Buried Rivers of Gold - Victorian Heritage Site - 101 STAG ROAD KINGSTON, HEPBURN SHIRE
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NOTES
Lewer's Lead: The sources of this lead have been traced along the northern slope of Spring Hill to within less than half a mile from its summit. Two branches sunk upon by the Westcott Freehold and Royal Mint companies proved the depth to be 115 and 100 feet respectively. The lead bears in a north westerly course for 45 chains to Lewer's Freehold No I shaft then northerly 65 chains to the west boundary of Bunyan's Freehold and finally north east 30 chains to its confluence with the Hawkins Lead some 240 yards north west of the Kingston Park shaft making the total length of this lead one and three quarter miles. The fall of the gutter bed on the first 92 chains is nearly the same as that of the present surface the average depth of sinking being 1 10 feet. The lead channel on this distance is from 20 to 30 feet wide confined within steep walls and holds a thickness of from 4 to 7 feet of auriferous gravel.
Hawkins Lead: This lead is first met with on the north east slope of Spring Hill at a depth of 120 feet and trends in a direction slightly west of north through the mines of the Costello Freehold and Leischman's Reserve companies where it is joined on the left by a branch lead worked by the Sovereign Company. The depth of sinking here is 108 feet. Continuing its northerly course the lead is successfully wrought by the Clark's Hawkins and Bunyan's Freehold companies at depths varying from 130 to 185 feet below the surface after which it assumes a north west direction through the Kingston Park mine where it absorbs the Lewer's Lead and has recently been touched upon by the De Murska Company about 300 feet south west of their shaft the depth being 198 feet beneath the basaltic plain. From here the lead probably trends north westerly south of Birch's Bald Hill towards the Bullarook Creek near Wheeler's Bridge.
The gutter in the southern part of the Bunyan's Freehold mine varies from 20 to 60 feet in width and is bound within steep banks. The depth of washdirt is from 5 to 8 feet Near the north boundary of the freehold the width increases to over 100 feet. Along the east side occurs a terrace on an average 7 feet above the gutter capped by an auriferous reef wash 2 feet thick the working of which has yielded satisfactory returns. On the west side numerous small tributary channels join the main lead but the gold they contain proved insufficient to pay working expenses.
Source: Geological Survey of Victoria, Report of Progress, Volumes 4-7, 1877