Anybody live near or planning to visit Norton goldfield?

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bundyjd

John
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Canberra, ACT
During a recent trip to the Norton goldfield near Nagoorin in the Boyne Valley we discovered that a mining lease tenant appears to have destroyed part of the heritage listed area. We have been in touch with DEHP, but it would be good to also have some eyes on the ground out there to make sure these bastards don't get away with it.

PM me if you like....

Cheers,
John
 
grubstake said:
Did you get any pics you can share with us, John?

Unfortunately not mate, we didn't realise exactly what we were looking at, at the time and some nasty weather was closing in.

I'm back down the other end of the country now, which is why I'm hoping a local can pay the site a visit and verify what we saw and maybe take some pix.

Here's a bit of info about the area if you're interested - https://environment.ehp.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=602491
 
Hey John, i went to the site this week and could not find what damage you were talkong about....can you clarify what you saw please?
 
Rachmick said:
Hey John, i went to the site this week and could not find what damage you were talkong about....can you clarify what you saw please?

Hi Rachmick,

It's been a couple of years since I've been up there, so not sure what the mining mob have been up to lately. We did contact the DEHP who eventually wandered out there and had a look but couldn't find the exact area we described to them. I'm not too confident they would know what an old water race looked like if they fell over one to be honest....

If you have been there are you familiar with the heritage listing area where the battery and water race are located? The reason I ask is that it was quite a big goldfield in the day.

Maybe if you have a look at the attached heritage register listing below, the area I am talking about might be a bit clearer.

Cheers,
John

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/doc/member-docs/3809/1567051880_589980-part-1_part1.pdf

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/doc/member-docs/3809/1567052009_589980-part-1_part2_part1.pdf

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/doc/member-docs/3809/1567052041_589980-part-1_part2_part2.pdf
 
During a recent trip to the Norton goldfield near Nagoorin in the Boyne Valley we discovered that a mining lease tenant appears to have destroyed part of the heritage listed area. We have been in touch with DEHP, but it would be good to also have some eyes on the ground out there to make sure these bastards don't get away with it.

PM me if you like....

Cheers,
John
Hi John I live in the area and would love to look after the area
 
Apologies for the late reply, haven't visited this thread in a while. We were last up there a fair while ago, so my memory of the exact location is a bit hazy.

To put things in context, first a bit of history that I extracted from the heritage register report linked earlier in the thread:

"Between 1906 and 1918 several small groups worked the mines with the ore being sent to Port Kembla for treatment. It was during this period that German army engineer Johan Gundolf erected a water-driven crushing mill (known as an arrastra) and a 375 metres water-race along the banks of Norton Creek."

"On the banks of Norton Creek are the remains of a 375 yards long water-race that is said to have been associated with the arrasta. The water-race appears to have been lined along its sides with bricks as remains of these can be seen in some sections."

When we first visited the Norton field we got chatting to a guy from another mining company who was working on the other side of the creek. We asked him if he knew where the battery was and he agreed to show us. We drove back across the creek to the carpark below the mine site. From the carpark we followed a track off to the left between the creek and close to a new fence that had been erected by the mining company. When you get to the back corner of the fence, if you turn right you end up at the battery.

After checking out the battery we backtracked to that corner and walked down the creek bank looking for the water race, heading roughly back towards the main road. We came across what we believed was the water race, because even though it was badly silted up we could see a few open sections of it as described in the heritage report. We followed it down until we got to what appeared to be the end, where there was a round depression in the ground. We thought this was most likely the Arrasta location. From there we turned around and followed the race back up the hill, heading back towards the general area where the battery is located. As we got to the top section of where we thought the race had been heading we came to where it intersected the new fence, with a lot of disturbed ground on the other side of it.

I showed the guy from the other mining company the heritage report and he agreed that we had most likely found the old water race. He said that in his experience it wouldn't be the first time that modern mining activities have impacted a heritage listed area, and even though it is usually inadvertent it doesn't undo the damage. I'm hoping we were wrong, but without a detailed map showing the exact locations of the heritage listed items it's hard to say.

Unfortunately the rain rolled in at that point and we had to bail out. We haven't had the chance to get back out there to have a closer look and geolocate it properly, but we do intend to do so at some stage. There's a lot to explore out that way, so this hasn't really been a priority.

Cheers,
John
 

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