BUCKLAND CROSSING/BRIDGE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

The Buckland Crossing/ Bridge Archaeological site is currently used as a picnic area on the western bank of the Buckland River. The site is managed by DELWP, Ovens District.  

 

The bridge has been a primary historic crossing place since the beginning of the Goldrush in the region. There is physical evidence of the first phasing of the crossing evident in the western bank and adjacent to the car parking area. The area was subject to development through logging in the 1970s and again in 2021, when a concrete bridge was constructed.  

 

The place was a key crossing place during the 1853 gold rush and was a significance location during the 1857 Buckland anti-Chinese riots, where some Chinese miners trying to escape the Valley fell in the river, before European sympathisers stepped in to subdue the violence. 

Other archaeological features include a large sluicing pit immediately east of the bridges, phoenix dredge workings tailings, alluvial mining claims along the riverbank and former Porepunkah township water supply infrastructure.  

The site is historically, archaeologically and socially significant. 

The site is historically significant as an early crossing point for miners and in its context of the greater Buckland Goldfield landscape. The Buckland crossing/ bridge is socially significant for its connection to the Buckland Riots in 1857. The site has different archaeological phases of the bridge and crossing point itself, as well as elements of alluvial mining and dredging mining technologies. The site has the potential to contain artefacts that might relate to main different phases of gold mining activities.