MADAM BERRY WEST
This property originally formed part of the Madame Berry mine. But in 1882 the western block was formed into the Madame Berry West Company, two sections of the shareholders in the Madam Berry being at variance in their opinion as to the value of this part of their mine. The ground was then bored by the diamond drill, and the course of the Australasian gutter is supposed to have been located at the deep bores on Wheeler's Bridge Road. However, no active mining operations were carried on until 1891, when Mr Isaac Wheeldon, who is the chairman of the company, advised sinking a shaft close to the Madame Berry boundary, where that company were working payable ground. The work of shaft sinking was quickly got through, and a payable block of ground taken out, which returned nearly double the capital called up.
Prospecting work was at the same time energetically carried on. A north drive from arise above the main level was followed down on the dip of the reef, until the management were satisfied that another lead existed in deep ground in the north-east part of their mine. Above the 409 ft level another drive was extended west, and a gutter was here proved to exist in a channel which runs in a northerly direction. The payable wash in this drive, which is of a white character, was taken out on each side of the lead, the middle portion having evidently been scoured away and carried further down, leaving a black clay bank of a non-payable character. These two light coloured runs of wash converged as they trended north and then spread out, where they are now being blocked out. During the period that this prospecting work was being pursued the shaft was sunk to a deeper level, and at 475 ft a main west level was driven.