Herons Reef Historic Gold Diggings

These authentic gold diggings date from the 1850s to the 1930s and are classified by the National Trust of Australia(Vic). On the property there is a considerable variety of mining remains including small vertical and underlay shafts, adits, open cut mines, quarries, bank sluicing, surfacing, dams, water races, a miner's cottage, blacksmiths shop foundations, house and battery sites which display many of the facets of small to medium scale mining. These relics are located on the most productive part of the Fryers Creek goldfield. Visitors are conveyed by tractor train through regenerated bushland along old mining tracks.

Address: 
Fryers Road, Fryerstown, VIC
Tel: 
0354734387
Hours: 
2pm Sat, 10am Sun and public holidays conducted tours, weekdays by appointments, closed August
Admission: 
Adults $10, children 9-12yrs $5, Group concessions
Facilities: 
Car and bus parking, picnic area, guided tours, information brochures, education programs, suitable for disabled persons if accompanied, unsuitable for wheel chairs
Collection: 
113acres of authentic gold mining relics covering 145 years

Items

Hut

Cornish Gold Miner's Hut

Cornish Gold Miner's Hut
Creator:
Unknown miner
Description:
Only known surviving complete miner's stone and mud hut on the Fryers Creek gold field.
Date:
circa 1860

Tailings heap

Anglo-Australian Gold Mine Tailings Heap

Creator:
Anglo-Australian Gold Mining Co.
Description:
Largest undisturbed tailings heap in Victoria.
Date:
1871-1889

Engine house

Cornish Beam Engine House

Creator:
Anglo-Australian Gold Mining Co.
Description:
Second oldest cornish beam engine house ruins remaining in Victoria. The last beam engine imported from Cornwall was installed here.
Date:
1871-1889

Oven

Chinese Ceremonial Oven Ruins

Creator:
Chines miners
Description:
Ruins of Chinese ceremonial oven amid substantial ruins of Chinese mud and stone huts.
Date:
1854-1870s

Alluvial gold diggings

Creator:
European and Chinese seekers
Description:
Many alluvial diggings in Golden Gully, the site of the gold rush on Fryers Creek gold field.
Date:
1854-circa 1870