Gold was officially discovered at Bendigo in September 1851 at a location known as “The Rocks” near the junction of the Bendigo Creek and Golden Gully in what is now Golden Square. The discovery was made by Mrs. Margaret Kennedy and Mrs. Julia Farrell, the wives of two employees of the nearby Ravenswood Pastoral Run. Gold discoveries had been made in this area by shepherds and prospectors as early as the 1840’s however these discoveries were kept secret by the squatters and the Victorian colonial government.
This gold discovery sparked an alluvial gold rush which attracted 50,000 hopeful diggers to the area by June 1852. Bendigo’s gold rush peaked in 1853 and as the easily won gold in the local creeks and gullies petered out attention quickly shifted to mining the gold-bearing quartz outcrops which were found in the nearby hills. By the 1860’s Bendigo had transitioned into a major hard rock mining centre with underground quartz mining becoming the cornerstone industry.
Duchess group of mines, New Chum line of reef, circa 1895. Source: Central Deborah Heritage Collection
The wealth from quartz mining was so great that Bendigo was one of the richest cities in the world during the early 1900’s. No wonder the locals called it “Quartzopolis”.
Gold transformed Bendigo from a boom-and-bust mining camp into a major regional centre. The wealth generated by Bendigo’s golden past is reflected through the city’s tree-lined streetscapes, Victorian-era architecture, lush parks and gardens and extensive electric tram network which once provided a regular and reliable public transportation system for the local population.
The scale of underground mining activity at Bendigo can be gauged by the number of mine shafts that were sunk, alongside the quantity of rock which has been physically removed from the underground workings. At Bendigo over 5,500 hard rock mine shafts were mined. Altogether these mining operations extracted some 40 million tonnes of gold-bearing quartz, on top of at least 30 million tonnes of barren waste rock or “mullock”.
Pall Mall, Bendigo, circa 1906. Source: Central Deborah Heritage Collection.
Deep, Dark and Dirty!
Out of the 5,500 shafts mined at Bendigo the vast majority of these reached a depth of no more than 60m. Of these 5,500 shafts at least 285 exceed 100m in depth, 278 exceed 200m, 140 exceed 300m, 83 exceed 500m, 67 exceed 600m and 10 exceed 1000m. With so many deep mine shafts Bendigo has the largest concentration of deep mine shafts anywhere in the world!
The deepest of Bendigo’s mines are the Victoria Quartz mine at Victoria Hill and the New Chum Railway at Golden Square which were mined to depths of 1,406m and 1,376m respectively. In 1910 these two mines held the title of the deepest mines anywhere in the world! Working at the bottom of the Victoria Quartz mine was especially atrocious with the miners working in conditions which exceeded 45°C and 90% humidity.
Given that working underground was a dark, dirty and dangerous occupation the risks associated with mining took its toll on the mining population with 800 recorded mining fatalities. Thousands more died from lung disease through long-term exposure to silica dust and blasting fumes.
New Red White & Blue Consolidated mine circa 1930s. Source: State Library of New South Wales.
The Last Mine
Mining continued in Bendigo until November 1954 when Bendigo’s last two mines, the Central Deborah and North Deborah, ceased operations as a result of post-World War 2 conditions which included labour and material shortages, rising inflation, increasing mining costs, and a fixed gold price.
Between 1851 – 1954 the Bendigo Goldfield produced at least 22 million troy ounces or 700 metric tonnes of gold, making it the largest producing goldfield in Victoria.
