DETAILS / SIGNIFICANCE
Mullock - Small intact heap with one dumping line. Machinery foundations. Remains of tank-like brick bed measuring 36ft x 14ft, with 4ft thick walls. Powder magazine. Near the eastern side of the machinery foundations is doughnut-like feature with stone retained earth walls. The structure has a 30ft diameter, narrow entrance and slot that leads to a small chamber. Shaft/bob pit - Shaft depression with small section of stone bob-pit. Tramway - Poorly defined tramway embankment runs south-west from the mine site towards the adjoining Australasian Extended Company's mine.
Heritage Inventory Site Features: - machinery foundations - powder magazine - shaft/bob pit - tramway. The site has: Scientific significance - intact foundations Social value - mullock heap is a prominent landscape feature Archaeological potential Network values - part of the Berry network of significant sites.
SIGNIFICANCE RANKING: Regional. Recorded by: J. Harrington & David Bannear Date Recorded: 00SEP1994
Heritage Inventory History of Site:
The above relics probably located at Davies' Junction Freehold Company's No. 1 shaft. The following history was extracted from The Berry Deep Leads: an historical assessment, CF&L, October 1986, Charles Fahey. The Davies Freehold Company was formed in March 1879 by local speculators. By their fifth half yearly report the directors reported that the erection of the plant was complete. By September 1881 the shaft had been completed to a depth of 272 feet. Bores had also proved the existence of wash dirt in the southern portion of the claim, and a second shaft was sunk. The works had by October 1881 exhausted all capital, and the capital per share was raised to 24 shillings. The No. 1 shaft was eventually abandoned and the sinking of No. 2 shaft proved difficult due to heavy drift and influx of water. The first gold was recovered from No. 2 shaft in June 1884, and over the next four years the company produced 7533 ounces of gold.
Significance: The Davies Freehold Company was a minor producer of gold and a highly unprofitable mine.
Heritage Inventory (HI) Number H7623-0043. Heritage Listing Victorian Heritage Inventory Hermes Number 7094