Australia So Much to See
Spencer's Cut is one of the largest cuts on the reserve. Mullock heaps in this area have been extensively worked by fossickers
using metal detectors on recent times. A number of branch tunnels run off this cut.
Belmore Reef. Numerous deep shafts and cut close to the walking track. This area was mined during the 1860s and covers
Belmore Reef. Lady Belmore Reef, Spencer's Cut, Nelson's Mine, Bismark Tunnel, Jeweller's Shop and Coote's Find.
Salvations
Bob's Workings can be seen at the foot of Belmore Hill, and is an alluvial area which was worked from 1860 up into the 1950s.
1851 Gold discovered near Bathurst. Who made the first discovery?
In 1841, a distinguished geologist, Reverent William
Branwhite Clarke, conducted a range of expeditions around the Colony of New South Wales. Near Hartley, seventy kilometres to
the east of Bathurst, he observed shale and coal. He also chipped the quartzite he found in Hartley and realised it was gold
bearing. Governor Gipps is said to have urged him to be quiet about it. Clarke was not quiet, but in any case, others
in the colony turned their minds to the search for gold. It only took a decade to finds a payable gold field.
It
may have been William Tipple Smith, mineralogist, who first discovered gold at what would be later named Ophir, in 1848. In 1852 William
Tipple Smith wrote to geologist Sir Roderick Murchison in England saying the spot now called Ophir was the very spot where he had
found nugget gold in 1848.
Edward Hargraves claimed to have struck gold at Ophir in February 1851. Hargraves aim was to claim
the New South Wales Government's reward or finding a payable gold field. Hargraves was awarded the considerable sum of £10,500
by the New South Wales Government. However, Hargraves may not have been the finder. in April, 1851 William Tom # found
a 14 gram gold nugget on a rock bar near the junction of Lewis Ponds Creek and Summer Hill Creek. At the time Tom was accompanied
by his brother, James, and a friend, John Lister. Lister and James started fossicking in a nearby creek and in three days had discovered
113 grams of gold including a 55 gram nugget. Further claims are made that this trio showed the sample to Edward Hargraves,
who took it to Sydney, presenting it as his own find to gain the reward. The location of this find was publicised in May 1851,
and by June there were 2,000 men at the Ophir diggings.
A second rush occurred from 1871, when Hill End prospector Barnhard
Holterman and his team of miners found the world’s largest specimen of reef gold, a 286 kilogram specimen, at what became the Hill
End gold fields. This is not considered the largest gold nugget, as it is ore containing gold rather than being a pure gold
nugget. The Welcome Stanger is considered the largest nugget found in the world, and was found at Moliagul in Victoria, in 1869. The gold is calculated as a refined weight of 97.14 kilograms. While Hill End is only around twenty kilometres in a direct line
from Ophir, the roads to get between the two historical gold fields is considerably longer.
Copper was mined at Lewis Ponds in the 1860s and 1870s and silver, lead and zinc in the 1880s.
Eau de Cologne Gully (alluvial workings). The Bluff Hill water race leads down to this point from near the top of the Bluff workings. The race was probably used to feed water down the ridge to a dam built at the mouth of Eau de Cologne Gully. This gully was one of the first areas worked in 1851 and was worked extensively into the 1930s.
An area of heavily worked
alluvial areas. Remains of pits, shafts, bank workings and some old hut and tent sites can be found.
The contour like formation
is McConnells water race. This is thought to be the longest at some 2.5 kilometres in length, commencing at the head of Black
Springs Gully.
A tunnel to what is thought to be the Belmore Mine. Joseph Christopher is believed to have discovered the Belmore Reef here
in 1866.
Formed tracks continue through the Southern Ridge workings on higher ground over the creek consists of a series of shafts and cuts
on the ridge. Crossing the head of the ridge is a track which was shown on a parish map dated 1899.
Surface Hill, old river
bed mining on eh elevated former river course. This area has been extensively mined since the 1870s. Some rock foundations
of miners hut still exist to the south. To the north, hundreds of tunnels have been dug into the former river bed.
New South Wales - the former gold fields of Ophir
Resources
Signage on site