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EUREKA REEF: HOUSE SITE 1

Location

EUREKA STREET AND CASTLEMAINE HISTORIC RESERVE CHEWTON, MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE

File Number

607533

Level

Heritage Inventory Site

Statement of Significance

The Eureka Reef Gold Mines consists of a range of mining sites documenting quartz and alluvial gold mining operations carried on from the mid 1850s to 1950s. The focal point of the precinct is the Eureka Reef glory hole and its associated cluster of stamping batteries and habitation sites. This clustering is the best surviving example of early quartz mining technology and settlement recorded in Victoria.

The Eureka Reef Gold Mines are of historical, archaeological and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.

The Eureka Reef Gold Mines are historically and scientifically important as a characteristic example of an important form of gold mining. Gold mining sites are of crucial importance for the pivotal role they have played since 1851 in the development of Victoria. As well as being a significant producer of Victoria's nineteenth century wealth, quartz mining, with its intensive use of machinery, played an important role in the development of Victorian manufacturing industry. The Eureka Reef Gold Mines are important as having mining relics from the pioneering years of quartz mining, and also from other mining periods.

The Eureka Reef Gold Mines are archaeologically important for its potential to yield artefacts and evidence which will be able to provide significant information about the technological history of gold mining.

[Source: Victorian Heritage Register.]

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