ALLENS FLAT ALLUVIAL WORKINGS

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. Alluvial mining was influenced by the early introduction of Californian ground sluicing methods, and hydraulic sluicing began in about 1858. Alluvial mining received a boost in the late 1800s with the introduction of large-scale hydraulic sluicing using jet elevators, and again with giant bucket dredges in the very early 1900s. The surviving gold mining at Allens Flat provides evidence of the different stages of alluvial gold mining within the Buckland Valley, and the accompanying habitation sites close to these alluvial claims. 

The Allens Flat 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 Allens Flat 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, and dredging. 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 Alpine 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. 

Regional Significance (Heritage Inventory): The Allens Flat 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 large and intact tail race cut through the bedrock through the sluicing paddock, 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. 

Archaeological Potential/Significance- High: The features associated with the repair and operation of the upper most dredge operating in the Buckland Valley, have high potential to reveal further artefacts and features associated with the operation of this steam-powered, bucket dredge in this nar row valley context. 

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 

Interpretation/Presentation Values – High: The proximity of the workings to the Ah Youngs Camping Ground and the main Buckland Valley Road provides easily accessible opportunities for interpretation of the sluicing paddock and associated tail race and stacked cobbles. 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.