BAARMUTHA HYDRAULIC SLUICING AREA

The Baarmutha Hydraulic Sluicing Area is a large and well-preserved example of historical alluvial gold mining in Victoria. The sluicing area begins near the junction of Three Mile and Six Mile Creeks, Beechworth and extends west along the Three Mile Creek for approximately 6.5 kilometres, extending over an area of approximately 140 hectares. The place includes sluicing voids or cavities, remnant pillars of unworked ground, sludge dams, water races, tail races, small dams and pebble dumps.

The Baarmutha Hydraulic Sluicing Area is of historical, archaeological and representative significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criterion for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register:

Criterion A
Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history.

Potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Victoria’s cultural history.

Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places and objects

 

Within the Baarmutha Hydraulic Sluicing Area, the remains of sludge dams are historically significant for demonstrating how miners were forced to manage the waste tailings from their operations from around the turn of the century with the introduction of the Mines Act 1904. The Act was introduced in part in response to the extent of sludge deposits downstream of the Three Mile Creek operations, with the reforms impacting future mining operations on a state, national and international level to this day.

 

The Baarmutha Hydraulic Sluicing Area is archaeologically significant for the extensive and well-preserved remains of alluvial gold mining, especially ground sluicing, in the form of large sluicing voids, water races, tail races, and pebble dumps. The place has the potential to yield significant new information about the historical mining industry with the use of geophysical, geochemical, geospatial and archaeological investigation and analysis. 

 

The Baarmutha Hydraulic Sluicing Area is a notable example of an alluvial gold mining site in Victoria. The place clearly demonstrates the principal characteristics of a historical alluvial gold mining landscape. The place includes a large and deep sluicing void that reveals the nature and scale of alluvial mining along Three Mile Creek. The water races, tail races, pebble dumps and sludge dams are highly intact and easily understood examples of their type. Due to the length of mining operations at the site and the intersection of the Baarmutha Hydraulic Sluicing Area with the reform of environmental laws governing mining waste, the place is of a higher level of historical relevance than is typical of alluvial gold mining sites in Victoria.