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WALLACES LEAD GOLD PUDDLING PRECINCT

Location MOUNT PLEASANT ROAD CORNISHTOWN, INDIGO SHIRE File Number 607661 Level Registered

[1/2] WALLACES LEAD GOLD PUDDLING [2/2] 1 wallaces lead gold puddling

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The Wallaces Lead Gold Puddling Precinct consists of the remnants of at least 12 puddling machines complete with dumps of washed gravels and small ponds. The precinct is a good characteristic example of the puddling technology developed in Victoria from 1854 to process enormous amounts of clayey soil which needed to be broken up to get at the gold. Horses were used to drag harrows around a circular ditch in which the soil and water were mixed.

How is it significant?
The Wallaces Lead Gold Puddling Precinct is of historical, archaeological and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
The Wallaces Lead Gold Puddling Precinct is historically and scientifically important as a characteristic and well preserved example of a site associated with the earliest forms of gold mining which, from 1851, played a pivotal role in the development of Victoria. Puddling machine technology is particularly important in the history of Victorian gold mining as the only technology or method developed entirely on Victorian goldfields. The precinct is important because it has the greatest surviving concentration of puddling machine sites in the State.

The Wallaces Lead Gold Puddling Precinct is archaeologically important for its potential to yield artefacts which will be able to provide significant information about the cultural history of gold mining and the gold seekers themselves.