PEACH POINT ALLUVIAL MINING AREA

Rich gold deposits were discovered in the Buckland Valley in North-East Victoria in 1853, and the subsequent rush drew some 6,000 miners to the field, almost depopulating the Beechworth field, and attracting diggers from all over the colony. In the crowded, narrow valley, unsanitary conditions led to an outbreak of ‘Colonial Fever’ or typhoid on the diggings in the summer of 1854, and the death toll of up to 1,000 or more led to the Buckland being referred to as “The Valley of the Shadow of Death”. With large numbers of fresh burials, one visitor described the scene as like a river winding through a churchyard. The diggings were almost completely abandoned, until conditions improved. In the mid-1850s, large numbers of Chinese diggers began arriving on the field, and by early 1857 they outnumbered the Europeans by four or five to one. Great resentment was felt by sections of the European population, and after a few minor skirmishes, the valley erupted into violence on the 4th of July, 1857, in an event known as the Buckland Riots. A Chinese population of 2000 to 2500 were driven from the valley. Many were severely beaten, their huts and tents looted and burnt, and their claims jumped. Three Chinese died in the aftermath of the riots, but many more were said to have been killed, and their bodies hidden of before the police detachment arrived from Beechworth. After order was restored, the Chinese miners began trickling back to the field, and were eventually present in greater numbers than before the riots. 

Gold was won over long distances along the main river and its tributaries of the river and a number of busy townships formed along the Buckland. In the initial early periods of the gold rush shallow alluvial workings dominated the field. Californians introduced various sluice washing techniques from early 1854, and cut many water-races to wash high points and banks all along the river. Hydraulic mining was said to have been first used on the Buckland by John Reid and party in 1858. This technique involved the use of canvas hoses to deliver water under pressure for the washing of alluvial gravels. This technology further developed into higher pressure sluicing operations with the introduction of improved nozzles, steel pipe and higher-level water-races. By the 1890s, jet-elevator technology was in common use on the field. Hydraulic operations took place on the Buckland as recently as the 1960s. 

The Peach Point goldfield landscape is of historical, social and archaeological significance to the State of Victoria. 

Criterion C – Potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Victoria’s regional cultural history. 

Criterion D – Importance in demonstrating the principle characteristics of a class of cultural places or objects. 

The Peach Point alluvial gold workings landscape is historically and socially significant to the State of Victoria because it provides tangible evidence of the changing methodologies applied for alluvial gold extraction from the earliest days of the gold rush in 1853, until the early 20th Century, including early shallow workings, shafts, adits, ground and hydraulic sluicing. The archaeological features of this site are well preserved by a thick cover of regenerating riparian forest, and blackberries, which provides the physical context for understanding the difficult mountainous environment early miners had to contend with. 

This vegetation, within State Forest protects and preserves not only the alluvial mining landscape and associated technologies, but also the archaeological sites associated with habitation, human stories, tragedies and the severe racial conflict on the Victorian goldfields. 

The Peach Point alluvial workings contains evidence of the timeline of technological advancements in alluvial mining techniques from initial shallow workings, through to ground and hydraulic sluicing, to be then followed by the dredging era. 

Technological Significance – High: The intact square reservoir associated with early alluvial gold mining provides a rare surviving example of water management technology developed to save money on the goldfield, through purchasing of water at a night rate for storage and use during the day. 

The large hydraulic sluicing pit and associated artefacts is an excellent example of a large-scale, early 20th Century hydraulic sluicing operation. The tail races cut through the bedrock in the ground sluicing paddocks, and the associated arrangements of stacked cobbles provides an excellent surviving example of this highly destructive method of gold extraction and the technological advancements that were developing on the goldfields to maximise gold extraction of alluvial leads. 

The sluice box at the rivers edge is a rare example of an insitu sluice box, with relics of this type usually collected as souvenirs. This site and other surviving relics have been, and still are protected by the lack of public access into the area, as it sits beyond a fenced paddock that deters visitation. 

Archaeological Potential/Significance- High: 

The alluvial mining areas adjacent to the sluiced areas have a high archaeological potential to reveal artefacts that will shed light on the nature of temporary alluvial mining camps and their inhabitants. The site has good potential to reveal artefacts that may indicate the daily occupation of inhabitants, including; 

• Personal items 

• Tools or objects relating to outlying places of and types of work 

• Daily domestic items, food storage vessels, diet, table and cooking ware items, etc. 

Social significance 

The suspected burial site at Peach Point is of social significance as such isolated burials are tangible reminders of the sacrifices made and difficult working and living conditions experienced by early immigrants who came to seek their fortune on the goldfields. Isolated burials are likely to pre-date the established cemeteries in the Buckland, and it is rare to find surviving evidence of such early burial practices within the Buckland goldfield landscape. 

Interpretation/Presentation Values – High: The proximity of the workings to the main Buckland Valley Road provides easily accessible opportunities for interpretation and viewing of the of the sluicing paddock. The high faces and hectares of cobble heaps are visually spectacular, and plainly visible from a parking area, without the need to access the site. 

Views across the paddock allow for excellent interpretation of the scale of destruction and physical labour that has been applied for alluvial gold extraction in the Buckland Valley from the late 1850’s to the mid 1900’s.