Deborah Gold Mine on the Deborah Reef today!

Didn't realize there were 5,600 gold mines in Bendigo! Underneath this city it is a maze!!!

The maze of shafts and tunnels under Bendigo!!!
Click to enlarge

The city has produced almost 700,000kg of gold to date since 1851. A shallow shaft was sunk at te Central Deborah site in 1911 and was then abandoned. It operated from 1939 to 1954 employing 375 and yielding almost one tonne (929kg) of gold from it's mining operations - worth around $45 million in today's prices.The mine was one of the last two commercial mines to cease operation in the wealthy Bendigo goldfields. In 2011 Central Deborah became the home of Australia's deepest underground mine tour with the launch of "Nine Levels of Darkness"

The Central Deborah Gold Mine
76 Violet Street, Bendigo
(near todays CBD)

Let's go down deep into the mine into the darkness!!! and it was dirty! but how awesome!

Imagine - the early miners went down to work the quartz seams with only two candles (bought at their own expense! - they hated it because that was equal to 30 pots of beer!!!) for their 8 hour shift - not much light for looking for gold in the dark! Bit better today with helmet lamps!

We entered here and went down to the lift which took us deep below the surface to Level 2

The Poppet Head and Trestle Way are distinctive features of underground gold mines.

The miners (they use the left cage) and the trolleys were put in the right cage when going down and coming up the shaft.

The cages were attached to the cables passing through the poppet head.

The rock, or ore, was hauled from underground up to the trestle way where the gold bearing quartz was placed in ore bins to be transported for processing, while waste rock was discarded off the end of the trestle way.

Tammy was our knowledgeable guide for the 75mins below!

All keys on the green side of the board means all the miners are above ground and out of hte mine

Down we go!

Getting kitted out with our helmets and lamps
The batteries are charging while they are hanging on the wall

Down we go in the cage lift to Level 2 61metres below the surface. The mine goes down to Level 17!
At level 2 the temperature is a nice cool 16 degrees, by the time you get to Level 12 it is 50 degrees - how would you work in that heat!!!
The shaft we went down was visible through the wire cage - it was lined with concrete thank goodness

On Level 2 - The real shaft and cages used by the miners - water dripping everywhere!
No concrete here - just rock and more rock!

Surrounded by rock and darkness in the tunnel!

The quartz blasted out of the walls to be sent to the surface

The trolley bins took the quartz to the surface
Tammy skilfully demonstrates the technique they used to get the bin in the cages

The emergency exit -ladders!
Took 20 minutes to get to the surface from Level 2! and
the miners didn't get paid for any time spent exiting the mine by the ladders!

The two old forms of lighting the miners used while working.
The white wax candle, replaced by the carbide lamps.

When small quartz veins were found in the rock then they knew 7 metres either side if it was
a quartz seam containing gold.
This tunnel was started off the main tunnel in search of a seam - work was stopped when the miners were called to another level of the mine to work where a seam was discovered. Little did they know they were only 4 days of digging away from discovering the seam!

The Crib Room - this is where the miners took their breaks.
Many of them were Irish so they played cribbage and ate pasties (half savoury/half sweet)
Today this room is used as a function room! Novel idea!
Its proving a popular venue for weddings, birthday parties etc

The oven which heated their food

Wooden reinforcing was placed at weak points along the tunnel.
If the wood started to creak then they know they had to run!!

The shiny material is calcium coming out of the rock - look wet but it isn't

Reinforcing the rock walls of the tunnel with steel piping and netting

Tammy demonstrates how they did this

The roof reinforcing was bigger and stronger

Air funnels and wooden reinforcing

Snowy tells us about the spiders - they were the steel blades the miner's perched their candles on
in the wall while they worked

Snowy has worked as a miner for the Central Deborah for 47 years. He was a wealth of interesting information
( humorously told1), most interesting was his list of ways the miner's tried to smuggle the gold they found out of the mine!!

Snowy shows us the false part of the shovel where gold was stashed

A gold nugget

Pete and I with Snowy

The explosives they put in the wall to shatter the rock

Gold in the quartz seam - bright and yellow

Fool's gold - sparkly and silver

The quartz seams make a nice design in the shale - quite a bit of gold in the seam

Tammy demonstrates the use of the water drill

Miner's who operate this air drill earn a lot of money!

The thunder pot! Had to be emptied by the apprentices!

The methods explosives were put in the wall to detonate the rock

The machine which shovels the rock into the bins

Dragon's Blood! The iron which seeps out of the rock

An example of an over wall (right) and a foot wall (left)
It has to be reinforced for safety

Back to the surface!

Teddy bears on the wall of the shaft!

This is the Level 2 tunnel which we went around

On the surface there is an excellent museum showing the history of the mine and mining in general. The mine still has all the buildings and machinery in tact and it is very enlightening to stroll around and view and read how the mine operated.

Gold pans and metal detectors are for sale!
You are able to pan in the creeks as long as you get a Miner's License

Pete having a go at panning for gold!

Tammy demonstrates the technique - she got a couple of specks!

The crusher that the quartz is tipped into from the tretsle way

The Wilfrey Table where the last pieces of gold are collected

Bendigo's Golden Square 1851

How did it start?
Two women were doing their washing in the creek and found some gold.
On their way to Castlemaine to cash it in they told people about their good fortune.
When they returned to Bendigo 400 people had arrived to try their luck - the rest is history!