PHOENIX DREDGE MINING LANDSCAPE

The Phoenix Dredge Mining Landscape contains the near complete representation of dredge mining operations, from a 16-year period of operation of a steam-powered bucket dredge between 1903 to 1919.  

 

Archaeological features relating to the Phoenix Dredge include a commencement pond and extensive river-bed workings. The extant levee wall is a key technological element of dredge technology, and the site also contains a rare surviving mining ruin, lower flat tailings, a wood-fuel network, a water race, and a dismantling pit.  Upper terrace workings, and alluvial drive, riverbed and bank workings also became evident in recently obtained LIDAR results. Other sites are likely to be present in this landscape including ground and hydraulic sluicing claims, occupation sites, road and water race networks.  

The site is of historical and archaeological significance.

The Phoenix dredge workings contain an almost complete timeline of events that led to the installation of the Pheonix Dredge, from construction in 1903 to dismantling in 1919. The landscape contains a variety of dredged areas and the Levee Wall is an excellent example of bucket dredge mining, specifically the raising of water levels to facilitate the working of elevated alluvial gold deposits.  

 

The site is also of scientific significance as a rare example of a dredged landscape type. The site has the archaeological potential to contain features associated with the repairs and dismantling of the Phoenix dredge and has potential to contain artefacts and features associated with this steam-powered bucket dredging.  

 

The alluvial mining camp has potential to contain artefacts and features that will provide information about the nature of temporary alluvial mining camps, their inhabitants and material culture