Bulldog Diggings Historical Area, Illabrook Victoria.

[karelian65]

Outside the guide book areas and prepackaged maps, the Bulldog Diggings are an example of an small goldfield which stands as testimony to our golden history.
The landscape has been extensively surfaced leaving extended areas of bedrock. The history speaks of small nuggets, shallow ground and miners making 'fair wages'.
I enjoy researching areas, but that only takes us so far. At the end of the day I need to get in the car and go and have a look... Lucky for me I was passing the area for work, left the boss in the vehicle and enjoyed an extended lunch hour. He gives me a bit on flexibility, but still won't let me take my detector to work.. Used my Ipad to take some images of the area, to contrast with the map and Google Earth image. A few detector hole spotted in areas between the surfaced areas.. surrounding plantation areas etc very interesting areas worthy of further exploration. Much more out there if you bother to look. All the best.

 

[grubstake]

Very interesting post and what a barren, denuded landscape the miners left behind! It looks like it's been gone over with a Dyson!

 

[karelian65]

I understand the work was done manually, pick shovel and sluice box. I am under the impression that they were highly motivated... 'fair wages' covers a wide spectrum. Early miners walked away from good gold eager to get to the next rush. At least I hope so, lots of interesting ground between the surfaced areas and in surrounding areas, some of which are private property and plantation forest.. The only question is did they leave anything behind for us?

Lots of little spots hidden away, but if you don't know they are there then they are too easy to miss.
The entrance has a sign, the track is overgrown but passable for a 4x4. One more interesting area among many more..

Lots of young trees and shrubs, only a few mature trees inside the area explored. A lone Wallaby gave me the once over and no snakes sighted. I'll be going back and having a better look around.

 

[Teemore]

Interesting, had looked at that area some time ago but discounted it as it appeared that gravel extraction was allowed prior to supposed softwood planting .... don't know if that ever happened but that could be what a lot of that surfaced looking area may be. Your visits may well prove that to be incorrect.

You've probably researched more current material (and I have never been there), some old VEAC stuff on the area FYI. Great photos by the way.

Cheers T.

 

[aussiefarmer]

Any ideas why it's called bulldog hill ?
Has this term have a gold reference ?

 

[grubstake]

I found a little bit about the history of the area:
https://www.victorianplaces.com.au/illabarook

 

[karelian65]

I did get a chance to quickly drive through the softwood plantations south of the Bulldog H.A. Around the area of Golden Hill it is clearly worked with modern machinery to create rows for the trees. Signs of workings largely eradicated with exceptions. Gravels, quartz, large blocks of ironstone still visible, clearly worthy of more exploration. Golden Hill has not yet been completely planted over or worked with machinery. Google Earth clearly shows the surviving holes, the area around Mullochy Point has been planted but surfaced areas and other mining history is still present. In summary the Bulldog H.A. itself has the surfaced areas with possible gold in the cracks. Between the surfaced areas are original miners holes etc covered with shrubs and immature trees, many with tree guards.. The big tree pictured above is probably the site of the old school and settlement. Located half way between Bulldog Hill and Golden Hill.

 

[karelian65]

Ipad video of Bulldog Hill overlooking creek and mines on other side of gully. Followed by dash cam footage of tree plantation on rehabilitated diggings.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/9FYUJGVMVBM[/video]

Very boring video but it does give insight into the Bulldog Hill area and how the tree plantation has erased most signs of the previous mining activities south of the hill.

 

[grubstake]

That plantation is approaching harvestable size, meanwhile there'll be lots of branches, bark and leaves littering the ground underneath. :/
After harvest the situation won't be much better unless the owner decides to destump and restore the area to pasture, in which case grab a detector and go for it!

 

[karelian65]

Just a better image showing the Bulldog Hill diggings with Golden Hill below it, clearly showing the diggings and then the plantation on the bottom.

The plantation on the bottom is shown in the video from my dash camera. Hard to see this detail from the ground, loving Google Earth...

 

[karelian65]

 

[Dignit]

Great report karelian65.
Is it crown land or private?
Love that photo of the conglomerate.

 

[karelian65]

Montrose Hill is on private property. Bulldog Hill is partly private property and the Historical Area itself is managed by Parks Vic. Throw public statutory authorities into the mix with DSE owning the plantations, or should I say managing them in the public interest?.... So Parks Vic, DSE and private land are shown in the Google maps and images.
A bit of keyboard time and patience should reward the persistent prospector if looking for a spot to prospect. Amazing how the conglomerate can tell a story... makes me want to run a coil over it or whack it with a hammer, crush it and pan it.. Sadly yes I'm a bloke who takes photographs of rocks...

I'm thinking my Whites GMX Sport could be useful in the surfaced areas, I know it looks cleaned out, but just maybe there are some specs hiding in the cracks?