GLASGOW AND GOLCONDA MINE

Location

WEDGE ROAD GOLDEN SQUARE, GREATER BENDIGO CITY

Level

Heritage Inventory Site

Statement of Significance

Bendigo was Victoria's premier quartz reefing field and, during the late nineteenth century, was a world leader. The Golconda-Glasgow Reef Gold Mines contains a range of mining foundations and earthworks from the early years of quartz mining on the Bendigo goldfield. Glasgow Reef, near the head of Golden Gully, was opened in 1855 and mined until the turn of the century. Key features of the site include an open cut, mullock heaps, mining and battery foundations, and a long tramway embankment. This collection of features is arguably the earliest surviving on the Bendigo goldfield The quartz mining relics are complemented by the associated section of Golden Gully which has been deeply sluiced for alluvial gold.

The Golconda-Glasgow Reef Gold Mines is of historical, archaeological and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.

The Golconda-Glasgow Reef Gold Mines is 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 reliance on machinery, played an important role in the development of Victorian manufacturing industry. The Golconda-Glasgow Reef Gold Mines is important as a manifestation of this aspect of gold mining.

The Golconda-Glasgow Reef Gold Mines is scientifically 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]

Group

Mining and Mineral Processing

Category

Mine Machinery & relics